Edel Assanti
>>> Please scroll down for the English version
Na prvi pogled, Edel Assanti su retka zverka: sveža, energijom ispunjena galerija, otvorena neposredno posle ekonomske krize 2008. i to još u zoni prepoznatljivoj samo po sivim finansijskim zgradama, koja je umesto jednokratnog fazona izrasla u konzistentni prostor koji predstavlja ozbiljan umetnički talenat.
Ovo, naravno, nista nije slučajnost. Edel Assanti, galerija egzotičnog imena pokrenuta 2010, objedinjuje jedinstvena interesovanja, rad i sklonosti svojih osnivača, Jeremy-a Epstein-a i Charlie-a Fellowes-a. Charlie i Jeremy, iako u svojim dvadesetim, odlično su verzirani u galerijskom svetu. Obojica imaju iza sebe iskustvo rada za velike komercijalne galerije, a svoj prostor su pokrenuli radeći u večernjim satima i vikendom. Našla sam se sa Jeremy-em Epstein-om, i razgovarali smo o tome šta čini njihovu galeriju, umetnike i publiku izuzetnim, i koji aspekti njihovog iskustva mogu biti prenosivi i korisni galeristima i umetnicima u Srbiji.
Očigledna razlika između Londona i Beograda, u galerijskim smislu, je da Srbija nema tržište umetnosti. Galerije opstaju kroz institucionalnu (ili u retkim slučajevima državnu) podršku i tržište projekta. Većina galerija se ne izdržava tako što prodaje savremene umetničke radove. U Londonu je prodaja radova kompetitivni i često jedini način opstanka. Reci mi nešto o tome kako ste vi počeli? Šta vam je pomoglo da uspostavite svoj prostor i kako ste uspeli da opstanete?
Ah, opstanak! Kada smo Charlie i ja otpočeli sa radom u svojoj galeriji, obojica smo imali stalno zaposlenje. Ja sam imao posao za Gagosian galeriju, Charlie za Hamiltons. I u suštini, to je prilično komplikovana priča, ali obojica smo imali dosta prijatelja umetnika i hteli smo da uradimo nešto da pokažemo njihove radove. Radili smo za dve utvrđene galerije i imali interesantne poslove, ali smo obojica težili za praktičnijim, direktnim kontaktom sa umetnicima naše generacije. Upoznali smo se preko zajedničkog prijatelja koji je znao da obojica imamo tu želju ali je još uvek nismo preneli ni na šta praktično.
U to vreme (2008-2009) u delu grada gde sam radio, počeo sam da primećujem znake pražnjenja komercijalnih zgrada usled recesije; neke oblasti Sohoa bile su potpuno napuštene. Izgledalo je potpuno drugačije nego danas. Istovremeno, Charlie i ja smo pročitali statistiku da je prosečno vreme koje treba stanodavcu u W1 da nadje novog stanara oko deset meseci, što je zaprepašćujuće. Bilo je dosta praznih prostora, i pitali smo se kako bismo mogli da dođemo do njih. Na kraju smo otišli u savet Westminsterske opštine i tražili dozvolu da privremeno okupiramo neki od praznih prostora. Ispostavilo se da je u to vreme u opštini radio čovek koji je iz nekog razloga verovao u to što smo radili. Predložili smo mu da radimo projekte na jedno veče ili jednu nedelju, bez plaćanja kirije. Posao smo počeli bez dinara, nismo imali čak ni bankovni račun. Taj lik iz opštine nas je povezao sa dosta vodećih vlasnika zgrada u Londonu. Opština ne može da utiče na to šta vlasnici rade sa svojim prostorom, ali mogu da sugerišu ili daju savet, i na našu sreću neki od stanodavaca su bili prijemčivi za ideju o umetnosti u javnom prostoru, tako da smo odjednom imali pristup jednom neverovatnom portfoliu prostora u vlasništvu nekih od najvećih korporacija u Londonu.
