Art Cologne passes pandemic subsidy on to exhibitors

Both foreign and domestic art galleries benefit from the discount.

Germany’s biggest art fair, Art Cologne, is offering exhibitors a discount of 34% for booth rental at its 2021 edition, passing on in full the pandemic subsidies it received from the government’s Neustart Kultur fund.

The first Art Cologne since 2019 takes place from 17-21 November, with around 150 galleries from 20 countries registered to take part. Both German and foreign galleries will benefit from the discount, according to a statement from Koelnmesse, the company that organises the fair. So will around 60 exhibitors at Cologne Fine Art & Design, which takes place at the same time.

The government’s Neustart Kultur program—New Start for Culture in English—amounts to €2bn. It was launched last year to help cultural institutions and companies overcome the impact of the pandemic lockdown.

Among the galleries taking part in this year’s Art Cologne are Thaddaeus Ropac, Sprüth Magers, Esther Schipper, Eigen + Art, Nagel Draxler and Michael Werner. Newcomers in the Neumarkt (new market) section of the fair include Addis Fine Art and LC Quiesser of Tiflis, Georgia.

Two special exhibitions are also planned: the Landesbank Baden-Württemberg will shows its own collection of works by artists including Rosemarie Trockel, Gillian Wearing and Isa Genzken. A show called Queer Budapest will explore the LTBGQ community in the Hungarian capital with painting, performance works and photography.