Iran will be represented at an Art Basel fair for the first time ever next year. Among the 249 galleries participating in the sixth annual Art Basel in Hong Kong is the Tehran-based Dastan’s Basement. The gallery is one of 28 newcomers to the fair, which released its full exhibitor list today and runs from March 29 to March 31 at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center.
Dastan’s Basement was founded in 2012 with a program focused on young and emerging Iranian artists. The gallery expanded in 2014, launching a nearby project space dedicated to the work of Iranian masters.
Of the 27 other new additions to the fair, 14 are based or have exhibition spaces in Asia, including Gallery Baton from Seoul and Gallery Espace from New Dehli. (India will be particularly well represented next year, with nine participating galleries in total, up from four in 2016.) Other first-timers include 47 Canal, Gavin Brown’s enterprise, Hannah Hoffman Gallery, and Galerie Emanuel Layr.
Notable projects planned for next year’s event include a virtual reality installation by the Berlin-based artist Timur Si-Qin and work by the Indian artist Vivek Vilasini that consists of a collection of 31 rice paper sheets exposed to pollution in New Dehli.
Hong Kong, meanwhile, has become a magnet for mega-galleries—and not just during Art Basel. Pace Gallery is readying its second Hong Kong location, while Hauser & Wirth and David Zwirner plan to launch major outposts in the city in 2018.
