(Slavoj Zizek)
“We should fight for a society where charity is not needed”-
Slavoj Zizek
United Art Fair is now free. And many ask, why? Are you
going to do some charity work? Both Annurag Sharma and myself say that we don’t
believe in charity because we are looking for a situation where the notion of
charity no longer exists. When you hand down things, for the time being
everyone respects you but in the long run the receiver of charity tends to hate
you. So United Art Fair, now free for artists from all over the world, is not a
platform that heralds the arrival of a few messiahs with a mission of charity.
Here we are with a vision and a mission. And we are here to tell the world that
this model is workable and feasible. And what is this model?
After travelling thirteen cities in India, which no other
art fair has ever thought of doing, and meeting the artists and other art
related people, after sharing dinners and cocktail with them in star hotels
which were the venues of our artists’ meet, we realized one thing: Economic
recession has frightened the artists community in India. It is not that artists
do not have money at all. Amongst the artists most of them have a decent income
but that income is not decent enough to invest in promoting oneself either
through solo or group shows or through participating in art fairs like United
Art Fairs. What we deduce from the conversations with the artists is this that
they are frightened by the kind of economic ups and downs happening in our art
scene. They want dignity today, not money.
Many asked us, why do you throw cocktail-dinner parties in
the high end hotels when you know clearly that it might make artists feel that
you are showing off? Annurag Sharma told them succinctly, “Artists are the
people who command respect through their creative works. I believe that it is
my duty to give them the best treatment.” We can proudly say that we did not
discriminate artists at all according to their status. All the cocktail-dinner
parties were thrown for the young and upcoming artists. Our documentation of
artists’ meets stands evidence to our claims. In fact, each time we visited a
city or an artists’ hub, we made it a point to meet and invite the young
talents than the established ones with enough stardom.
United Art Fair started off as a space selling model. In all
our thirteen artists meet we propagated the idea of selling space. We told the
artists that the money (Rs.35000) that they invest in the United Art Fair could
be a passport that ensured future presence and success for them. Many believed
in our arguments and many took it with fair amount of scepticism. After our
road trip, we made some reality checks and found out that there was a general
hesitation with the projected amount. Then we got down to reduce the booking
amount in three different slabs with affordable riders (25000/-, 20000/- and
15000/- with different commission and contribution slabs). We propagated this
idea through our website and many were happy. Most of them went for the last
slab of Rs.15000/-.
(Annurag Sharma)
United Art Fair salutes all those artists who got together
as they did not have sufficient funds, made groups and paid for joint
stalls/booths. We respect them because they were the ones despite their
financial problems responded to the calls. Someone said they even pawned some
jewellery to raise funds for participating in the United Art Fair. And on 15th
June 2012, after a day of deadline, we huddled up in the conference room of the
United Art Fair office. The clock in the office always runs fifteen minutes
ahead. Perhaps this is one way that Annurag Sharma tells his team, better hurry
up. We sat in silence with Shreya Magon, Nita Dutta and Kamini Sharma, three
vibrant young ladies who have been speaking to artists all these while over
phone. None wanted to look into anybody’s eyes.
Time ticked away. We checked the facts. We found the
response quite encouraging. Around 200 applications were already in; half had
paid and half had promised to pay. Gaurav Deep Singh, General Manager and head
of Productions presented the actual financial status. The office clock showed
6.10 pm. Against the huge amounts going into the production of the United Art
Fair, the money that had come in was a paltry amount. And most of the
applications had smell of sweat, tears and dreams.
At sharp 6.00 pm (now the office clock showed 6.15), Annurag
Sharma looked through everyone and said, “We are making United Art Fair FREE.
And RETURN the money to all those who have applied.” Then he looked at me. I
knew what had been going on in his mind for the last few months. He was taking
a huge burden on his shoulders. There was a sense of relief in the conference
room as the girls had been having a harrowing time with the artists. When you
don’t have money to pay, you compensate it with arrogance. Our girls had faced
it several times. Some artists feigned ignorance about United Art Fair, some
said they were having solo shows at the same time, some said they just HATED
United Art Fair. Our team members had taken everything with a smile. We have a
bowl of candies in our office. When you feel really bitter you pick up a candy
and eat. Our three ladies had a lot of candies all these days.
