On the Mark: Show Me the Money

Damien Hirst Paul McCarthy Mark Rothko Tony Oursler Philippe Parreno Luc Tuymans Subodh Gupta Carsten Holler

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Well, while Scope planned for some 60 passengers, only about a third showed up. Nevertheless, director Alexis Hubshman was in good spirits. Between sips from a flute of prosecco, he fielded questions about his seven-year-old art fair — fairs, really, now, since he has them in Basel, Miami, and New York — before leading the ragtag team that had assembled to the train station. Upon our arrival, a white nylon flag with the Scope logo in bright pink was ceremoniously unfurled, signaling the train’s imminent departure. Non-art bystanders giggled. Luckily, a smattering of collectors had showed up by then, including Susan and Michael Hort from New York, and a few other art folks had trickled into the station, including the writer Steven Madoff. Inside, the train was mercifully stocked with bottles of 2004 Rioja sufficient to get an army blotto, though perhaps not quite sufficient to induce the patience needed to endure the train's main event. A troupe of performance artists in varying states of undress paced the car, toting roughly carved wooden dolls on trays. Stopping at seats, they introduced their dolls as Mother Teresa, the Dalai Lama, etc., and asked audience members questions like: "Is there any sense to the atomic bomb" and "Are these questions unpleasant?"

But non-performative conversation on the train was lively; the ride took only an hour, and everyone seemed to have a decent time of it. Once we arrived in Basel, there was a pre-opening tour of Scope (Hubshman says collectors have already been by! And have bought things!).

It's to Hubshman's credit that he shrugged the whole lackluster attendance thing off, even saying he might do it again next year. And thus the whole train experience had the air of a Dadaist experiment about it rather than that of desperation. Come to think of it, Scope itself seems to run on that sort of steam. As Hubshman puts it, "if you squish us down, we'll pop up twice as big.” And should his plans for new editions in Dubai and elsewhere come to fruition, the Scope train will keep right on chugging.