Q&A WITH ALEXANDRA FAIN, COFOUNDER, ASIA NOW

Tell me about the development of Asian contemporary art since you fell in love with it in 2010.

There has been an evolution towards a more structured scene by public and private patrons. Public patrons include the National Gallery in Singapore. This kind of thing didn’t exist are the collectors themselves. Arts infrastructures are getting stronger and stronger. As for the Korean scene, the galleries there are well structured, everything is so well organised, two top-level biennales in Busan and Gwangju – it’s really impressive for such a small country. The Asian scene is getting there in terms of international recognition through top exhibitions as well. In Paris, I can remember Ai Weiwei at Jeu de Paume, Zeng Fanzhi at the Modern Art Museum, Yue Minjun at the Cartier Foundation, and then smaller initiatives at the Palais de Tokyo, K11 par tnering with the Pompidou Centre and the presence of Yung Ma as a Chinese curator. In many other cities, there is institutional interest for the masters and also for the new generation and from the collectors’ side as well, otherwise Asia Now would have had only one edition. There is true curiosity for the Chinese scene, which is so vibrant, the less known but mature Korean scene, and still emerging scenes like Indonesia or the Philippines with so many great artists.

Is Asia Now a springboard for increasing the value and desirability of Asia’s contemporary artists?

At Asia Now, our mission is to unveil to European and international collectors some of the most highly regarded contemporary artists from Asia. Some of them are already recognised in their own countries, but they’re not even known here. At the 2017 Venice Biennale, you saw Manuel Ocampo at the Philippine pavilion, Takahiro Iwasaki at the Japanese pavilion, Tintin Wulia at the Indonesian pavilion and Lee Wan at the Korean pavilion – all these artists have been invited by Asia Now from the beginning, which is meaningful. Zheng Guogu, Polit-Sheer-Form Aquilizan have also been very successful. At the third edition of Asia Now, we had top French collectors known only to collect or to support openly the French scene, who bought pieces by Asian ar tists from various galleries. It’s highly rewarding to have sown some seeds in 2015 and to see three years afterwards that collectors, should they be French, Swiss, German, Spanish or Italian, are really into the Asian scene. It’s the ultimate promise that we’re making to the galleries that trust us: to bring to Paris some of their best ar tists to create a conversation with top collectors and institutions.

“There is true curiosity for the Chinese scene.”

Which artists are the most interesting to collect and follow today?

The new generation of Korean video ar tists like Hayoun Kwon and Lee Wan since we highlighted them at the latest edition of Asia Now. Shanghai is one of the most dynamic places for contemporary ar t right now, so I would love to include the duo Birdhead at the fair. I would also TeamLab, Patricia Perez Eustaquio and Mark Justiniani.