Joburg Art Fair ‘09 - a more modest affair- Artlogic have cut back spending and fallen back on sponsors, writes Mary Corrigall

The Joburg Art Fair will run in 2009, confirmed Ross Douglas, the fair’s director and head of Artlogic, at a press briefing in Johannesburg last week.

This wasn’t unexpected news given the accumulative R27-million sales garnered during its first three day run at the Sandton Convention Centre in March this year. However, while all the galleries did a roaring trade, Artlogic incurred a R1-million loss. Keen to turn the Joburg Art Fair (JAF) into a sustainable event Artlogic, therefore, has been forced to make a few alterations to the 2009 rendition.
It was expected that the fair would grow in size, attracting more galleries for its second run but only two more galleries will be participating, bringing the total to 24. Douglas implied that there was only a limited amount of reputable galleries in the country that could size up to the ethos of the fair.
“There are a number of ways we could make it sustainable; we could have opened the doors to other galleries and expanded the exhibition but we really only wanted quality galleries. So to make ourselves more sustainable we have had to look to sponsors,” commented Douglas.
First National Bank (FNB) will once again sponsor the event, and Douglas hinted that a partnership with BMW might also be in the offing. Despite this backing Artlogic have decided to tighten the purse strings to make the 2nd fair more financially viable. Artlogic wanted to kick the first art fair off with a bang but they were perhaps too extravagant, financing events around Joburg, observed Douglas.
“We did a launch party at the old JSE (Johannesburg Stock Exchange) and discussion sessions at the Alexandra Theatre in Braamfontein. We wanted to create a week-long event around the city. This year the focus is on creating attractions at the fair to keep people there.”
Artlogic have somewhat scaled back all the attractions for the 2009 art fair. Instead of forking out a fortune for a world-renowned curator such as Simon Njami, who curated this year’s curated exhibition, the curated show for the 2009 art fair will be in the hands of a lesser-known but established international talent, Tumelo Mosaka, who currently holds a position as assistant curator at the Brooklyn Museum, New York.
Instead of staging events around Joburg, the 2009 fair will present talks at the fair by participating galleries and two international speakers supported by the Goethe Institut and WISER. The featured artist of the 2009 fair will be Jane Alexander, whose installation, Security, which was originally commissioned for the 27th São Paulo Biennale, will be on view for South African audiences for the first time.

•The 2nd Annual Joburg Art Fair is scheduled to run from April 3- 5 2009