ince 2003, art.fair has exhibited art of the 21th century. With over Sixty-four galleries, art.fair 2005 present the newest works of more than 250 artists born after 1960. A particular highlight of art.fair this year is the DiVA convention from New York. With over 30 exhibitors, DiVA will be the first art convention exclusively exhibiting video and digital art in Germany.

Art Interview: The art.fair in Cologne is in its third year now. How did you start the exhibition?

Walter Gehlen: My partner Andreas Lohaus and I have known each other for quite a long time, for 6 or 7 years. At the end of 2002 we read an article about a very successful art fair that was taking place in New York, the AFF - Affordable Art Fair. We thought, wow, their idea of restricting participation for galleries in the fair to works of art that are only below a certain price sounds great." We thought we should have something like that in Germany because the established art fairs that we have in Germany are so established that someone interested in buying a work of art but with a small budget is intimidated. We wanted to create an art fair that was really open-minded and welcomed everybody no matter what their budget for art was.

Cameron Rudd Prostitute and Penner II Oil on canvas 100x130 cm Represented at art.fair 2005

Walter Gehlen: We had price restrictions for two years but our galleries were not happy with it because it restricted their sales. People don't really appreciate restrictions; they rather appreciate the great atmosphere we have provided at the fair. Everybody is nice and far from being arrogant, everyone is open-minded, plus we provide a really easygoing atmosphere with music-d.j.'s, great bars and restaurants. The most important point for us was to welcome everybody. So we decided to drop the price restriction because it didn't really make sense.

We focused our concept on 21st century art. We wanted to provide a platform where young artists are represented in a relaxed atmosphere. This year we have an art fair with extras that really make a difference. The music, the d.j.'s and the restaurants create a really special relaxing atmosphere. A lot of galleries have told us that our art fair is a considerable improvement over other art conventions. The dealers cannot sell well when the visitors are uncomfortable, when they are stressed out, when the light is bad or when the atmosphere is bad. So they really appreciate that our fair is so relaxed. Our visitors are not stressed out at all. If you go to other art conventions, you can feel the difference. They normally have all these professionals running around and they have no areas where people can relax. That's absolutely different from our fair. This has a great impact on the business; I think that's a very important point. Not only are the people happier, they are also in the mood to buy art!

Art Interview: How many galleries are exhibiting this year?

Walter Gehlen: This year we have 65 galleries. The years before we had around 55 galleries. So we have grown.

Art Interview: How many artists all told?

Walter Gehlen: This year it will be around 250 artists.

Art Interview: How large is the exhibition space?

Walter Gehlen: Our hall has 4,000 square meters and the exhibition space has 2,700 square meters.

Art Interview: What was your personal motivation to start an art fair? Did you have a background in art?

Jörg Eibelshäuser No way out 2005 Represented at art.fair 2005

We did some research and we learned that galleries are not so keen on working with organizers who are too involved in the art business. They want people that are really good at organizing and great at actually doing business. Andreas and I have these capabilities and we had enough working experience behind us to argue precisely that point. Andreas is a marketing professional and he knows every marketing tool. I myself am very good at organizing and with time management. So we were able to show the galleries that we were capable of organizing and handling such fair and that we were also capable of organizing it in a way that would be financially successful. It is also important for galleries to be convinced that we can continue with this concept. No one wants to participate in an art fair when he fears that it is very likely that the concept is going to die after the first year.

Art Interview: The galleries that you've attracted, are they highly established galleries, middle-career galleries or young galleries?

Walter Gehlen: We have all three categories. We addressed the established galleries and encouraged them to show their young programs. For instance, we have some galleries that are also exhibiting at ART COLOGNE at the same time. What they do is show their established artists at ART COLOGNE but we at art.fair give them a chance to present their young and upcoming artists. We also have mid-career galleries, which participate in quite a lot of art conventions throughout Germany and Europe. They generally are trying to increase their business for their artists. The last segment is indeed formed by the young galleries, which have their first presentation at art.fair. At art.fair all three of these categories have one thing in common: they show their 21st century art program, which mainly consists of young artists. We really want to make certain that galleries do not force young artists out by attempting to enter only established artists to our fair. There are also some very established artists at this year's art.fair, for example Jörg Immendorf. A gallery that is showing graphics done in this century is representing him. The concept of art.fair is 21st century art. But our main purpose is to provide a platform for young artists.

