Scan Magazine | Special Theme | An Autumn in Sweden
Left: No question is a stupid question at Affordable Art Fair. Photo: Yulia Lindberg. Top right: The tingle of the tangle, by Natalie Ryde. Photo: GAS Gallery, courtesy of the artist. Right: Alexei Svetlovjj. Photo: Galleri Jäger och Jansson, courtesy of the artist.
Art for all Forget what you know about art. Or rather, forget what you think that you do not know about art. Affordable Art Fair Stockholm is here to make art accessible for everyone and create an enjoyable atmosphere where questions are welcome and art appreciation is a free-for-all. By Linnea Dunne
“It takes a lot of time to discover what you really like within the traditional art scene, where each exhibition of the work of one artist is up for six to eight weeks. You have to go to a lot of different exhibitions then,” says Emma Weinerhall, fair director at the Affordable Art Fair Stockholm. “One of the most common things I hear is people saying ‘I don’t know anything about art’. No one would ever say that about music. What is 60 | Issue 91 | August 2016
it that makes people feel like you have to have a bachelor’s degree in art history to even dare to express an opinion? This is one of the fundamental ideas behind the Affordable Art Fair: we want to remove this notion and make everyone feel welcome and have fun.”
From Battersea to the world Affordable Art Fair was founded by Will Ramsay in Battersea in 1999 with the aim
of making contemporary art accessible for all. He wanted to expel the myth that one has to be an art academic or millionaire in order to enjoy and buy art. The fair quickly became a success and has grown to include 17 cities across the globe, including Singapore, New York, Milan and Hong Kong. Close to two million people have since visited the fairs, buying art for more than 365 million euros. The Stockholm leg of the fair started out in 2012 and, with its 11,000 visitors, immediately became the biggest art fair in the Nordic countries. The event has grown year on year and last year attracted around 15,000 visitors. It has undoubtedly been a success, but one that Weinerhall was not