Rosemont Art Advisory Exclusive interview with Alex Reding, creator of the Luxembourg Art Week.
This interview is part of series of artist interview, released every month in our newsletter. To receive our newsletter, please contact Karolina Blasiak.
Dear Mr. Reding, you are at the front-row creation and evolution of the contemporary art scene in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and the Greater Region, you unite the world of artists, collectors, art professionals, museum directors and cultural institutions since 2001 in Luxembourg in your art gallery, which today has grown into two exhibition spaces.
What motivated you to create the Luxembourg Art week, the international fair of contemporary art in Luxembourg, whose 5th edition will take place at the Halle Victor Hugo in November 2019. Please share with us how did it all began?
I founded Luxembourg Art Week in 2015, with the vision that Luxembourg needed a flagship cultural event to showcase its strong artistic talents as well as its thriving museum and gallery scene. Joining forces with the Cercle Artistique de Luxembourg, an historic artists salon in Luxembourg, provided the fair with a solid foundation and legitimacy when we were still making ourselves known. My goal was, and still is, to make Luxembourg Art Week a main event on the cultural calendar: boosting the country’s international visibility and mobilizing the Luxembourg art world and that of our neighboring countries.
How does the Luxembourg Art Week stand out from most traditional art fairs? What are the highlights of this year’s edition?
Luxembourg Art Week competes with other important art events taking place around the same time, so we try to differentiate ourselves by offering greater intimacy between galleries, artists and Luxembourg’s contemporary art scene. The smaller scale of our fair and its duration of just three and a half days allows guests to slow down and take their time visiting the fair, and to enjoy the many festivities throughout the weekend.
As a way to welcome more international galleries, this year we are introducing the First Call section, which allows a selection of galleries to experience Luxembourg’s art market for the first time under advantageous conditions. Among the newcomers is the Galerie Eva Meyer (Paris), presenting a solo show of Man Ray’s rare graphic works, the Adrian Ibanez Galeria coming from Colombia, and Cosar HMT (Düsseldorf) who will present photographs by Martin Klimas.
Which artists do you exhibit in your gallery and will they find their prominent space during the Luxembourg Art Week this year?
How do you see the art market changing in Luxembourg? Is there a true collector base in Luxembourg which buys at the fair? Or is it a more international buyers market?
Currently at the gallery I am exhibiting Thomas Arnolds, a mid-career German painter whose work I will also be showing at Luxembourg Art Week this year. He attracts a mainly German public, particularly from the Rhineland region.
The fair is mostly geared towards the many Luxembourg collectors, who are very familiar with the international market thanks to the geographical proximity of Luxembourg to Cologne, Brussels and Paris. As fair organizers, we are happy in our role bringing these collectors together behind one common project: putting Luxembourg on the contemporary art map.
How do you see the Luxembourg Art Week evolve in the next 10 years in such cosmopolitan place like Luxembourg?
Of course, the fair has quite a bit of competition, and nearby Brussels and Cologne have the experience, but the economic growth in Luxembourg is such that we can still hope to consolidate our event, while attracting important galleries and even more big-name artists.
Who is your favourite artist and which museum did you visit last?
Martin Kippenberger Without a doubt, Mudam Luxembourg (Musée d’art moderne Grand-Duc Jean) you can find me there at least once a week.
For more information about the Luxembourg Art Week, please visit: http://luxembourgartweek.lu/en