untitled: bargehouse

the art fair as we know and understand it today was first held in 1967 after directors hein stünke and rudolf zwirner contributed to documenta 2 in 1959 with a selling focused exhibition. the unprecedented success of this led to them producing a five day event specifically to sell art work called kunstmarkt ’67 in cologne. it showed 18 galleries/art dealers from germany and america, it also spawned a rival art fair in cologne called demonstrative and so the art fair and competitive selling was born.

jump forward to the present day where the art world calendar is organized around the major art fairs (for example frieze london/new york and art basel/miami/hong kong), you could, technically, go to a different art fair every week of the year. the over saturation on the art fair internationally and the formalized and expected presentation of said fairs (the continuous white booths lining corridors and walkways) is so familiar to the art world that it no longer acts as an exciting hub to see what’s new and happening, rather it is the same as the other, as last year, as that one over there. the art fair format as we understand it via the major players, is stale.” fairlands: the missing chapter, charlie levine, 2014

the missing chapter artists have been selected from sluice__2015 gallery directors. they were invited to be part of sluice__projects at this years fair to examine the idea of space and what exhibition making is, of what an art fair should be / look like and to take on the bargehouse and sluice__ as a subject. the result is a group exhibition that can be found across the building and in crevasses and spaces not used by the exhibiting galleries.

— charlie levine, 2015 | statement .pdf