Pošto smo obojica u to vreme imali stalne poslove, sarađivali smo sa drugim galerijama i kustosima kojima je takođe trebao izložbeni prostor. Pomagali smo im da besplatno dođu do prostora za svoje projekte. Postavili smo izlozbe i, ako su bile prodajne, dobili bismo mali procenat zarade. Ako bi izložbe bile neprofitne, to je bilo to, bilo je dobro zezanje. Par projekata se pokazalo dosta komercijalnim, tako da smo uspeli da generišemo izvesnu svotu novca (koja je bila mala, ali nam se tad činila velikom!). U isto vreme, kontaktirao nas je vlasnik jedne ogromne zgrade u neposrednom komšiluku naše sadašnje galerije. Zgrada je bila napuštena oko godinu dana, tako da nas je pitao da li bismo mogli da radimo to isto što smo do sad radili po raznim prostorima u gradu, ali na malo stalnijoj osnovi. Naravno, pristali smo. Ta zgrada je bila naš prvi projektni prostor, koji se postepeno pretvorio u galeriju.
Da skratim priču, proteklo je oko dve godine od tog trenutka do dana kad smo mogli da napustimo svoje poslove i potpuno se posvetimo radu u svojoj galeriji.
Dakle, radili ste dva posla da bi održali ovaj prostor, iako besplatan?
Trajalo je od dve do tri godine; za Čarlija dve, za mene je tri. Bio sam tada na početku karijere. Kada sam počeo rad u Gagosian-u imao sam dvadeset četiri godine, tako da je bilo problematično jer nisam mogao da si priuštim da radim bez plate, a moja galerija nije mogla da si priušti da mi dâ platu, tako da sam uporedo radio u obe. Nisam u to vreme ništa rekao nikome iz Gagosian-a. Rekao sam im neke osnovne stvari, ali kako je galerija rasla i počela da predstavlja umetnike, zadržao sam to za sebe. Srećom uspelo je!
Da li sarađujete sa nekim drugim institucijama, prostorima i sl.?
Trenutno predstavljamo osam umetnika. Pomažemo im da dobiju izložbe u muzejima. Kada dobiju izložbe, mi vodimo taj proces. Tako da trenutno npr. sarađujemo sa New Art Gallery Walsall, kod Birmingema; zatim sa Foam Muzejom u Amsterdamu, gde se trenutno prikazuje Richard Mosse, cija se multikanalna video instalacija the Enclave trenutno prikazuje u Vinyl Factory Space u Londonu u našoj produkciji.
Takođe smo sarađivali sa Photographers Gallery, isto sa Richard Mosse-om, koji je nominovan za prestižnu nagradu the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize.
The Cass Sculpture foundation saradjuju s nama oko izložbe Alex Hode, itd. Sarađujemo sa drugim institucijama kad god se za to ukaže prilika. Takođe sarađujemo sa nezavisnim kustosima. U početku smo imali veliku mrežu ljudi sa kojima smo hteli da radimo, tada nam je cilj bio da sarađujemo što više. Sada je program malo više fiksiran, ali i dalje povremeno radimo sa nezavisnim kustosima.
Sećam se da je Nadim Samman kurirao jednu od vaših prvih izložbi?
Nadim je kurirao prvu izložbu u našem sadašnjem prostoru. Njegov stil pisanja i oblast interesovanja se dosta poklapa s našim; nadamo se da ćemo zajedno oformiti još jednu izložbu ove ili sledeće godine.
Kakvo je vaše iskustvo sa umetničkih festivala i sajmova? Da li su art fairs korisni?
Mi smo prilično nekonvencionalni u smislu načina na koji koristimo art fairs. Mislim da postoji tendencija među mlađim galeristima da se dosta oslanjaju na sajmove da bi prodali radove, što nije nužno loše, ali nije način na koji mi funkcionisemo. Kada smo počinjali nismo bili u mogućnosti da odvojimo vreme van stalnog posla da bismo išli na sajmove, tako da smo razvili svoj biznis drugačije od drugih galerija, koje obično počnu sa nekom količinom novca i spremne su da amortiziraju gubitak tokom prve godine razvoja. Kada smo otvorili naš prvi prostor, mi smo imali novca da ga držimo otvorenim oko dva meseca! Dakle, prodaja je uvek bila važan deo galerijskog posla. Uostalom to je ono što nas razlikuje od kustosa, jer mi moramo da obezbedimo opstanak i za umetnika. To je uvek bio nešto što uzimamo veoma ozbiljno, veliki deo naše profesionalne odgovornosti.
