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Pop Art
The Stooges and the suits have real cool Art Basel time
"Thanks for the company! It gets so lonely at these ‘art shows.'" So joked Iggy Pop as he cleared 'bout a hundred fans off the stage that had been pitched by the sea for the opening concert of Art Basel Miami Beach Wednesday. It wasn't "the burning sands" — not at 10 p.m. this time of year — but that didn't stop Miami's most legendary punk rock resident from performing his signature tune with those lyrics, "I Wanna Be Your Dog,'' not once but twice. It was the first time the skinny 60-year-old had played a public concert in his adopted hometown since he moved here in the early '90s. For the grand occasion, he not only performed for free (that is, tickets were free; I'm sure the Swiss art fair paid Mr. Pop a handsome sum); he brought the Stooges with him.
It was a propitiously over-the-top start to the annual week of conspicuous spending on crazy amounts of art. In six years, Basel has sprawled out from its MB Convention Center digs to take over diverse parts of Dade County, from the shipping containers and skateboard ramp of the Art Positions show, next to which Pop performed, to warehouses in Wynwood. In a town that likes to make a scene, it is the scene to end all scenes. At the Basel Vernissage, people dressed to, well, something: Alongside the suits staring perplexedly at the pregnant Mona Lisa with the fetus shown in her cutaway stomach strolled a man with full Geico chimp makeup and tail (perhaps he has a nose for art?), a woman with film rolled into her bouffant, and a man in a SS-looking uniform arm in arm with a man in a dress.
It was a propitiously over-the-top start to the annual week of conspicuous spending on crazy amounts of art. In six years, Basel has sprawled out from its MB Convention Center digs to take over diverse parts of Dade County, from the shipping containers and skateboard ramp of the Art Positions show, next to which Pop performed, to warehouses in Wynwood. In a town that likes to make a scene, it is the scene to end all scenes. At the Basel Vernissage, people dressed to, well, something: Alongside the suits staring perplexedly at the pregnant Mona Lisa with the fetus shown in her cutaway stomach strolled a man with full Geico chimp makeup and tail (perhaps he has a nose for art?), a woman with film rolled into her bouffant, and a man in a SS-looking uniform arm in arm with a man in a dress.
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15:39 EST, 07.Dec.07
12:08 EST, 07.Dec.07