The Basel roundup article has become just as much of an institution as the fair. As such, I have little desire to sacrifice any more similes and alliterations to the highly polished throne of the MCH Group. And with Art Basel Miami Beach signing on for another 5 years, there is little rush. So yeah, here are the two metanymical examples of the past week’s hullabaloo:

1) Borrowing from Rirkrit Tiravanija and Jennifer Rubell, the Good Days Gallery thought that renting a vintage ice cream truck and handing out free dessert would be incisive blow into the calloused hind parts of the art fair institution. The delight was manifold. People totally enjoyed their dessert while occupying a carrefour of relational interaction. However, I guess you need a permit to enjoy ice cream on a hot December day, as they were given a $1000 ticket and threatened with arrest. (I don’t mean to be facetious, but do you think somebody dropped their ice cream cone during this police crackdown, thus making the whole thing double sad?)


2) Some chick in Wynwood thought it would be cool to bring a pig around to the openings. I feel bad enough when people bring their toddlers–brains surely melted by aerosol fumes. And given that pigs have exhibited higher IQs than human infants, this lady is totally going to hell.

That said, I actually did go into the fair. Even wrote about it for the Chinese website Randian 燃点. Here’s a taste:

If you want a picture of the future of art fairs, imagine a boot stomping a human face (especially about the eyes)—forever. It might seem a bit much to bring up Orwell in relation to Art Basel Miami Beach, but with the fair’s recent acquisition of Art HK, the Swiss company has moved from the institutional to the despotic…

Read the rest at over at Randian.