Kako si onda uspeo da izgradiš bazu klijenata?
Efekat grudve snega. Imali smo početnu prednost nad kolegama naših godina u smislu da smo radili za dve velike galerije i bili upoznati sa ključnim kolekcionarima, znali smo ko nam je meta. To su bili više nego očigledni ljudi, kao sto je Charles Saatchi; znali smo kakvi radovi interesuju koje kolekcionare. Prvih šest meseci su bili pomalo slabi, ali od tada je naš program počeo da dobija na doslednosti, i uz nas su bili kolekcionari koji su nas podržavali od samog početka u smislu kupovine radova svih naših umetnika, tako da smo izgradili biznis na tome. Sada se dešava da nam ljudi dolaze sami.
Sajmovi – da odgovorim na tvoje prethodno pitanje – su za nas strateski bitni samo ako hoćemo da razvijemo određeno tržište ili da utvrdimo vezu sa institucijama iz određenog regiona. Na primer, ove godine bacamo težište na Ameriku, jer smo imali određene kontakte sa američkim muzejima i želimo da na taj način konsolidujemo odnose. S tim u cilju ići ćemo na Armory, jer je to odlična prilika da predstavimo naše Američke umetnike na njihovom terenu. Do sada još nismo bili neuspešni na sajmovima, ali težište je uvek na događanjima u samoj galeriji. Najvažnije nam je kako se vodi galerija i galerijski program, a ne da nas definiše potražnja na sajmovima.
Šta čini vaše umetnike tako prepoznatljivim? Oni su prilično specifična grupa.
Naši umetnici zaista variraju! Teško ih je opisati jer se kao galerija ne definišemo medijumom, nego generacijski. U pitanju su aktivni umetnici na početku ili u sredini karijere. Postoji nekoliko objedinjujućih faktora. Naglasak na tehnici je jedan od njih. Zainteresovani smo za tehnički pristup koji inteligentno ustanovljuje određenu ideju. To znači da nas ne zanima proces samo radi procesa, niti tehnika zbog tehnike. To kažem zbog toga što trenutno postoji dosta diskursa u tom smislu, koji nas ne privlači. Svi naši umetnici imaju interesovanja koja su utemeljena u određenim umetničko-istorijskim idejama, svesni su istorije koja im prethodi i to uzimaju u obzir. Svi oni rade tematski i tehnički dosta široke stvari; to je sve što im je zajedničko!
Viđam mnogo radova koji su citati i tangente iz sveta istorije umetnosti, na primer kod savremenih kineskih umetnika postoji mnogo vidljivih referenci, dok vaši umetnici ne aludiraju direktno na nekog ili nešto drugo. Vidljiv je njihov proces, ali oni nisu direktni derivati tog procesa.
To nije jednostavno. Program galerije u velikoj meri zavisi od Čarlija i mene. Mi imamo mnogo toga zajedničkog, ali smo suštinski veoma različiti. Umetnici koje predlažemo jedan drugom uvek dolaze iz potpuno različitih konteksta, tako da mislim da je jedna od tajni vitalnosti naše galerije to da program dosta varira. Ne dolaziš u galeriju znajući šta da očekuješ, svaki put možeš očekivati nešto drugačije. To nam je dosta važno. Mi ne težimo tome da okupimo grupu umetnika koji se međusobno upotpunjuju. Naši umetnici ne bi bili u stanju da koegzistiraju na grupnoj izložbi, ne bi išli zajedno.
Ko je vaša publika? Ko dolazi da vidi vaše izložbe? Kako uspevate da ostanete posećeni u ovom delu grada?
Lokacija je zapravo prilično dobra, lako je doći do nas. Victoria [metro stanica] je dobro povezan deo Londona. Postoje različiti elementi u našoj publici. Ima ljudi koji dolaze na otvaranja, ljudi koji dolaze na izložbe mimo otvaranja, uglavnom umetnici i studenti umetnosti, ljudi iz kraja. Dobili smo nekoliko redovnih tura posetilaca. U smislu kupaca, stvarno varira. Neki od najvećih kolekcionara nam dolaze na vrata, ali u isto vreme imamo zaista sjajnu grupu mladih ljudi koji osećaju povezanost sa galerijom, koji dolaze po savete o tome šta da stave na zidove.
