Germany's most established art fair opened its doors yesterday, with hopes to lure some 70,000 visitors. But despite the hype of its 40th birthday celebrations, Art Cologne is struggling to stay in the public eye.
The annual Art Cologne faces stiff competition from fairs in London, Basel and Berlin. Given the art-scene's packed autumn programme, its organizers have decided to shift forward next year's fair to the spring - a move designed to raise its profile on the art circuit.
Since Gerard Goodrow took the reins of Art Cologne back in 2003, he has been trying to build a reputation for showing up-and-coming artists. This year they will be represented in the Open Space section, a 2,500 square metre exhibition space for installations. It's not all about the younger generation; the five-day event includes a new category called Hidden Treasures - a platform for new artists over the age of 40.
Until the early 1990s, the western hub of Cologne was the proud home of Germany's contemporary art scene. But over the years it has been nudged aside by Berlin, which has attracted galleries, buyers and artists with its more cutting-edge image.
Goodrow says his home turf has the advantage of being more stable. "Berlin has a great advantage as the capital. There is a kind of snowball effect. Because it's so cheap, more artists come, and then it becomes cool. But when it comes to the established art community, it is still based more in the Rhineland," he said in an interview with Bloomberg.
But the aging art fair and the Cologne art scene have their work cut out. While many of the city's galleries have upped and left, the Berlin art scene is going from strength to strength. Galleries and artists alike have taken advantage of the cheap rents and lively arts-scene, particularly in Mitte - an area formerly in the shadow of the Berlin Wall.
The British artist Tacita Dean is among the rush of international artists setting up studios in Berlin. The Association of Berlin Galleries supports the anecdotal evidence: Apparently the German capital has doubled its number of art galleries over the past decade - and today it has more than four times as many as Cologne.