Art Interview: Do you have a specific age restriction?

Jörg Immendorf W.T. 2003 oil on canvas 50 x 60 cm Represented at art.fair 2005

Art Interview: When a gallery is interested in participating in an art.fair what do they have to do to exhibit?

Walter Gehlen: It is very easy. They write us an e-mail telling us which artists they would like to show. For each artist they have to attach a biography and a couple of images. We collect all these applications. This year once we had about twice as many applications as our space would allow, we had a conference with our board and then decided which artists we wanted. We really don't pay too much attention to the name of the galleries; we are really selecting the artists. Sometimes we talk to the gallery and say: OK, you want to show these four artists, but we think that only two of them are suitable for our fair. Most of the time it works out nicely and sometimes we agree with the gallery that it won't work.

Art Interview: Have you had any negative reactions from galleries because of your selection process?

Walter Gehlen: Not at all, because it's very open. People don't feel that they are being judged. It is not that they write us and after our conference they receive a letter telling them that they've been rejected. No, we work cooperatively with the galleries. We phone them and discuss it with them. What galleries really don't like is having the impression of being kicked out of an art fair because their program interferes with the program of some other gallery. With the support of the professionals we choose artists we think are good for the art fair. We do not have a situation where galleries are being kicked out because some other gallery thinks that they would not earn enough money if this or that gallery also exhibited.

Tanya Hengstler AutoGraph 3 2004 Disec Print on Aluminium 100 x 70 cm Represented at art.fair 2005

Walter Gehlen: Yes, we have.

Art Interview: How did you begin that process? I would assume in the beginning ART COLOGNE considered you as competition. How were you able to come across to them as a working partner?

Walter Gehlen: From the very beginning our strategy was to act open-mindedly and talk frankly with ART COLOGNE and our galleries. Before we went public with the concept we arranged a meeting with ART COLOGNE and presented to them exactly what we intended to do. We convinced them that our fair would not only be good for Cologne but also for ART COLOGNE.

So from the very beginning we had the situation that ART COLOGNE and art.fair cooperated with each other. Cooperation means that we have banner exchanges, we have a bus shuttle service between the two fairs and ART COLOGNE puts up bus-station signs for those that want to go to art.fair and so on. It is really nice.

Art Interview: You just set up a meeting with ART COLOGNE and they listened to your argument? In the beginning, did they accept your concept or did you have to fight hard for that?

Walter Gehlen: No, they more-or-less accepted it. Of course, there were also doubts but I really like to discuss arguments and our arguments were obvious and understandable. I think what they really appreciated was that we kept talking to them and talking frankly to them, so that they knew that these guys were not doing anything behind their backs without informing them. That's quite good to know, I think.

Art Interview: So you consider yourselves partners, in some sense?

Walter Gehlen: We are partners in promoting Cologne as a great marketplace for art. That's our goal.

Art Interview: Visitors who decide to come to art.fair can also easily visit ART COLOGNE?

Walter Gehlen: Exactly.

Art Interview: Does one have to buy the tickets separately or is it possible to buy tickets for both?

Walter Gehlen: There are separate tickets but VIP's can go to both events.

Art Interview: Did you have to do a presentation to the city of Cologne?

Oleg Kulik Represented at art.fair 2005

Art Interview: Is the city going to give you some type of support?

Walter Gehlen: No, we have no support at all. The fees that the galleries pay and the sponsors that we attract finance the whole business.

Walter Gehlen: I can tell you that very precisely. The art world will see, more than ever this year, that art.fair is a great fair and that business in this particular location, at this particular time, in this particular town is great. We will do a lot of things to make that happen and to match the highest expectations. Then we will have discussions and meetings with a lot of gallery owners who are interested in getting more involved and in bringing their partner galleries to Cologne to this art fair. We will announce an official board that consists of, at least, five gallery owners who come from five different countries, and three collectors. These galleries and collectors will make sure that the quality of our participants increases year by year, much more than it has increased in the last three years.