To je stvarno super. Znači imate mlade kolekcionare koji ne kupuju kao investiciju, već iz ličnog zadovoljstva?
JE : Da. Imamo neke zaista inspirativne mlade ljude, iskreno zainteresovane da se povežu sa savremenim umetnicima. Nikada nisam zamišljao da će biti baš tako, ali eto tako je ispalo, i to je sjajno.
Kako ste došli do imena galerije?
Ime je nastalo na početku, jer smo želeli nešto što ne bi nužno skrenulo pažnju na nas – delimično zbog toga što nam se nije dopala ideja imenovanja galerije po sebi, a delimično zato što nismo želeli da nas otkriju! Devojačko prezime moje bake je Edel, a Assanti je, mislim, nekadasnji dečko Čarlijeve pra-tetke; to su prezimena negde zaturena u našim porodicama.
Najvažnije pitanje. Koliko su vaše identične brade bitne za biznis?
Kao ZZ Top! (smeh)
Da! Šta one predstavljaju?
Brade… na žalost, ne predstavljaju ništa! Obojica smo ih oduvek imali (smeh). Tako, imamo brade. Victoria polako postaje hipster! Postaje sve više cool!
Koje umetnike bi izdvojio u ovom trenutku?
Upravo smo otvorili izložbu Andrew Sutherland-a. On je jedan od dvojice umetnika koje smo predstavili u New York-u. Sutherland je deo naše trenutne izložbe i veliki deo naše galerijske prezentacije u Dallas-u. Sutherland je bio na njujorškoj umetničkoj sceni oko osam godina, ali sada doživljava uspon. Reakcija u New York-u je bila neverovatna, dolazili su svi ljudi koji su ga poznavali tokom godina. On je neko ko je za mene zaista interesantan.
Noemie Goudal je takođe interesantna. Ima samo 29 godina i ove godine ima izložbu u muzeju, koja onda gostuje u drugim muzejima sledeće godine, što je dosta sjajno. Njena izložba je posle Andrew-a.
Šta je u planu za ostatak godine?
Radimo još nekoliko sajmova, onda Nadim kurira izložbu krajem ove ili početkom sledeće godine. Glavni događaji su izložba Alex Hoda u Cass Sculpture Foundation i Noemie u New Art Gallery Walsall, to je trenutno u pripremi. Videćemo!
.
Edel Assanti for Supervizuelna
On the first glance, Edel Assanti is one of those miracles that happens every now and then: an energetic young gallery that started on the tail of financial downturn in an area better known for investment companies than contemporary art, it grew into a consistent, exciting space that shows serious talent.
This, of course, is no miracle. Started in 2010 by Jeremy Epstein and Charlie Fellowes, Edel Assanti is a blend of their unique interests, talents, and hard work. Both in their twenties, Jeremy and Charlie are not art world novices. They previously worked for major commercial galleries, starting their own space at evenings and weekends. I met with Jeremy Epstein to talk about what makes their gallery, artists and audience exceptional – and which aspects of their experience could be transferrable and useful for gallerists and artists in Serbia.
The obvious difference between London and Belgrade in gallery terms is that Serbia doesn’t have an art market; galleries stay open through institutional (or, exceptionally rarely, governmental) support and the project market. Most galleries don’t sell cutting edge art to survive. Could you tell me how you guys started? What has enabled you to establish your space, and how you managed to survive?
Ah, survival! When Charlie and I started the gallery we both had full-time jobs. I was at Gagosian gallery, he was at Hamiltons. And basically, it’s quite a complicated story, but we had a lot of artist friends and wanted to do something to show them. We were in two quite established galleries and played interesting roles in them, but we wanted more hands-on roles and to work with artists from our generation, so that was the desire behind it. We met because someone introduced us knowing we both had that passion but haven’t managed to translate it into anything yet.
