Interview with Marianne Goebl, Director of Design Miami/Basel
How would you describe the fair selection policy?
The galleries who wish to participate in Design Miami/ Basel submit an application, which is evaluated by our gallery selection committee consisting of specialists in different fields. The applications present the galleries’ general programs, the designers they represent, the exhibitions they have organized, the publications they have worked on. The galleries also submit the specific project they want to show at the fair. Both criteria are taken into consideration for the selection of the participants.
What makes Basel sound special to you?
Design Miami/ Basel is the only fair that takes its visitors on a journey throughout design history. Forty galleries present furniture, lighting and objets d’art of the 20th and 21st century, from Bauhaus, Art Deco over French, Scandinavian and American Modern to post-war Italian, French sixties and seventies and the latest experiments from the laboratories of today. The fair takes place in Hall 5 of the Messe Basel, just adjacent to Art Unlimited. It’s a beautiful 1960s factory hall with a generous industrial architecture and a mezzanine floor.
What do you think is the most important task for a fair director?
Well, what’s the goal of the fair? Design Miami/ Basel is a forum that brings together galleries, collectors, designers, curators, critics and enthusiasts to celebrate collectible design. The task of the fair is to select the most relevant group of exhibitors and create the right setting to tell their stories. It’s a bit like directing a choir in which you have great singers, but you have to make sure that they all sing in their own tone with their own expression and in the end it becomes a coherent song.
What’s new this year in Design Miami/ Basel? Do you have some special things you would like to highlight?
We welcome an interesting group of new galleries from Brussels, New York, Paris, London, Rome, Turin and Moscow. We have a focus on French design from the 60s and 70s; a spectacular selection of lighting, both historic and contemporary; small scale objects – ceramics, glass and silver ware and even architectural structures, a full scale house by Jean Prouvé. The cultural programming features Design Talks, the W Hotels Designers of the Future Award with projects by three emerging design studios, Design Perfomances and Satellite Exhibitions.
