The Artist Lounge I & II curated by Veronica Weinstein

Share your experiences from the 2009 HOT ART Fair!

hotartartistlounge — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 01:53:56 +0000

Attended HOT ART Fair or its Artist Lounge ‘A Time To Bloom’ last weekend? Have experiences you’d like to share? Please post your comments and/or pictures or email them to Veronica! We’d love to hear your feedback and then share on here to keep the energy of this year’s Artist Lounge going!

Here’s what attendee Ivan Simeon had to say:

Specially loved the strong feeling that Hot Art Fair is the Future of Art Basel. Soon some of the artists will be seen at Art Basel.

Mr. Simeon is a Photographer, Art Director and Producer based in Geneva Switzerland, working on Portrait, Fashion and advertising in Europe, the US and Japan.

Thank you for coming! We’re looking forward to your comments.

Picture This

hotartartistlounge — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 11:40:05 +0000

The beautiful design of the lounge articulated in an earlier post will radiate innovation even to passerby’s during the evening hours. Najla El Zein and Veronique Gelber designed the scenography for this year’s lounge. This photo is of the situation nuit which displays the external characteristics, and captures the essence of a quote mentioned earlier:

From afar, “A Time to Bloom” seems to be suspended in the sky like a cloud…

Also, indulge yourself and listen to a preview of the latest sound demo from Ilana Ospina from Spain. Microcosmos is meant to take you inside – close your eyes as you listen and conjure up the images which accompany the ambient sounds. The video by Ilana Ospina will be shown next week, so enjoy the preview of the audio and look forward to the full effect! (You can listen to more of Ilana Ospina’s work on her Myspace Music page.)

Nostalgia: HOT ART VIP 2008

hotartartistlounge — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 23:36:38 +0000

Here are some pictures of last year’s VIP lounge captured by this year’s curator Veronica Weinstein (who is also an artist herself). The images on the screens in the first photo are by Max-Steven Grossman. Video footage was also captured by Veronica.

Will you be in Basel next week to experience the HOT ART VIP Lounge of 2009?

Exclusive Preview I

hotartartistlounge — Wed, 27 May 2009 03:25:42 +0000

You may have received an invitation to the VIP lounge, but in case you need something more enticing to make the trip to Basel here is a preview of the artwork which will be exhibited at the lounge. All of these artists’ works will come seamlessly together to form the unique concept ‘A Time to Bloom.’

Paula Ospina is a Spanish photographer and video artist. Her photograph below is entitled ‘Stanton.’

Performing will be Miki Tajima from France, featured below.

Max-Steven Grossman is a photographer and native of Colombia.

‘Histoire de Mer’ is 1 of a series of 4 photos by French photographer Caroline Perrier.

‘Bild’ is a still from a one of two video installations which will be shown by Swiss video artist Maria Dundakova.

Finally, another still from a video installation entitled ‘Sunset’ by Ivan Argote, a video artist from France.

Two weeks until Art Basel kicks off! Hope you can make it to experience ‘A Time to Bloom.’

It’s all about location.

hotartartistlounge — Thu, 21 May 2009 04:13:40 +0000

Art Basel will celebrate its 40th year as the world’s leading international art show this June. 600,000 people attended Art Basel last year including art collectors, art dealers, artists, curators and other art enthusiasts. Even if you do not fit into one of those categories you won’t want to miss “one of the highlights of the cultural calendar each year” according to Christoper Vourlias, a Forbes travel journalist who wrote about last year’s Art Basel.

Basel ranks as a cultural city, with its world-class museums, outdoor sculptures, theaters, concert halls, idyllic medieval old town and new buildings by leading architects. This traditional German-speaking city is situated on the Rhine, and is the inspiration for the art lovers who attend Art Basel; during the week-long art show, the city is infused with excitement for the exhibits, events and converging technologies which have taken place each year since 1969.

Interact: Virtual and Natural

hotartartistlounge — Thu, 14 May 2009 02:22:25 +0000

Close your eyes. Imagine taking the elevator and upon stepping out enter an environment which will question the boundaries between the virtual and the world as we perceive it. How, one might ask, is this possible? It is what the artists and everyone behind the world’s premier contemporary art fair have accomplished …

Enter a room which resembles a lounge and experience the first zone – the virtual. Plasma screens light up the walls of the room with projected images, and visitors may explore the open room – even change the modules dispersed throughout the room. Now, leave the virtual zone.

Enter a new dimension of purity. This is a space for visitors to “cleanse his or her palate,” one might say. A quiet space invokes reflection on the previous zone which one has just left. This moment of quiet reflection between the virtual and the second zone will allow the visitor to experience a rebirth from one zone to the next; no stimulation will be present in this space.

From afar, “A Time to Bloom” seems to be suspended in the sky like a cloud, just like time.

Enter the contemplation zone – a fully enclosed and soundproof room where the video artwork that is displayed allows one to transcend one’s own physical self to experience peace and serenity. A column of light separate the contemplation zone from the “cleansing areas” which surround it, and in the evening a blue light emanates from these columns.

Leave the contemplation zone and step into another space which offers the visitor another area of quite reflection to consider the last zone without further stimulation.

Enter the garden zone, and look at the natural world with a sense of rebirth and wonder. This zone is semi-open and semi-closed through which light is filtered by wood-slates.

Experience a place where the lines of spectator and artist are blurred, and embrace the artist inside of yourself.

Introducing…’A Time to Bloom’

hotartartistlounge — Wed, 13 May 2009 01:48:58 +0000

If you are planning on being at the HOT ART Fair in Basel, Switzerland this June – you’re in for a treat (and if you haven’t bought your tickets yet there is still time!). This year’s theme for the VIP artist lounge will be an experience like none other. Each of the artists will be featured in upcoming posts, so expect previews of the work and bios of the artists which will shape the ambiance of the ’09 lounge.

The beautiful words of Gali Kronenberg, renowned writer, editor and book coach in California, describe the lounge:

The lounge is an intrinsic part of the exhibit itself…From a distance, the lounge appears suspended in the sky. A pastiche of art and artists present work where boundaries between nature and art, spectator and artist blur. Instead of peering at art from a remote bench, visitors amble through a landscape of art…

The lounge with its shadowed spaces and light-filled terrace is itself a hybrid. A video installation of snow flurries reinterprets nature. A live performance by a dancer with a glass ball that glides to the edge and back of his fingertips appears to defy gravity. A panel on art and consciousness probes how we change the way we look at things, the things we look at change. The whole of the lounge experience is intended to spark moments of cognition, emotion and blossoming of a shift of perception…