Art..?

THIS FROM "THE GUARDIAN", UK.

You see them moored in the lagoon, the yachts: each one conveying their cargo of multimillionaire art collectors to the prosecco-sodden art ritual that is the opening of the Venice Biennale. This June, it was Roman Abramovich's that dominated: to this unmarine eye, at least, it seemed as vast and unassailable as a Royal Navy frigate.

Frieze art fair Regent's Park, London Starts 13 October Until 16 October.
At this year's Frieze art fair in Regent's Park, London, which opens to the public on Thursday, one artist has taken the sometimes queasy-making connection between extreme wealth and the artworld to its logical conclusion: by attempting to sell a 65-metre superyacht at the fair.

Buy it as a boat (it will be built to order by CRN of Ancona, to the buyer's specifications), and it costs €65m (£60m). Buy it as an artwork, authenticated by the German artist Christian Jankowski, and it will cost €75m. If that seems a little steep, a smaller, 10m Aquariva Cento motorboat is on display at the fair, among the Robert Rymans and Tacita Deans. That one's €500,000 as a mere boat; €625,000 when officially designated art.

According to Jankowski, the boats are not artworks until he has handed out a certificate to the new owner, who will then have the right to call the vessel "Christian" (for the motorboat) or "Jankowski" (for the superyacht). There is nothing, he admits, to stop the owners calling the boats what they like even without paying the extra. But without the certificate, he said, "it won't be sculpture".

The idea is, he said, a play on the yacht-culture of wealthy art aficionados: "When you see the yachts lined up at Venice it is an exhibition in itself." But he also admires the formal qualities of yachts. "The yacht is the perfect sculpture, a perfect self-contained vessel of information."

His idea is, he said, an extension of the idea of the readymade artwork – like Marcel Duchamp's urinal, but bigger and more seaworthy. And the owner will be a participant in their own piece of performance art, he said: "I'm interested to see whether some collector has the capacity to push what they do to an extra level."

FULL ARTICLE HERE

Frieze art fair puts a ?10m premium on the price of a superyacht | Art and design | The Guardian