“Art Market and New Techs: Smokescreens and Real Opportunities?”

While other industries such as music and publishing are fundamentally changed by digitization, the art market, based on trust and expertise, seems to resist digital disruption far longer. Half a year ago the New York Times asked “Can digital technology open up the art world?” An answer to this question is still pending.

Despite the high-ambitioned plans of countless start-ups, the real opportunities are only slowly manifesting themselves. 2018 was all about Blockchain. Since the beginning of 2019, however, a new skepticism is spreading: Is this technology mature enough to assume the central role it was called upon to play in the art market?

Blockchain though is not the only trend pointing the way into the digital future of the art market. Virtual galleries, online auctions, high-resolution digital presentation systems or algorithms that suggest works to collectors: All of these paths are accessible today. But which one of them really leads into the future?

With the objective of clearing some of the fog obscuring the discussion, Kunstforum Zürich in collaboration with the Executive Master Art Market Studies of the University of Zurich has invited experts to assess the situation from their own field of activity: Chief Technology Officer of Artsy Daniel Doubrovkine from New York, LA based dealer and collector Stefan Simchowitz, founder and inventor of Swiss start-up Artmyn Alexandre Catsicas, Indian artist Aparna Rao (Pors & Rao) working with interactive robotics and blockchain pioneer Antoine Verdon, who’s company Blockfactory is addressing issues of decentralization, tokenization or certification since 2012.

Program
5 pm Ewa Hess, Kunstforum Zürich, Welcome and Introduction
5.10 pm Stefan Simchowitz, Art Dealer, Collector and Adviser, live from Los Angeles
5.30 pm Daniel Doubrovkine, Software Engineer Open Source Activist, CTO Artsy
5.50 pm Aparna Rao, Artist (Pors & Rao), Project Leader PATHOS
6.10 – 6.20 pm Short presentations by Alexandre Catsicas (Artmyn) and Antoine Verdon (blockfactory.com)
6.20 pm Panel Discussion with Daniel Doubrovkine, Aparna Rao, Alexandre Catsicas, Antoine Verdon
Moderated by Nicolas Galley, Director Executive Master Art Market Studies (University of Zurich)
7 pm Questions
7.30 pm Drinks

About the conference participants

Daniel Doubrovkine
New York
CTO of Artsy, the global online marketplace for art and an online art compendium. Experienced software engineer and pioneer of various new technologies. Doubrovkine is also an artist and has made a name for himself with his advocacy of Open Source.

Stefan Simchowitz
Los Angeles
Successful collector-adviser-dealer who has become a magnet for attention because of his disruptive and sometimes dismissive approach to the established mechanisms of the art market.

Aparna Rao
Bangalore / Zurich
Part of the Bangalore-based artist duo Pors & Rao, Indian artist Aparna Rao works with robotics and interactivity. With the clever use of technology she creates art installations that appear familiar and humorous.

Alexandre Catsicas
Lausanne
CEO of Artmyn, a spin-off from EPFL research with a focus on a technology that could be described as a combination of scanners and algorithms. Works of art are captured with forensic accuracy and made available online for various digital uses.

Antoine Verdon
Zug
Executive Chairman of Blockfactory, a software development company active in the blockchain space since 2012. It specializes in certification, decentralization and tokenization – technologies sensed to be of central importance to the art market.

The talks will be held in English.

Kunstforum Zurich is a discussion platform launched in January 2017. The first panel “Which museum do we want?” took place in April 2017 (participants such as Chris Dercon, Sam Keller, Lukas Gloor), the second panel in September brought together the directors of major art museums in Zurich in a public debate. In May 2018 the daylong conference “Building a Museum for Next Generations” took place (participants such as Wolfgang Ulrich, Pipilotti Rist, Pedro Gadanho, Sarah Kenderdine, Adam Caruso, Annette Gigon). In June an Art Market Talk took place with Simon de Pury and Kenny Schachter. Module I out of three Art Market Conferences took place in October 2018, Marc Spiegler, Director ART Basel and Anne-Laure Bandle, University of Geneva, were keynote speakers. Art market’s self-regulatory efforts were the focus of the discussions. Upcoming Module III / 9 June / Schwarzes Café / “Concentration in the gallery scene: New business models?”