The Art Basel Podcast

Season 2

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#10: Art Collecting Today

In this special episode, journalist Anny Shaw investigates some of the most important findings from the Art Basel and 蜜豆视频 Art Market Report 2022. She speaks with Chief Economist of 蜜豆视频 Global Wealth Management Paul Donovan and collector Amitha Raman about the impacts of the current economic crises and Brexit on the art market and collecting habits, as well as the effects of globalization versus localization. 鈥淥nline art fairs gave a lot of transparency,鈥 Raman notes. 鈥淲e were able to view a lot of work and understand pricing for a lot of artists in a very efficient way.鈥 The three also address the ways in which buzzwords like 鈥榮ustainability鈥 and 鈥榙iversity鈥 have鈥攐r have not鈥攂een practically applied in the market sector. Plus, Shaw asks, what鈥檚 in store for 2023?

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#9: Demna (Artistic Director, Balenciaga)

Fresh from the mud-spattered, Santiago Sierra designed catwalk of the Balenciaga Spring 2023 collection, Artistic Director Demna talks to Marc Spiegler about cutting his teeth at Martin Margiela and Louis Vuitton to the lasting effects of having been a refugee of the Former Soviet Union. He also warns of a brand becoming more powerful than a product - 鈥檖opularity is always very dangerous鈥 - and reflects on his relationship to artists and his need for silence. Ultimately, he says, 鈥業 no longer think about making the fashion industry understand what I do,鈥 he says, 鈥業 just do it.鈥

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#8: Katy Hessel

Hot on the heels of the publication of her book The Story of Art Without Men, author, podcaster, and curator Katy Hessel joins Marc Spiegler to discuss all things women and art. Her focus on the gender gap in art began in 2015, when she visited a fair with no women artists represented. From there, she launched an Instagram account (@thegreatwomenartists), a podcast, and now a book. Here, she broaches everything from forgotten Renaissance masters like Sofonisba Anguissola to the controversy surrounding the creation of the readymade: Did Marcel Duchamp make the Urinal or was it, in fact, made by his contemporary Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven? 鈥淲hat I鈥檓 trying to do,鈥 she says, 鈥渋s turn upside-down what we鈥檝e known as art history.鈥

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#7: Jonathan Anderson

Jonathan Anderson is one of today鈥檚 most visionary minds in fashion. Founder of an eponymous label, JW Anderson, and Creative Director of LOEWE, the Northern Ireland-raised designer came to the industry via theater: 鈥業鈥檝e always been fascinated by character building,鈥 he says in this episode. 鈥業f I hadn鈥檛 gone to drama school, I don鈥檛 think I would be able to produce the collections I do today.鈥 Beyond his beginnings, Anderson speaks to Marc Spiegler about his love of ceramics, the timelessness of a Renaissance masterpiece, and the importance of artistic production today. 鈥楾o me,鈥 he says, 鈥榯he artist is the most exciting person in the social ecosystem, because they should be allowed the freedom to tackle the things we can鈥檛.鈥 LOEWE currently have applications open for the 2023 edition of the LOEWE Foundation Craft Prize. The winner will be announced in Spring 2023, following which they will stage an exhibition in the summer. And finally, LOEWE Women鈥檚 SS23 show is taking place in Paris on 30 September 2022.

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#6: Joan Jonas and Jason Moran

Video- and performance-art pioneer Joan Jonas and jazz pianist Jason Moran have collaborated for almost 20 years, and it all began with a call. 鈥淚 phoned him, which was very unusual for me to do. I was very shy,鈥 Jonas remembers. From there, the pair had six weeks to develop The Shape, The Scent, The Feel of Things (2005), a now-iconic performance based on the writings of Aby Warburg. In this episode, Jonas and Moran reminisce on that very first collaboration, what they鈥檝e learned from each other since, and the importance of performance鈥攏ot just for an art audience in a white cube but for civilization at large.

