The Monocle Minute

The 44th Arco Madrid art fair that concluded yesterday was a canvas of discussion and debate, small-talk and haggling, stolen glances and returned smiles, laughter and kisses and high heels snuggling up to suede loafers. In addition to these exploits and artful expressions, the event’s organisers even managed to make the ugly old IFEMA exhibition centre look bold and beautiful. Of the 214 galleries showing at the fair, most were from Europe. It felt like a gathering conducted in a European manner, with the contemporary in conversation with the historical. It started late and the food was good; it was happily bourgeois but not without spiky edges; and both art collectors and casual bystanders expecting to be surprised were rewarded with wit, wisdom and some self-regarding silliness. Thank God.

As I walked into the booth showing the playfully grotesque ceramics of Francisco Trêpa at Lisbon’s Galeria Foco, I studied a handsome old Spaniard in a tweed jacket and a cravat as he ran a tentative finger across the spikes in the mouth of a perfectly rendered porcelain gimp mask. I marvelled at Jeanette Mundt’s kaleidoscopic and powerfully abstracted landscape titled “Deerkill” at Berlin’s Société gallery (and wished I had a wall big enough). At Rotterdam’s Joey Ramone gallery, I laughed like a little hyena when I realised that the burning car that Bernat Daviu had painted bang in the middle of a stodgy Germanic landscape – a flea market find – was a Tesla Model S. Yes, it felt like a very European event indeed.

Later, I spoke to Max and Julia Voloshyn, a couple from Kyiv who founded a gallery in their name in 2016 (it now has a sister space in Miami). They bubbled with enthusiasm about a show that they staged this past autumn, which brought Latin American artists to a curious Ukrainian audience. “There were Ukrainians going to Argentina a hundred years ago”, said Max, waving his long, expressive arms.

The fair itself felt like an expression of artistic endeavour, as pointless or profound as the eye of the beholder or the wielded chequebook deemed it to be. It felt like effort and effervescence; it felt like European excellence. You could be proud and the positive signs could be seen in the strangest of places. Who are you kidding if you think these old fields and forests are finished? And what did we do after this very continental event? We all went dancing at Toni’s. Trump that.

Robert Bound is the host of‘Monocle on Culture’. For more opinion, analysis and insight,subscribeto Monocle today.

Amid the backdrop of Washington’s growing hostility towards its traditional allies, the annual and usually uncontroversial military drills between South Korea and the US have been shrouded in uncertainty (writes Robert E Kelly). To ensure their compatibility for effective conventional deterrence on the Korean Peninsula, the two countries’ armed forces will hold joint defence drills from today until 20 March.

Donald Trump has spent much of his time back in the Oval Office picking unnecessary fights with US partners as various as Canada, Mexico, Denmark and Ukraine. At the same time he seems to admire the autocrats whom US foreign policy has traditionally opposed. Trump’s sycophantic bromance with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin is most commented on but he has also called North Korean supreme leader Kim Jong-Un his “friend”, greatly concerning those across the border in Seoul. In 2018, Trump notoriously claimed that they “fell in love” (Kim is yet to return the compliment – at least not publicly).

During his first administration, Trump ended US drills with South Korea as part of his negotiations with Kim. Should he re-engage North Korea, he will likely do so again. The US president has also routinely derided South Korea as an unfair trading partner and military freeloader. In addition to this, a pair of South Korean fighter jets accidentally dropped eight bombs in the city of Pocheon last week, injuring 15 civilians and making this year’s practices even more heavily scrutinised. Some believe that they might be the last such exercises for a long time.

San Francisco resident Annie Washington makes one thing clear as we step into the racing-green interior of her cable car (writes Christopher Lord). “This middle section belongs to me and me only,” she says, pointing to a large metal lever and a mass of cogs below. Monocle’s request to try piloting Washington’s cable car is firmly rebuffed, which – as we begin to move at a clip – is almost certainly for the best.

In a city synonymous with technology, where the next generation of artificial-intelligence firms stare down from billboards, cable cars speak to San Francisco’s analogue soul. The network was founded by gold rush-era entrepreneur Andrew Smith Hallidie, who set out to build an alternative to the horse-drawn streetcar and created the world’s first cable-car system. It remains an incredible feat of engineering. While most passengers are tourists, the cable cars still serve as hop-on-hop-off commuter carriers. As Monocle barrels its way downtown, Camilla, who is on her way to see her sister in the city, comes on board. “I was waiting for a rideshare car for ages, so now I’m cabling,” she says, settling on one of the wooden benches. Even in San Francisco, sometimes the old ways are best.

For the full version of this story and for more observations and original reporting from Monocle’s editors, pick up a copytoday.

Mipim, the world’s largest property fair, kicks off today in Cannes. The Monocle team is on the ground all week with a radio studio and stall (located at P-1.N60) inside the Palais des Festivals. Stop by to say hello to Andrew Tuck, our editor in chief, and pick up a copy of the magazine. Here, we sit down with Mipim’s director, Nicolas Kozubek, to discuss the state of the market.

How healthy is the global property market right now?
The industry is expecting a few fresh starts this year. Interest rates are heading in a better direction. Many companies now require their staff to be back in the office five days a week.

How will this shift the property market?
We need people back at the office. If investors feel like offices are more attractive than they have been, it will move the needle in the right direction across the value chain.

Where are the bright spots for the market globally?
Madrid is well positioned in European property markets with some strong developments. London and Paris are still important. And there is much to understand about how Saudi Arabia is addressing large urban-development needs.

This is your fourth year at the helm of Mipim. Have buyer needs changed in that time?
There is more reflection about the multipurpose needs of a building and how they connect with the wider community. If property professionals don’t understand this by now, they’re going in the wrong direction.
mipim.com

We speak with the editorial director of M Le Magazine du Monde, Marie-Pierre Lannelongue, on their new English-language edition: M International. Plus: the team behind British bakery Gail’s new print magazine.