At the time (2008-2009) in the area around where I worked we noticed that all the properties were emptying out because of the recession; some areas of Soho were completely derelict. It is completely different from how it is even now. We read the statistic that the average time for a landlord in W1 (Central London) who has lost a tenant to get a new one would be something like ten months, which is astounding. There was a lot of empty space, and we thought how can we get our hands on this space. We approached the Westminster Council for permission to temporarily occupy their empty spaces. We found a very good friend at Westminster Council who really believed in us for some reason, and we suggested doing projects for one show a night, or maybe one show a week, without paying any rent. We started a business without a penny, with not even a bank account. This guy introduced us to a lot of the leading landowners in London. The Council can’t tell them what to do, but it can suggest what they should do, and luckily a few of those landlords were receptive to the idea of art in the public realm – so suddenly we had access to this incredible portfolio of properties through some of the major landowning companies in London.
As we both had full-time jobs to begin with, we’d worked with other galleries and curators, people who needed space basically; and we helped them to find space for free. We’d put out the shows, and if the shows were commercial, we’d get a small percentage of the profit; if they were not commercial, they were not commercial and that was that, it was just fun. A couple that we picked did really well commercially, so we generated a small amount of money (which to us then was a huge amount!), and at that time a guy approached us with a huge building in London right next door to this gallery. The building had been derelict for a year, and he asked us to do what we’ve been doing in these other spaces but on a more permanent basis, and we said yes. This was our first project space that gradually transformed into a gallery.
To cut a long story short, it took about two years from then for us to leave our jobs and to be able to afford to do it full-time.
So you had to keep parallel jobs in order to establish this space?
It was two to three years; for Charlie it was two years, for me it was three. I was at the beginning of my career; when I started the gallery I was twenty-four, so it was a difficult time as I could not afford not to have a salary and my gallery could not afford to pay me one, so we just kept the two going. I didn’t tell Gagosian about it to begin with. I told them the basic thing, but I kept it quiet as it grew and became a real gallery that represented artists. Luckily it worked!
Are you collaborating with any other institutions, spaces, etc?
We represent a small roster of eight artists at the moment. We help them to get museum shows. When they do get the shows, we manage that process. At the moment, we collaborate with the New Art Gallery Walsall, near Birmingham, then the Foam Museum in Amsterdam is currently showing Richard Mosse, whose multichannel video installation the Enclave is shown by Edel Assanti in the Vinyl Factory Space in London.
We also worked with a Photographers’ Gallery with Richard Mosse, who was nominated for the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize this year. The Cass Sculpture foundation are doing a show of Alex Hoda’s work, etc. We collaborate with the institutions when the opportunity arises. We also work with a lot of independent curators. To begin with, we had a big network of people that wanted to do shows and at the time we wanted to get as much collaboration as possible. Now the programme is a little more set, but we still have the external curators come in.
I remember Nadim Samman curated one of your first shows?
Nadim curated the first show in the current space. His style of writing and his area of interests had quite a lot of crossover with us; he’ll hopefully do another show with us within the next year or so.
What is your experience of the art shows and fairs? Do you find the fairs useful?
We’re quite unconventional in the way we use the fairs. I think there’s been a tendency for young galleries recently to rely on art fairs for their sales, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it isn’t the way we work. When we started, we were not in the position to take the time off work to do the fairs. As a business, we developed differently from most other galleries, which usually start with a small amount of money and are prepared to take a loss for a year; whereas when we opened our first gallery, we had enough money to keep it open for about two months! So sales has always been an important part of being a gallerist, it’s what separates you from just being a curator, because you need to make an artist a living. That’s always been something that we take very seriously, a big part of our responsibility.
So how did you manage to build your client base?
It’s a snowball effect. At the beginning, the advantage that we had over other people who were our age was that we worked with the big galleries and had a familiarity with key collectors, we knew who we had to target. It was beyond the obvious people like Charles Saatchi; we knew what sort of work might sit with what sort of people. We have a very strong programme and very loyal collectors. The first six months were a bit slow, but since then the programme has started to gain consistency and we had people who supported us from the very beginning, in terms of buying work consistently across our artists, and it’s built from there. Now we have people approaching us.
