8th Dada Festival/ SOLUTIOnS FOR BASEL 2012

The Eigth international dada festvial

Main curator: Mark Divo,

Cocurators:Adam Stanko, Helena Sequens

Connecting the local art community has been the Dada festivals’ goal ever since their beginning. Now, over twelve years later, they rank as the premier show of their kind, showcasing art alongside rubbish with a strong and smelly curatorial perspective. Their tradition of excellence across a wide range of genres offers visitors the most untamed art that the world’s best galleries could never offer. In Prague, Zürich and Kolín, the week of the Dada festival teems with parallel exhibitions and cultural events, creating an exciting environment that deepens and strengthens the relationship between artists, curators and collectors, without having to involve any greedy gallerists.

Why make a show in such a close location, and at the same time of the art Basel?

The dada festival is unique and different from Art Basel where any fool can see how nepotism between art galleries, their artists, private collectors and public institutions plays a sinister role in today’s art world.Middelmen and women suck out emerging artists by flogging their production underprice and by introducing them to the superficial art world, which interferes with their creativity. Even well-established artists are generally being pimped by their brookers who have amassed extensive international contacts for themselves over the time, both through backroom deals and by always taking at least half of the artists’ revenues. Similarly, galleries dealing in historical art objects increase their fortunes by plundering artists’ legacies long after their death.

Especially during the last decade, art fairs have been cornered by banks and big money into making the international promotion of art as an object of investment seem the sole purpose of such venues. As in the long-established art-market centers of Europe and North America, both new and existing fairs have grown ever more monopolized by a few key players, forcing visitors to go and see the same items and artists all over again, instead of paying attention to the countless local contemporary art scenes. Meanwhile, the emergence of new fairs in other parts of the world such as Asia and Latin America has been smothering interest in visual arts and channeling it into making profit. These insights and allegations come not only from deducing the art dealer’s bank accounts, but also from observing the many bored visitors who unwillingly participate in this intellectual and cultural farce that has been created solely for the benefit of a handful of rich investors.

The solution for Basel

In contrast to this, the 8th Dada festival functions as a primary local promotional platform for mainly Czech and Zurich artists, allowing them to access a massive number of international collectors and curators-artists who come to fairs not only to meet new friends and new audiences, but also to deepen their engagement with those they already know. The Dada festival moreover takes only ten percent of its hostages’ revenues. Thus, a successful Dada festival is one that not only wastes the organizers’ money and time, but also spurs new addictions. The visitors can drink their favorite alcohol throughout the festival and this usually drives them to come and see the show again and again.