This year, Korea International Art Fair marks the fair's 10th anniversary. Inaugurated since 2002 under the auspice of Galleries Association of Korea, KIAF has given influential significance as a leading international art fair in Asia dominating the autumn market. KIAF 2011 will showcase 192 galleries from 17 countries from 22-26th of September in COEX. Especially, there are 17 prominent Australian galleries promoting the excellence in originality of Australian contemporary art as the Guest country of honor.   Jae-seok Kim

Acheivements and Tasks of Ten Years
Fall is here, and KIAF will be held this year as usual. It is already the 10th anniversary. KIAF was established in 2002 by the Galleries Association of Korea for the popularization of the art market, and to expand into the international market. The exhibition period has changed from spring to fall in 2008 and has remained since. The program has been in conjunction with the domestic and foreign Biennale, which is held in even-numbered years, and focused on attracting high-level galleries, that usually have their auction scheduled in the first half of the year. The strategy was successful. The equation of 'Asian Art Market in the Second Half = KIAF' has been established. KIAF went through the rise and falls of the art market with bare hands to grow. Building an infrastructure for the weak domestic art market was a reckless challenge. The scale of the event has expanded as years went by, and became a steady culture event for the general audience as well as the art lovers. In 2010, the event recorded the largest audience of 72,000 and the organizers of the event equipped a docent program for the annually increasing foreign visitors. KIAF played a major role in the appearance of the 'Army Ant' collectors, which is rare in the art market of shallow collectors. The event was put on hold with the global financial crisis in 2008, but the business has been on a steady rise since the 2nd exhibition. In the 5th exhibition in 2006, the trading performance improved more than twice, from KRW 4.5 billion to 10.4 billion, compared to the previous year. The event reached a boom in 2007. KIAF was not an international event by name only. Tough competitions with the other Asian art fairs had to be held to in order to gain pie in the Asian art market. KIAF introduced the guest of honor system since the 1st event. 'Selection an Concentration' strategy of Korea, China, and Japan's modern art was successful up to the 3rd event, and was able to settle as the Asian hub for the art market. The event expanded to Europe by inviting guests of honor from Germany, France, Spain, and Switzerland. The guest of honor system strengthened the global character of the art fair, and was initiated to induce revisiting of the foreign galleries that attended as the guest of honor. If the fair focused on profit in the short term, the guest of system would have remained as a formality. However, KIAF actively used the system to build a 'Field of Culture Exchange' and equipped the foundation to expand Korean art into the art market of Europe and Asia. KIAF embossed the festival image of the art fair through various programs. Programs such as 'KIAF Finds Hidden Treasure' presentation of their art by rising artists in front of the audience, domestic and foreign gallery directors, and art related officials, supporting international exchange residence programs, 'Shooting Hidden Spot' inviting photographers to reinterpret the KIAF fair, and the performance program utilizing the space of the fair was sufficient to please the particular art people and captured the attention of the general audience. The fair also made way for rising artists that have a difficult time entering the art market to recover the proper function of the art fair.

