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01/20/2006: "ART BASEL MIAMI BEACH: YEAR THREE:" by Laurence Gartel
Pfew…Welcome to Miami. Where does one start? ART BASEL MIAMI BEACH means different things to different people. Depending on what your goals and objectives are, it could be very different person to person. If you are a bartender, that means dealing with a bunch of high class and loud people demanding extra vodka in their free drinks. If you are an artist, you are hoping you will sell work. (And get paid by your art dealer). If you are a dealer, you are hoping to meet new collectors, make exchanges with other deals and basically SELL your wares to recoup the tens of thousands of dollars you have just laid out for the privilege of rubbing elbows with every international art person who has the same idea as you. – NOT TO MISS A THING.
If you are a hotel owner, you are looking to pack in the place with premium rates, and show minimalism art in your lobby space. Minimalism is back in by the way. ) If you are a DJ you are looking to get steady gigs during the entire week and hope to get paid by the promoter who hired you. You can put on your resume that you just performed during the HUGO BOSS party at the SETAI and hope that the guy driving the Rolls Royce parked right in front of the hotel will notice you and hire you for his kid’s “Bat Mitzvah.” (Second marriage so there is a young kid in the house.) 
There is a running theme to ART BASEL: Frustrated sex, lots of what people called art, a ton of alcohol, and an infinite amount of absolutely gorgeous Brazilian women in every nook and cranny of every elitist nightclub. Gosh you have to love it. The vodka is flowing and the VIP cards are scarce. The big question everyone asks is, “Whom did you meet?” I’m not sure where the art part comes into all this, but it sure does get people out of the house, get them on airplanes, renting hotel rooms, and for the wealthy and famous, they can now buy condominiums which will eventually be the new art center of the world, at least for one week out of the year. (Yeah yeah, there is ART MIAMI the first week of January, but does that count anymore?) 
This year I had to take a hotel room myself because driving back to the “suburbs” each day would have been too much of a hike. Best to stay out till 5:15AM every night just so I didn’t miss anything. Normally I go to all the museum openings like Museum of Contemporary Art in North Miami or The Miami Art Museum (MAM). Nope, I didn’t do either this year but rather did some private art gallery parties at the Ritz Carlton and the Shelbourne. (Saw a couple of girls making out on a terrace while 20 people down below were being voyeuristic, but then again…that’s a kind of Miami “rite of passage” and is kind of out of place during such a haughty tauty event like ART BASEL. No that is more reserved for the Music Winter Conference. I wandered through Convention Centre to see the show and of course it’s the same cast of characters, same artists, same people smiling and same overpriced sushi at the food court.
IF anyone wants to feel like anyone there is the UBS VIP AREA, and that just isn’t for everyone. You have to be a major player just like at Las Vegas. I saw the next incarnation of the “Orange Mattress” and the “Dental Case” by artists whose names will go unmentioned. One year the focus is on one artist who’s in every booth and then the next year you don’t see them at all. You wonder if the deck is stacked?
THE GOOD THE BAD AND THE UGLY:
I guess you can discuss the politics of everything till you are blue in the face. I could bash the art dealers who are selling the Emperor’s new clothes and their clients that have no taste. But the truth of the matter is, ART BASEL brands the entire city as the entity and there is something there for absolutely everyone. During the annual trek into the Design Center where you mostly find decorator interiors, new kitchens and wall coverings, there are unrented buildings that showcase art of some kind or another. *(You can’t categorize break-dancers with hurricane Wilma trees behind them.) You run into all sorts of people at this event and that is really a thrill. I met this one gal who told me she came from a Middle Eastern family and her sexuality was suppressed. She was displaying very clear pictures of her vagina as a way of emancipating herself. (I told her I admired her tenacity and encouraged her to do more!!) Hey…why not! -)) I met another friend who had hair down past his chest and suddenly went bald. Then there was the annual schoolteacher that I meet in the exact same spot every year for the last three years just because he goes with his wife. I had an old camp mate come down with her family as well as her new money can buy lots of “important” work. Another friend who was down is a curator of a museum. My buddy from Montreal came down and just didn’t stop drinking. Why should he have?? Miami is all about having fun and being wreck less. (At least that’s what it says in the “Party Guide” manual.”)
But realistically speaking, (If there is any realism to any of this) a lot of people are interested in the creative process and what others do and consider art. That is for certain. The BASS Museum had many outside installations of projections and many people were clearly watching. Another show called PULSE was taking place in Wynwood with the galleries that for some reason or another not able to get into the main ART BASEL FAIR. We all know that ART makes a neighborhood real estate values go up in price and that’s exactly what is going on with downtown Miami. ART brings people to “bad” areas because people are willing to go anywhere to look at ART. HIP HIP HOORAY for the fact that Miami is getting serious about ART. 
I’ve been living down here for 11 years now and finally you can feel a sense of culture taking place in this city. But lets not forget the pioneers like VIRGINIA MILLER who has been in Coral Gables for over 30 years. She has spoon fed all of Miami their art and culture all this time. To not give her acknowledgement is not proper. She showed many important Latin American artists as well as leading edge creators throughout the last three plus decades. One should never forget the pioneers who had the vision and whose wisdom has helped others see a clearer picture. 
Okay enough pontificating…. Lets get to the party: My event during ART BASEL was great fun. We showed some of the original untouched prints taken during my tour of INDIA. People were surprised because they never saw “original” photos taken in documentary style before by me. (What’s to manipulate?) When you see a starving child in the street, you cant exactly swirl his head with a filter. What you see needs to be exposed as is. “Poverty is all too hyper-real” and thus the story needs to be told without modifications. My multimedia DVD however, is a completely different story. It is my interpretation or shall I say impressions of emotions witnessed by the trip. You cannot be in such a unique and spiritual place without coming away feeling different. There is no place on earth like INDIA. How people live, how they survive, how they suffer, and how they maintain their complete focus toward religion and leading a relentless spiritual life. Once someone is touched by the imagery and iconography of INDIA its very hard to be impressed by anything else. The color and joy depicted by the gods, exemplifies the joy of living. One is rich without having possessions. - “Rich” to me always represented experience. Hence the “GARTEL: INDIA” DVD is indeed a celebration of journey, a celebration of new knowledge and a vision of what others can bring you to heighten your spiritual self. Be on the look out for the DVD this coming Spring 2006.
Laurence GARTEL
December 19, 2005
gartel@aol.com
www.gartelmuseum.com