The fairs – to answer your original question – we see them as a strategic move if we have a particular desire to develop a particular market or to get connections with institutions from a particular region. For example, this year we’re spending a lot of attention on America, because we had a bit of contact with American museums and we want to consolidate the relationships; so it makes a lot of sense to do the Armory as it’s a good opportunity to present the work on their turf. We’ve never done a bad fair yet, but the emphasis is always going to be about what’s happening here. It is always going to be about the gallery and the programming, and not defined by the art fairs.
What makes your artists so recognisable? They’re quite a specific bunch.
They really vary. I think it’s difficult, because we’re not defined by medium, we’re defined by generation. They’re all artists who are working now, [they are] at the beginning or in the middle of their careers. There’s a couple of unifying factors. There’s a lot of emphasis on technique. We’re interested in technical approaches endorsing ideas. What that means is we’re not interested in the process for processes’ sake, and we’re not interested in material for materiality’s sake. The reason I say that is, there’s a lot of that discourse at the moment which I don’t find particularly appealing. All our artists have art historically grounded concerns, they’re all aware of the history that precedes them and they take that into account. They all do very broad things; that’s all that they have in common!
I’m seeing a lot of art that are quotations and tangents from the art that precedes them, for example contemporary Chinese artists, there’s a lot of visible references, whereas your artists do not instantly remind me of anyone else. You can see their process, but they’re not distinctly derivative.
It’s not straightforward. The programme is largely made by Charlie and myself. We have a lot in common, but we’re very different. The artists that we suggest to each other are always coming from completely different places, so I think one of the strengths of the gallery is that the shows are very varied. You don’t come here knowing what to expect, you expect to see something different from the last time. That’s really important to us. We don’t seek to bring together a group of artists that compliment each other. Many of our artists won’t be able to show together, they wouldn’t necessarily gel.
Who’s your audience? Who comes to see your shows? How easy is it to be hip in W1?
The location is actually quite good, because it’s very easy to reach. Victoria is a well connected part of London. There’s different elements to the audience. There’s people that come for the Private Views and people who come to shows on their own accord; those people tend to be mostly artists and art students, a few local people from the area. We get a few regular touring groups. In terms of the collector base, it’s really varied. Some of the most established collectors in the world come through here, but at the same time we had a really nice group of young people who feel close to the gallery, and we advise them on things beyond their own walls.
That’s really cool. So those are the young collectors who are not collecting as an investment, but more for their own enjoyment?
Yeah. We’ve got some really inspiring young people here, genuinely interested to gain proximity to the artists. I never imagined it would be that way but it is, and it’s great.
The gallery name is another thing I wanted to mention. How did it come to be?
It came about when we started out. We wanted something that would not necessarily draw attention to us, partly because we didn’t like the idea of naming the gallery after ourselves, and partly because we didn’t want to be found out! My grandma’s maiden name is Edel, and Assanti, I think, is Charlie’s great aunt’s sometime-partner; these are the last names in our families somewhere.
Crucially, how crucial are the matching beards to your business?
Like ZZ Top! (laughs)
Yeah! What does it stand for? What does it represent?
The beards… don’t represent anything I’m afraid! We’ve both always had them. (laughs). They’re just there. Victoria’s getting quite hipster! It’s getting cooler around here!
Which artists are you excited about at the moment?
We’ve just shown Andrew Sutherland, he was one of the two artist presentation we just held in New York. He is our next exhibition and a big part of our Dallas presentation. He’s been around on the New York art scene for about eight years, and he’s breaking through with his practice. The reaction that we had when we took him to New York was amazing. All those people who’d known him for a long time were turning up. He is someone that I’m really excited about.
Noemie Goudal is pretty big news as well; she’s only 29, she’s got a museum show this year which then tours to another museum next year, which is pretty cool. She is on show after Andrew.
Any major plans for the rest of the year?
We’re doing a few more fairs, then Nadim is curating a show either at the end of this year or beginning of next, that’s quite cool. The main events are the Alex Hoda show at Cass Sculpture Foundation and Noemie’s show at the New Art Gallery Walsall, those are the two we are working on at the moment. We’ll see!
