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Lorenzo Rudolf: Restless man behind
Courtesy of Art Stage SingaporeBefore introducing the Southeast Asian art scene to the world through Art Stage Singapore, Swiss curator Lorenzo Rudolf has been known as a leading figure in the international art world
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Courtesy of Art Stage Singapore
Before introducing the Southeast Asian art scene to the world through Art Stage Singapore, Swiss curator Lorenzo Rudolf has been known as a leading figure in the international art world.
Rudolf was famous as the director of Art Basel in 1999 and 2000, turning it from a trade show into a top social and lifestyle event for collectors, curators, art historians and celebrities from around the world.
He initiated a workable, sustainable business model for art fairs that relied on corporate sponsorship and networking.
Rudolf also played a role in the establishment of Art Basel in Miami Beach in the US in 2002, which has become a leading fair on its own.
The Bern-born Rudolf, however, started in a completely different field in 1988 ' as a public relations manager for a telecommunications after he graduated from law school at the University of Bern.
He was no stranger to art, however, as he grew up in a family and a city where culture and arts were greatly respected.
'I grew up in Switzerland at the time which was probably crucial for the entire development of contemporary art worldwide,' Rudolf told The Jakarta Post during a recent visit to Jakarta.
An interest to explore the world of art got stronger when he witnessed the groundbreaking curatorial work of Harald Szeeman of Kunsthalle Bern.
'First thing he did as the new director was to fully wrap the museum and made it like a parcel. He was a crazy guy, we were all shocked,' he said.
The museum wrapping was done by artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude in 1968, becoming the first public building wrapped by the couple.
Szeeman also showed Rudolf for the first time ' through an exhibition, called 'When Attitude Becomes Form' ' that contemporary art was not only something that hung on the wall.
They then became friends, and what Szeeman did was contagious, for Rudolf decided to follow Szeeman's path.
'I was also an artist, but I realized that there were other artists better than me; so it was like a constant development of my life, which then ended in direction of art,' the 55-year-old Rudolf said.
His stint with Art Basel led him to direct other international fairs, including the Frankfurt Book Fair in Germany, which is the world's largest cultural fair; the International Fine Arts Expositions in Palm Beach at the US; and SHContemporary in Shanghai.
After Shanghai, his passion for Asian, especially Southeast Asian, arts grew deeper as he noticed that the region had diverse and unique characteristics which were quite different from the West.
'I like the art in this region, I'm very convinced about it, and if you're convinced about the art in this region you begin to analyze situation and you realize that Southeast Asia, as well as the entire Asia, is still today very segmented in national scenes ' not a lot of knowledge about each other,' he said.
'That's why we need to make a bridge between Asian countries to inform and to show the world what it is all about.'
He conceptualized Art Stage Singapore in 2010, and a year later, his latest baby was born, making it a platform to showcase some of the best Asian art to an international audience.
It also provides a space for sellers, buyers, artists, curators and collectors to exchange knowledge from each other and build new connections.
'We made this to overcome the national barriers because contemporary art is global language; it has nothing to do with national things,' he said.
Rudolf chose Singapore to be the host as it had international standards with proper infrastructure, where people can go around easily, where traffic was not a major issue and where they could find certainty to import and export art.
'For that, Singapore is easy and it's easier for Indonesia and other countries to use international fair in Singapore to be successful.'
In its fifth edition, which will take place from Jan. 22 to 25 at the Marina Bay Sands, Art Stage Singapore will feature 145 galleries from 29 countries from, among other nations, Singapore, Taiwan, Indonesia, Thailand, Russia, Japan, and the United Kingdom.
The fair will also have a Southeast Asia section, which will feature 15 artists from the region whose works will provide an intimate engagement with the artists and their practices, while collectively serve as an entry point for understanding art from the region.
Artists Agan Harahap, Wisnu Auri, Titarubi, and galleries ROH Projects and ArtSphere, among others, will represent Indonesia in the fair.
Art Stage will also have three new platforms for Russia, video art and modern art.
'I would like to build up the Asian art market on the same level with the western market. And to do that, we surely have to create new formats,' said Rudolf.
'There are surely certain dreams I have, but I'm not somebody who lives a planned life,' he says. 'I like to live life at it is.'
