India Art Fair, one of the country’s most important art events, arrives in New Delhi at the end of January in a whirlwind of air kisses and champagne. To assist the uninitiated, here are a few of our top tips for surviving India’s busiest and most significant art week.
1) First things first, make sure you a bottle of water and power bank at all times.
2) As far as footwear goes, high heels are out, for all but the most adept wearers. A simple slip-on is the best for a chic and sophisticated look that will carry you through the day.
3) Be prepared to see EVERYONE you know. Even if you aren’t in the art world, you will undoubtedly bump into familiar faces as you work your way through the fair’s halls.
4) Following on from point 3, if you’re visiting the fair on preview day (who isn’t, right?), make sure you slot in some time to revisit the works. During the Vernissage, there can often seem to be more socialising than art sales. Sigh.
5) Given that your first time will most likely be a blur, take photos of booth signs when you find works you like so that you can easily locate them later. If you want to take pictures with the work itself then it’s usually best to ask the gallerist— cataloguing their entire booth on your iPhone doesn’t always go down well.
6) If the Modern Masters are a little out of your price range, check out GALLERYSKE’s booth which is imagined as a pop-up concept store, stocked with cool and quirky artist-designed products.
7) Set yourself apart from the perennial Instagrammers and art partiers by engaging in intellectual art discussions at the IAF talks program forum where there will be conversations with high level curators, artists, gallerists, and collectors.
8) Don’t be afraid to ask questions! Artists and gallerists want you to be interested in the work—that’s why they’re there!
9) Embrace the unknown. If you happen to encounter a performance piece this year (we may have something in store for you…), don’t shy away; the avant-garde is meant to be fun and experimental.
10) Last but most certainly not least, make sure to visit the MASH Video Booth Conundrums—supported by the Shalini Passi Art Foundation—where you can see some of the most significant video works of eight leading South Asian artists: Anita Dube, Jitish Kallat, Mithu Sen, Pushpamala N, Ranbir Kaleka, Raqs Media Collective, Sonia Khurana, and Surekha.
