You were the fair director of ART HK since its inception in 2007, was there a highlight over the years of developing ART HK for you?

Magnus Renfrew: It was a fantastic experience building an art fair in Hong Kong from its inception. ART HK was the first and largest art fair in the region and the first to showcase art from Asia to visiting audiences and bring art from the rest of the world to local audiences in the city. This is where it all started.

How did ART HK make the transition to being Art Basel HK?

MR: The directors of Art Basel had been looking at Asia for some time and discussions really got going after the 2010 edition of ART HK. On 1 July 2011, MCH Swiss Exhibition (Basel) Ltd., a company which belongs to the MCH Group Ltd., acquired 60% of the shares in Asian Art Fairs Limited in Hong Kong, the organiser of ART HK. I was delighted to be brought on board as Director Asia, Art Basel. Going forward we will build on the best of ART HK incorporating the experience and ‘know-how’ of Art Basel to create a show that has a stronger impact as an international platform to spotlight the latest developments in the visual arts in Asia and the rest of the world.

What would be the difference between the past and this year’s fair?

MR: The first edition of Art Basel in Hong Kong will be a new show, with a new layout and architecture, offering a new visitor experience. We aim to present the highest quality galleries, artists and artwork in Hong Kong and the benchmark for entry has been raised this year. There will be an extended talks and events program and associated programming by galleries and cultural institutions across the city. We expect the fair to attract greater numbers of VIPs and collectors. We have built a team of VIP Relation Managers based across the world who are working all year round with global arts communities, curators and museum groups to engage them further with the art market in Asia.

Would you be presenting the same programmes? What are this year’s highlights?

MR: The show will have four sectors: Galleries, Insights, Discoveries and Encounters. The new sectors have been conceived to advocate a curatorial mindset and encourage much tighter, more coherent, contextual and thematic presentations of the most important developments in the art scene in the last 100 years and today, historical material from Asia, emerging artists, and the most cutting edge art in Asia and from across the world.

I am particularly excited about Discoveries, the emerging artist sector which presents a particularly strong showcase of solo and two-person exhibitions by emerging contemporary artists from across the world. Highlights will include: the presentation of Thomas Sauter by Karma International, Zurich; Lucas Arruda by Mendes Wood, São Paul; Brendan Earley presented by mother’s tankstation, Dublin; Ryoko Aoki presented by Take Ninagawa, Tokyo and 2P Contemporary Art Gallery, Hong Kong presenting Tang Kwok Hin. There will be a USD25,000 prize for the best artist selected by a panel of experts.

There are several art fairs held in Asia let alone in China, how do you feel Art Basel HK is different from the others?

MR: Every fair has its own mission and vision. Art Basel aspires to provide a fair for Asia of global stature and the highest quality, while retaining its unique regional flavour with more than 50 percent of the galleries coming from Asia, and the Asia-Pacific region. We also want to provide a fair for Hong Kong, grounded in the city and are working with local cultural institutions such as the Asia Art Archive, M+, Hong Kong’s Museum for visual culture and Para/site Art Space promoting associated programming across the city.

How do you position Art Basel HK in the world?

MR: Art Basel in Hong Kong will be the place to come and learn the diverse histories, ideas and aesthetics of the visual arts in Asia. It will provide a global platform for galleries and artists from Asia, making them better-appreciated to collectors and institutions from the West and also from other parts of Asia, which is a huge area, whose art scenes are less interconnected than the European and American scenes.

Finally, what excites you about the first edition of Art Basel HK?

MR: I am extremely pleased with how the plans are progressing. The first edition has attracted 48 leading galleries worldwide to exhibit for the first time at an art fair in Hong Kong such as Andrehn Schiptjenko, Ameringer McEnery Yohe, Leo Xu, Balice Hertling, BolteLang, Raeber von Stenglin and 303 Gallery. There is an increase in participation from galleries from Asia and a particularly strong showing of Japanese, Indian and Indonesian galleries in addition to those from Hong Kong and Mainland China. The fair will feature dynamic presentations from young galleries from Asia and Asia-Pacific and globally including 2P Contemporary Art gallery and Utopian Slumps, and a strong presence of Modern art galleries from Asia and the West.

I am particularly excited about the Insights sector of the fair which will present 47 galleries from Asia and the Asia-Pacific region with thematic presentations of many important artists from the art scene in Asia over the last 100 years developed specifically for the show. ab