Art Interview: An individual artist is not able to participate without gallery representation, is that correct?

Walter Gehlen: That's absolutely correct. The only exception would be if we see a piece that we think would fit perfectly into the VIP-lounge. But we don't have a program, an official program, where we accept applications or something like that.

Art Interview: Who are some of the artists that are coming to art.fair this year; are there any big names?

Eckart Hahn Labor 2005 Oil on Canvas 140 x 160 cm Represented at art.fair 2005

Walter Gehlen: We are proud that we have so many galleries from foreign countries. I think a great gallery that we managed to attract is Christopher Cutts from Toronto. Then there is a gallery from Basel, named Leonhard Ruethmueller; they represent Oleg Kulik, for instance, so we're very happy to have them. Then we have a German gallery from Munich that is also exhibiting at ART COLOGNE called Galerie von Braunbehrens.

We are also very proud to present a gallery from Barcelona, the Galeria Metropolitana de Barcelona. They will do an installation in our foyer, which is absolutely great. It's part of the body sculpture program that we have. Not to forget Galerie Rafael Vostell, a very well known gallery.

Walter Gehlen: We went on-line and I think we had around 60 applications over the Internet. Young galleries that search in Google for art fairs find us easily because our name is ranked high, at the very top. So over the Internet, there is a lot of interest. Last year we traveled all over the world and visited more then 18 different art fairs and said hello to every single gallery owner and left a brochure about what we do and what we want. We talked with them about what we had done the last two years and what we're going to do this year. A lot of galleries thought that it would be a good idea to come to Cologne and join art.fair.

Art Interview: If a gallery wants space at the art.fair how much would it cost?

Walter Gehlen: This year our price is around 140€ per square meter and there are some additional costs, so it sums up to 160€ per square meter on the average.

Walter Gehlen: Yes, that is correct. The situation is as follows: We are a private company. We are a business that has to calculate very exactly. So we cannot subsidize square meters for very young galleries. That's the situation; everybody, without exception, has to pay that price. Of course, there are a lot of good galleries that are too young and do not have the financial basis to come.

Art Interview: Have you always been in the building that you're currently exhibiting in?

Walter Gehlen: No. We moved this year. The last two years we were in a different building. The new building is much better because it's situated right in the center of Cologne, whereas the other building was about half an hour's drive away from the center of the city, although it was only 10 minutes away from ART COLOGNE. So from that point of view it was also quite nice. Last year we had 15,000 visitors, so it was okay. But now we expect that with our new location we will have much more traffic. Last year it was full, but now we expect it to be crowded.

Art Interview: I understand you are expecting 22,000 visitors!?

Clemens Krauss Untitled - Selfportrait 2002 Oil and silicone on Canvas 30 x 30 cm Represented at art.fair 2005

Art Interview: How do you reach the public?

Walter Gehlen: There are two ways: marketing and public relations. We have a lot of manpower there, people who are working with the press and people that are doing the classic advertisement business such as advertising in magazines, co-operations with magazines and other print media, and posters, flyers and so on. Also what will have a very great impact this year is our VIP-management. We couldn't really do it last year but now we have a team consisting of three people who are doing nothing else than calling collectors, museum directors and so on, telling them about art.fair, what we do, and inviting them to our VIP-program, which is very nice. They are making sure by means of personal contact that these people will come. For me, the most important thing is that we have a great VIP-program, that we really address ourselves thoroughly to professional collectors. Of course, one of our goals is to remain open to everyone, we are not arrogant in the sense that we only want to have people that have a budget of 100,000€ for art. We are happy with everybody, but we also want to treat professional collectors well and provide a great service for them. That is why we have our VIP assistant, they have their own VIP room and we will have diners with the galleries and so on and so on.

Just to give you an impression of why we are able to attract a lot of people: I think that my partner Andreas, who is in charge of marketing, really has some nice ideas. For instance, our catalogue is printed together with a magazine called Kunsttermine, which is a kind of art calendar. It's printed quarterly and our catalogue is printed inside this magazine with the cover of our catalogue as the back cover of the magazine, turned 180°, so that the magazine has two covers. Now our catalogue is being printed in 26,000 copies. That is a quite large distribution for the catalogue of an art fair of our size.