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#5: Jacques Herzog

鈥淎s a young architect, I hated photographs where you saw people. And now I hate photographs where you don鈥檛 see people,鈥 Jacques Herzog says. Throughout the last three decades, Herzog and Pierre de Meuron have designed some of today鈥檚 best-known buildings and museums, including London鈥檚 Tate Modern and Hong Kong鈥檚 M+ museum. In this episode, Herzog speaks about the development of architecture over the last 30 years, what it was like to collaborate with Ai Weiwei and Miuccia Prada, his early fascination with artists like Joseph Beuys and Donald Judd, and if the era of the starchitect has come to a close.

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#4: Talking Art with Russell Tovey and Robert Diament

The podcast 鈥淭alk Art [is] about is encouraging people to switch lanes, to take up space, and to embrace your interests,鈥 says cofounder Russell Tovey. Since 2018, Tovey and Robert Diament have cohosted Talk Art, producing over 175 episodes with guests across all fields of art, from Jeff Koons to Radiohead to Lena Dunham. Here, the trained musician and actor talk about how they met (nerding out on Tracy Emin鈥檚 work), collections as self-portraits (鈥測ou can pop-psychoanalyze an individual by the things they have in their house,鈥 Tovey says), the fight to break down elitist structures, and their fundamental beliefs that no one should ever apologize for enthusiasm or be afraid to ask questions, and that is never too late to learn. 鈥淥ur motto,鈥 Tovey says, 鈥渋s 鈥榓rt is for everyone.鈥欌

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#3: Moses Sumney

He opened for acts like Sufjan Stevens, James Blake, and Solange even before releasing his own album, but Moses Sumney is much more than a musician. He is a film director, a visual artist, a creative multi-hyphenate. He鈥檚 a storyteller who has mastered a variety of media to express his narratives. In this episode, the California native speaks about branching out from the music world to use different sets of tools to express himself, his appreciation of isolation, and his belief that 鈥渁rtists are channels for something bigger and a lot more esoteric than words can describe.鈥

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#2: NFT Activism with Anny Shaw

Can tech change social structures, or does it just amplify them? What role can NFTs play in activism? And will the volatility in the crypto market stabilise? These are just some of the questions answered in this podcast featuring three pioneers in the NFT and Web 3 worlds: the artist Olive Allen, the NFT studio founder Melissa Gilmour and the head of Pace Verso Christiana Ine-Kimba Boyle.

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#1: RM (Leader, BTS)

Rapper, songwriter, and record producer Kim Nam-joon鈥攂etter known as RM and a founding member of BTS鈥攋oins Art Basel鈥檚 Marc Spiegler to talk about everything from meeting Eminem to the formation and rise of BTS to the first artwork he ever bought. Collecting, he says, 鈥渞eally gives me the standard to live as a better man, as a better adult, and [as] an artist.鈥

Season 1

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Miranda July + Jon Gray

鈥淚n my most core self, I鈥檓 a writer and a performer,鈥 says Miranda July. But since coming of age in Portland鈥檚 riot-grrrl scene, July has made a name for herself as a true multi-hyphenate: as an artist, singer, screenwriter, author, Hollywood film director and actress, and more. In this episode, she speaks with Marc Spiegler about writing her first play 鈥 based on correspondence with a convicted murderer 鈥 to releasing her film Kajillionaire in the midst of the pandemic and the flood of DMs that followed. 鈥淢y entire experience of the release was those messages,鈥 she recalls. Separately, curator Larry Ossei-Mensah talks to Jon Gray, a cofounder of the activist cooking collective Ghetto Gastro, about food as a device for social change and branching out into the world of art.

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Ottessa Moshfegh

In her book 'My Year of Rest and Relaxation' (2018), Ottessa Moshfegh portrays a pre-9/11 artworld obsessed with style over substance颅. The award-winning novelist鈥檚 own introduction to the artworld was also in the early 2000s, and her experience at the time was colored by 鈥渁 sense of impending doom,鈥 she recalls. In this episode, Marc Spiegler speaks to Moshfegh about her literary foray into the artworld (and the fact that she鈥檚 currently hiding from it), transforming her books into feature films, and other current projects.