KIAF 2011, Art Festival Returns
This year, instead of celebrating the past 10 years and settling, KIAF took a step forward. 192 galleries from 17 countries will visit KIAF. 117 from Korea, 17 from Australia and Japan, 13 from Germany, and 6 galleries from the UK will attend. From rising artists that are active around the world to master artists, approximately 5,000 various pieces will fill up the COEX exhibition center again this year. The hosts expect a trade performance of KRW 14 billion and an audience of 80,000. Australia was selected as the guest of honor for this year celebrating 50 years of diplomatic ties. Australia rapidly rose as the blue ocean in the international art market with the growth potential being acknowledged. The featured Australian exhibition 'Australian Modern Art- Resistance Against Isolation' is the largest international art fair in history. It is also the first time that the 17 Australian galleries are attending the fair at once. KIAF has its significance in opening a new way for the saturated Asian art market. Germany, which was the guest of honor in 2005, recorded successful sales and resulted in entering Korea in full scale. The representative case is the chain opening of the Michael Schultz gallery in Cheongdam-dong. Various pieces from the Australian representative Aborigine (Australian tribe) art to experimental new media art will be available for the guest of honor-featured exhibit. Famous people such as Ben Quilty, Robert Owen, popular artists of Australian modern art, critics, and curators in the Australian art field will visit Korea. Besides the exhibition, academic events including the history and current state of Australian art, evaluation of Australian art in the global art market, and exhibition exchange with Asia will also be held. Heated attention will be given to Australian art within the domestic art field around KIAF. Featured exhibit 'Art Flash' which is being held for the first time this year, is an exhibition of media art, installation art, and kinetic art, which are usually hard to experience at an art fair, at one place. Galleries that attend the art fair usually submit 'sellable' pictures, photography, or sculptures by famous artists for potential customers. The 'Art Flash' was designed to break the tradition of 'genre concentration' KIAF also held a featured exhibit Creative Present: Korea Media Art last year to shift the perspective on media art collection. The exhibit held pieces by Namjoon Paik and Hyungi Park that exemplified the current state of Korea media art. Galleries directly select Korean media artists that are active throughout the world and set up individual booths at the 'Art Flash' An unusual attraction at this year's KIAF is the BMW M3 GT2, which is the 17th art car collaborated by Jeff Koons and BMW. The Jeff Koons art car was shown at the Hong Kong art fair and was flooded by flashlights from the audience. The BMW art car project is considered as one of the great cases of corporate art marketing and international artists such as Frank Stella, Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, and David Hockney participated, gathering heated attention every time. KIAF also set up a lecture to go beyond an art car exhibit to show the shift in modern art and the flow of the art market through the BMW art car. Another thing that one should not miss at this year's KIAF is the 'Korean Modern Art Supernova' lecture program. Hyekyoung Park, the president of Ait Institute, writer Yeondu Cheong, and art critic Keunjun Lim will attend and look at the representative artists of Korea in various aspects. While KIAF has faced its 10th anniversary looking forward to the next 10 years, the inside and outside situations are tough. For the inside, the long fought transfer income tax will be applied to artwork, starting next year. As of now, foreign artwork is excluded. However, if taxes are applied at the global art fair, favorability of the buyers will drop significantly. While the participating galleries increased, sales dropped with the transfer income tax issue last year. A related official pointed out that many visitors of KIAF experienced a psychological barrier related to tax and had difficulty deciding the purchase. However, the tax policy is not the only one to blame. The fact that the Galleries Association of Korea consist the majority of KIAF was a positive factor. The binding of the association was helpful during times of crisis. However, voices from the public points out that in order to improve the fair in qualitative measures, members outside of the association should also participate in the fair. That would renew the face of the fair. Participating galleries should prevent repetition in pieces and artists, and select experimental and perfected pieces meticulously. The hosts strengthened gallery evaluations this year and eliminated 30 galleries among the 150 applicants. The notorious gallery selection of the popular Basel Art Fair implies a critical message to KIAF. On the outside, a huge mountain of the worsening global economy is standing still. The rapid freeze of the art market with the economy is not only a problem for KIAF. The growth of the Hong Kong Art Fair, taken over by Basel, is a threat to KIAF. Attention from the international art market was given to Hong Kong with the news that the Hong Kong Art Fair was taken over by the Basel Art Fair. While the Hong Kong AF and KIAF are split up by season, spring and fall, many foreign galleries will select the more appealing fair. KIAF should consider a differentiating strategy to isolate the growth of Hong Kong. Of course, the art fair is a 'Market' to buy and sell art pieces. Sales performance is a critical market that makes and breaks the success of an art fair. However, if the sales performance becomes the only factor to evaluate an art fair, the abundant cultural side of the art fair will be hidden.
KIAF has become the cultural festival representing Korea. Many art fairs in Asia selected KIAF as their role model. All fairs are in a similar situation. System organizations, new programs, and development of the participating galleries are urgently needed these days more than ever. The returning fever at this year's Basel Art Fair was significant, but it is early to consider that as the revival of the art market. Historically, the art market went through highs and lows periodically. How would KIAF greet the returning boom? KIAF should picture the next 10 years again. A new game has begun.