INTERVIEW: Peter Bläuer

Peter Bläuer is the charismatic director of LISTE, which saw a significant gap in the contemporary art market. In 1995 along with the gallerists Eva Presenhuber and Peter Kilchmann, Peter Bläuer founded the most important Art Fair which gives the opportunity to new galleries and new artists to emerge in the Art field, everyone that passes through the gate of the Liste Art Fair has ensured success in the future. The number of participating galleries is specific and limited, and this fact validates the uncompromising quality of the Fair for 21 years. As Mr. Peter Bläuer says “There is scarcely a gallery founded after 1996 and numbering among today’s most important galleries worldwide whose journey has not included an appearance at LISTE”. Our magazine has the great honor and pleasure to talk with Mr. Peter Bläuer about the history of the institution and its eases and difficulties over the years.

By Efi Michalarou & Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: LISTE Art Fair Archive

Mr. Bläuer in 1996 LISTE Art Fair was founded by you, Eva Presenhuber and Peter Kilchmann, but your directions separated, your two other partners have two very successful galleries in Zurich and you remain faithful to your vision. Which of your initial goals have been achieved, and which were redefined?
In contrast to Eva Presenhuber and Peter Kilchman, I was a curator. I was asked if I would be interested in founding and directing a new art fair. It had never occurred to me to direct a fair.. smile .. Nevertheless, the first LISTE in 1996 was very successful and I saw that there were all these great young galleries that had never been represented in Basel. I decided to meet that challenge. In the first few years, we showed almost exclusively very young, emerging galleries. Participation time was in those first few years limited. That has changed over time. LISTE responds to all manner of change in the gallery business and always tries to meet the given needs. It is still our main goal to introduce brand new galleries each year. At the same time, galleries today can present at LISTE more times than before. What remains important is, that they mainly show different artists, different positions than at Art Basel. We are a complement to Art.
Really, why did you choose Basel, which is a small town in Switzerland to held LISTE rather than Zurich?
Of course Basel! Art Basel, the most important art fair in the world, is in Basel. And of course, LISTE takes place at the same time. We also want to profit from Art Basel’s fantastic public. We „only“ had to manage to get those Art Basel visitors who are also interested in young art to come through our doors. And there we have succeeded 100%!! The really great thing about Basel is this complementary relationship between Art and LISTE.
When you founded LISTE, did you thought about the risks or you were sure that you created a new Art Fair which was coming to fill the gaps in the contemporary art market? It was necessary and aimed at a different target group from the Art Basel?
At that time, we saw that there was a gap in the market. A new generation of galleries wasn’t being shown in Basel. Galleries like neugerriemschneider, Berlin; Maureen Paley London; David Zwirner New York; Air de Paris; Eva Presenhuber, Zurich etc. were all at the first LISTE – and were basically unknown at the time. We aren’t just another fair with galleries that haven’t made it to Art Basel; rather, we are a fair with a focus on presenting the world’s most interesting new emerging galleries. And on a quality level comparable to Art Basel. The history of the last 22 years has clearly shown: There is scarcely a gallery founded after 1996 and numbering among today’s most important galleries worldwide whose journey has not included an appearance at LISTE.
What is the relation between LISTE and Art Basel today?
We are very good friends. We exchange ideas regularly and discuss fundamental questions. Very much reflecting a Swiss mentality – working not against each other, but with each other is a source of strength.
How do you feel when you see new galleries that have started from LISTE transition to Art Basel?
Of course, it makes us proud. That’s what we want! We introduce new galleries and hope that their development takes them to Art Basel one day. We like making our contribution to that achievement.
For many Galleries LISTE, as we know, is a very important goal-dream, what are the criteria for the participating Galleries and why you accept only 10 new Galleries every year?
We try to find the most compelling and most trend-setting galleries from around the world. Bringing them to Basel to affordable prizes (thanks to our generous main partner E.Gutzwiller & Cie, Banquiers, Basel since 1997), for showing young artists. LISTE – Art Fair Basel is a discovering art for edgy, ump-and-coming artists among others. To that end, we have advisors all over the world who tell us about new galleries in their countries. In the end, an expert jury, consisting mainly of museum people, decides who we will be introducing for the first time each year. As a rule, that involves 10 to 15 galleries. Why so few? There aren’t hundreds of truly exciting and highly promising new galleries each year and we seek only “the best.”
As we know the Jury members are very important art people with what frequency they are changing?
Over the years I’ve learned that it’s wrong to set up too many rules. If a jury functions well and represents a variety of points of view, it would be wrong to change it [the jury] simply on the basis of a rule. That means that we change, we think that change or additions are good.
Over the years, we observe that renowned Art Fair are losing their prestige, contrary to LISTE which remains firmly in 1st position always fresh, renewed, completely updated and with the same high quality. How easy is it and how do you manage it?
Yes, we are very lucky indeed that we still occupy such an important position in the art scene. We always try to play a role in the zeitgeist, to remain current and fresh. Always question what we are doing – see what needs to be changed. You do that by, for example, having conversations with experts. That is a real challenge, but at the same time it’s so exciting. AND!! The first criterion has to be quality improvement. It’s not simply more bells and whistles” that counts … but quality! And less is often more! That’s why the fair has not gotten bigger, and that is also why we don’t accept more new galleries each year.
Although the Art Market is shifting to different cities of the globe and new centers are created, either to the East (Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Hong Kong) or to Latin America but Basel remains in the center of all…
Of course, that is so much to Art Basel’s credit. It is simply awesome and we are proud to complement Art with our small, unique fair and to contribute to the success of art week. And don’t forget the terrific museums and the little city with its many wonderful things it has to offer.
Do you think that the crisis affected the Art Market and how the Galleries owners and the artists deal with it?
Yes, the crisis had an effect. Many young galleries had to close. As soon as there is an economic crisis, collectors focus on “proven” value, safe bets. Auctions make that clear. But for young galleries, things become more difficult. There is less courage among collectors to buy emerging unknown art – buying behavior becomes “more conservative.” With LISTE, we hope to provide galleries some help in that arena. Curious and more courageous collectors still come to us. But even at our fair, purchase behavior became somewhat more careful and slower.
We have very close relationship with Paris, because we are living for a long period of time there and we observe that Paris gets increasingly dynamic in the Contemporary Art Scene. Do you think that Paris can become the new European Art Center in Contemporary Art, after London and Berlin?
Yes, I have to say that Paris has become more exciting. But there are very different factors involved. How trendy are the museums? What are all the art foundations and institutions doing? Very practical questions are decisive with respect to whether someone will open a gallery in Paris or Berlin. Are there affordable spaces? How expensive is the cost of living there? That is one reason why Berlin is booming; rent and life in general are, for a metropolitan area, remarkably reasonable.
As we know LISTE has a constant flow of Collectors that come to discover new artists, knowing that they are doing an investment that will definitely pay off in the future, LISTE with the successful twenty-year experience, why didn’t have open-up in other cities like Art Basel that has expanded to Miami and Hong Kong?
Of course, we have repeatedly considered establishing another LISTE in a different city. It hasn’t happened yet … but who knows?! You might also say that the world doesn’t need more art fairs … there are already too many … and “the same” galleries are presented all over. – And if … then the quality has to be good … has to make sense … so perhaps it’s better to be exclusive to Basel! We’ll see what the future brings .. smile.

First Publication: www.dreamideamachine.com
© Interview-Efi Michalarou & Dimitris Lempesis

Download Greek version here. Peter Bläuer