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Doug Aitken

"We see the world as this huge kaleidoscopic field of information 鈥 and I think the way we see culture and the arts should also embrace that,鈥 Doug Aitken says. In this conversation with Marc Spiegler, the interdisciplinary artist discusses his wide-ranging practice, from its roots in Los Angeles in the 1970s and 80s to his project Station to Station, which transformed a train along a 4,000-mile journey into a nomadic studio, to his recent collaboration with musician Jamie xx and creating sculptures that live underwater. Art Basel Executive Editor Jeni Fulton also speaks with musician Fatima al Qadiri about her latest album, Medieval Femme, her lifelong fascination with the sensual recitation of classical Arabic poetry, and her recent forays into scoring films.

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Live From The Art Basel 2021 Edition

Recorded live on the show floor during Art Basel in Basel, this special episode brings together seven distinguished art world voices. Artists AA Bronson and Mario Garc铆a Torres, curator Hans Ulrich Obrist, gallerists Jeffrey Deitch and Jasmin Tsou, and museum directors Elena Filipovic and Ann Demeester reflect on the art world鈥檚 coming together again, how the pandemic changed them and how they see the future.

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Clare McAndrew and Paul Donovan

Online sales seem like they鈥檙e to stay and millennials continue to be the biggest spenders when it comes to collecting art, says Dr. Clare McAndrew, renowned cultural economist and founder of Arts Economics. Findings such as this were recently released in 鈥楻esilience in the Dealer Sector: A Mid-Year Review 2021鈥, an art market report authored by McAndrew and published by Art Basel and 蜜豆视频. In this conversation with our correspondent Anny Shaw, McAndrew sheds light on the report鈥檚 key takeaways, which also include the market鈥檚 generational and gender dynamics and the role of dealers in an increasingly digitized industry. To address the report鈥檚 findings from another perspective, Art Basel Executive Editor Jeni Fulton also talks to Chief Economist of Global Wealth Management at 蜜豆视频 and author Paul Donovan about the parallels between the global economy and the art market.

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Daniel Birnbaum and Jacolby Satterwhite

Today鈥檚 experiments in art and technology are wide-ranging, and few know better about the latest developments than Daniel Birnbaum, director and curator of Acute Art, and New York City-based artist Jacolby Satterwhite. In this episode, Birnbaum and Satterwhite talk to Marc Spiegler about the use of virtual reality as an artistic medium, the future of mixed reality and the 鈥榤etaverse鈥, the digitalization and democratization of the artworld, and the idea of cosmic NFTs. Plus, our correspondent Anny Shaw explores a new art gallery located in a UK football stadium and talks to its founder, Eddy Frankel, who also happens to be an art critic and Time Out London鈥檚 Art & Culture Editor.

38:44

Pamela Joyner

Businesswoman and art collector Pamela Joyner tells Marc Spiegler that she is surprised at the analogies she sees between art collecting and her career in finance. 鈥楤oth environments are very relationship-oriented, they're reliant on individuals having confidence in each other's integrity,鈥 she explains. Described as an 鈥榓ctivist collector鈥 by ArtReview magazine for promoting and collecting the work of contemporary African-American artists, Joyner reflects on the collector as patron and the work she believes in. Our correspondent Stephanie Bailey interviews artist and filmmaker Wu Tsang on her new commission, Anthem (2021). The piece was conceived in collaboration with the legendary singer, composer, and transgender activist Beverly Glenn-Copeland and is currently filling the Guggenheim museum鈥檚 rotunda.

37:40

Lisa Spellman and Kim Gordon

Lisa Spellman first arrived in New York to study art at SVA, moving into a loft that seemed predestined to be a gallery. Kim Gordon was reading about the art happening in New York while she was in LA, but when she got to the East Coast, ended up playing music. A few years later, Spellman founded 303 Gallery and Gordon was playing with iconic band Sonic Youth. The two talk to Marc Spiegler about New York City in the 1980s and 1990s, the art scene and the music scene, the places they all went, and how it all intersected. It鈥檚 an image of an old New York that still reverberates in the city today.

30:53

Swizz Beatz

Rapper, musician, and record producer Swizz Beats (Kasseem Daoud Dean) discusses the meeting points between activism and collecting with Marc Spiegler. 鈥淗ow can we be a part of the culture when we don't own the culture?鈥 he asks, describing how he went to Harvard Business School and got involved with the business of art and culture as a way of promoting the creatives he believes in.