(JohnyML)
Now United Art Fair is free. That does not mean that it is
free for all. We still insist on quality control. We now handpick the artists
from the vast pool of artists’ data that we have. The moment we declared it
free, phone calls and emails started flooding in. Now they all want to
participate. I am taking the whole responsibility of handpicking the artists
out of the applications. And I am pretty sure that I do not choose bad art. My
approach on behalf of United Art Fair is democratic and transparent. I am not
looking for that kind of works of art that as a curator would launch me to a
different league so that people could say, “Look, JohnyML has produced an
international show.” Mark my words, my friends, I am not here to produce an
international show. I am here to produce a show of Indian contemporary art
which would be strong enough to stand at par with any international shows. I
don’t believe in ironed out Internationalism and I don’t believe in hegemonic
aesthetic homogeneity. I believe in our countries cultural variety and United
Art Fair is going to be a platform that showcases this cultural variety.
Three hundred and fifty artists from all over India, most of
them handpicked by me or suggested by trustworthy friends and team members will
present their works and they would stand proudly with fifty established
contemporary artists whose works will be presented in a special show titled ‘Mind
the Gap Now’ within the United Art Fair, curated by myself. There would be a
Masters Hall with fifty works from the Indian modern masters, a Tribute Hall
where we would present Tyeb Mehta and M.F.Husain. Sculpture Park with fifteen
huge sculptures is going to be another attraction. Video lounge will get you
the best videos produced in India in the past years. And the 28th
September 2012 is going to be ‘Dissenters Day’ in the United Art Fair; anybody
who has a different idea and even a critique on the very working of the United
Art Fair could come and speak to the public from our seminar platform. United
Art Fair offers these and many more. In the second edition we are going to
focus on South East Asian and European art along with the Indian contemporary
art, and Annurag Sharma adds, “And it is the same model, FREE.”
(These huge Baby Heads by Chintan Upadhyay will be in the UAF sculpture Park)
Forget arithmetic. Let the UAF management do that and make
it a sustainable model and of course a worthy business model also. We have
plans, very transparent and democratic plans that would bring both the public
and private agencies in one platform called the United Art Fair. And we still dream
an artists’ society that thrives on the notion of NO charity.
5 comments:
Big Cheers to you Johny and the Team UAF !!!
No Matter what ,disagreements and whatever statements coming from different backgrounds,cultural/profesional beliefs,all i know is Johny got good intentions and he is with "truth"
and not any "what works better now" or "Charity is nonexistent now" ... kind of blah blah..."
We roll tonight to the guitar bite
Stand up and be counted for what you are about to receive
We are the dealers
We'll give you everything you need
Hail hail to the good times
Cos rock has got the right of way
We ain't no legends ain't no cause
We're just livin' for today
For those about to rock, we salute you
For those about to rock, we salute you
We rock at dawn on the front line
Like a bolt right outta the blue
The skies alight with a guitar bite
Heads will roll and rock tonight
For those about to rock, we salute you
For those about to rock, we salute you
For those about to rock, we salute you, yes we do
For those about to rock, we salute you
Salute
We're just a battery for hire with the guitar fire
Ready and aimed at you
Pick up your balls and load up your cannon
For a twenty one gun salute
For those about to rock
Fire
We salute you
For those about to rock
We salute you
For those about to rock
Fire
We salute you
Fire
We salute you
We salute you, c'mon
For those about to rock, we salute you
For those about to rock, we salute you
For those about to rock, we salute you
For those about to rock, we salute you
Shoot, shoot
Shoot, shoot
For those who give
For those who take
Those left high
And those on the make
We salute you
We salute you
We salute you
Fire
Ac Dc
For Those About To Rock (We Salute You)
I am impressed by the honesty of the guys running the United Art Fair. They have been frank in admitting the problems without mincing words.
I for one had paid the 40k application fee.
Good luck to you United Art fair.
-Vijay Kiyawat
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