BASEL, SWITZERLAND.- For the first time, Art 33 Basel is setting up a center for encounter and networking in the «Art Unlimited» hall. This comprises an information desk, an art bookshop, a videotheque with individually viewable artists’ videos and also terminals for accessing digital art projects in the internet. The «Art Lobby»-Lounge connected thereto will serve as an active communication platform promoting exchanges with artists, art intermediaries and the general public. This is where visitors will be able to meet at 12 noon, 3 pm and 6 pm – in person – exhibiting artists or well-known curators, gallery owners and collectors.



With its «Art Lobby», Art Basel is initiating a new communication platform. A lounge is being set up in the «Art Unlimited» hall to encourage the exchange of information between artists, collectors, art intermediaries and the general public. The protagonists of the international art scene will congregate here for half-hourly sessions at 12 noon, 3 pm and 6 pm every day from Wednesday, June 12 to Sunday, June 16. Here, in the informal atmosphere of this «Art Lobby», visitors will be able to exchange views with these experts. The hosts will be the Hong Kong-based art critic Jonathan Napack, the internationally known art PR personality Isabela Mora from Madrid and the New York artist and publisher of the e-flux-Newsletter, Anton Vidokle. The hosts will be inviting guests and introducing these to one another and to the general public.



«Art Lobby» is intended to be an experiment and an alternative to conventional communication forums – such as symposia – which are neither flexible in their individual choice of speakers, nor in their informality of discussion or the time available for contact. The novel, non-hierarchical contact forum puts quality before quantity by offering, not lectures directed at a large audience, but individual contacts and discussions. Inspiration has been taken from the hotel lobby, where different types of discussion and contact can take place in parallel. The aim of the «Art Lobby» is to encourage contact with exhibiting artists and to promote networking within the art scene. Every day, the names of those personalities from the art world in attendance at the «Art Lobby» will be announced on line at www.ArtBasel.com and displayed on monitors at the information desks in the halls, in the Art Collectors Lounge and in the Media Center as well as on all the computer terminals set up within Art 33 Basel. To exploit to the full the potential of interesting artists, mediators and collectors visiting Art Basel, the list of participants on the spot will be continually expanded.