Art Interview: You've had positive response from the VIPs?

Walter Gehlen: Yes, very positive.

Art Interview: Are there any larger collectors that will be coming, or is that something that you don't want to say?

Walter Gehlen: We will publish that when we really have the confirmation from the persons.

Art Interview: Have you also been able to reach television?

Walter Gehlen: Yes. The first year we had coverage on the Harald Schmidt Show. That was great; the show was 45 minutes and we had around 20 minutes, which is really a huge amount of time. 1 million people were watching the show and we could see the impact on the next day. People were coming from cities that were 4-5 hours' drive away and saying: I saw this picture on TV last night on the show; I want to have it, can I still have it? Last year we had coverage on ZDF. Their video is on our website: www.art-fair.de and people can download it. This year we will have even more TV coverage.

Art Interview: It's a huge undertaking to create an art fair of this size. How did you organize the business? You have to have financial backing, you have to have a crew and you need the know-how.

Nele Waldert Lion installation 1996 Polyester Represented at art.fair 2005

We set a lot of milestones and kept our costs as low as possible as we went from milestone to milestone. At each one we would ask: Can we go further? Can we achieve this milestone and keep to our budget? We would then decide, yes we can go further. For example: one milestone was booking the location. When we came to it we asked: Do we have the funds to book the location, which involved a down payment. We decided we did and then went to the next milestone.

At the very beginning we did some research, of course, and visited some art fairs and asked the galleries what they thought about the idea having another art fair in Cologne. The feedback was great and we were fully booked three and a half months after we had the initial idea. That's a very short period when you don't spend too much money. We didn't have a lot of costs, just telephone costs and some websites. That was it.

We invited the galleries to presentations in different cities; we had presentations in Munich, in Berlin, in Frankfurt and in Cologne. We invited around 20 to 30 galleries to come to each presentation. Our presentations were followed by lively discussions and after wards a lot of galleries booked, so we knew that the concept was working.

Art Interview: Did you initially get any negative reactions from galleries, reserved reactions, for instance?

Walter Gehlen: Yes, of course, a lot of galleries were of the opinion that it wouldn't be good for Cologne to have another art fair in addition to ART COLOGNE. Some galleries that were exhibiting at ART COLOGNE had big doubts about what we were planning. But we kept in touch with them and just explained what were doing. The argument was that there are many examples of other big art fairs that are working together with smaller art fairs and it attracts more people. There are more pieces, but the cake is getting bigger, so everyone benefits. We really could see that last year. ART COLOGNE managed to attract 5,000 more visitors and we managed to attract the same amount more. So nobody lost. ART COLOGNE's business was great; the galleries' business was great; at our fair the business was great. So everyone was happy. A lot of people said to me: I've seen faces that I've never seen before. They meant that we really managed to attract people, visitors and art buyers, that they didn't know, that were maybe buying for the first time. And precisely that was our goal! It really makes me proud and happy that we are having an effect at the base, the collectors' base -that we are creating more collectors, so to speak, young collectors. I think this is exactly the goal.

Art Interview: How much does it cost to visit the art fair?

Walter Gehlen: This year we also have DIVA, which is the Digital And Video Art Fair from New York. So there are two art fairs, which not unimportant to know. The whole package costs 12€. I think it's the same as ART COLOGNE has.

Art Interview: Is DIVA in the same building? Is it part of the same company?

Walter Gehlen: It's a separate company in the sense that they are guests. It's an art fair company and they realize their concept in a separate hall, but we share one entrance and the ticket for both costs 12€.

Art Interview: If a dealer is interested in reserving space for 2006, is it possible to do this now?

Walter Gehlen: Yes, it is. Yeah, they can do that. We have a little form on our website www.art-fair.de. It's very easy. If somebody wants to make sure that he receives the application document in time, he can just leave his e-mail address and we will contact him.

This oral history transcript is the result of a tape-recorded interview with Walter Gehlen on July, 29 2005. The interview took place over the telephone between Berlin, Germany, and Cologne, Germany and was conducted by Brendan Davis for Art Interview Online Magazine.