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7/2/2006

International Contemporary Art Fair

IFEMA - Feria de Madrid, Madrid

New art project to commemorate Arco's 25th anniversary

The International Contemporary Art Fair, ARCO, will be celebrating its twenty-fifth edition from 9th - 13th February 2006 with an exhibitions programme showing the best of today’s world art scene. The presence of high-profile galleries from 35 countries, with a combined roster of nearly 3000 artists from around the globe, and the contribution of a wide-ranging team of curators focusing on new areas of endeavour and major production centre, all give promise of an exceptional show, one extraordinarily attractive to the many collectors and art professionals from every part of the world who will be coming to Madrid for the event.

This year, the art fair, organised by IFEMA, will be marked by an exceptional event: the commemoration of ARCO’s 25th Anniversary, two-and-a-half decades as the prime mover on the Spanish art market. Moreover, this emblematic event will coincide with the farewell edition of its director, Rosina Go'mez-Baeza, the architect, for nearly 20 years, of the organisation of an art fair that has become an internationally recognised model, and one of the most attractive, clearly differentiated art events in the world.

25th Anniversary
Now seems to be the best time for ARCO to look back on 25 years of commitment, working to defend the interests of the art sector and fulfil a series of objectives that have consolidated its position as the backbone and prime mover of the Spanish art market, in its infancy when the fair was launched. These efforts have contributed to incorporating Spain into the international art circuit, by promoting its artists, creating a space where the different agents involved could mingle, and contributing to the creation of a body of contemporary art collectors, hitherto practically nonexistent in Spain.

For all of these reasons, this edition of ARCO strives to highlight two aspects that, in one way or another, have been characteristic of this event down the years: the creation in Spain of a nationwide network of first-rate museums, as well as the constant presence of the media, which has played a fundamental part in the development and consolidation of the art fair. Two aspects that have been expressed in commemorative projects: the Directory of Contemporary Art in Spain 2006, and the publication of ARCO, 25 Years in the Media. The former will be an important source for art investigators and other professionals, as well as the serious aficionado, and the latter is a historical reference work that aims to pay tribute to the media and their efforts to support ARCO’s objectives.

New Art Projects
The International Contemporary Art Fair is going all out to celebrate its 25th Anniversary. Twenty-five years of tireless commitment to exploring and promoting new trends and vistas in art, which at this edition will be commemorated through the incorporation of two new art projects featuring leading names on the international scene.

Therefore, and as a way of recognising the international dimension of Spanish art, and as a metaphor for its richness and diversity, ARCO is presenting a new programme, Sixteen Spanish Art Projects, whose contents have been determined by one of the major figures on the national art scene, Mari'a del Corral, former director of the Reina Sofi'a National Art Centre (MNCARS) and a world-renowned critic and exhibitions curator.

Also innovative is the second exhibition project, with which ARCO is blazing a trail into an area hitherto unseen on the official art circuit, with a section bringing together some of the leading referents in urban art, figures from the graffiti, hip-hop and street art scenes, brought to Madrid by the curators Pedro Alonzo and Peter Doroshenko, in the ARCO’06 programme On Youthculture.

Austria, Special Guest Country
Coinciding with the Austrian Presidency of the European Union in the first semester of 2006, Austria will be ARCO’s Special Guest Country, with a programme showcasing its art scene, now known for its increasingly international flavour.

The Austrian Pavilion, bringing together 22 prestigious galleries that are amongst the founders of today’s Austrian market, along with their long roster of artists, leading figures on the Austrian art scene, has the backing of the national administration, which sees ARCO’06 as a unique opportunity to raise the profile of Austrian art, and consolidate its market on an international scale.

Presenting Austria as a multifaceted, creative, and innovative country on the art scene has been the aim, not only of this selection but also of the parallel programme of exhibitions at major Madrid venues, both directed by Austria’s State Secretary for the Arts, Franz Morak, in collaboration with an expert committee including Eckhard Schneider, Kunsthaus Bregenz; Christine Frisinghelli, Camera Austria Graz; Martin Sturm, OK-Centrum fur Gegenwartskunst, Linz; Silvia Eiblmayr, Galerie im Taxispalais Innsbruck; Tayfun Belgin, Kunsthalle Krems; and Ricky Renier, Co-ordinator for the Austrian Federal Chancellor’s Office.

Sixteen Spanish Art Projects
ARCO is celebrating its 25th anniversary with a tribute to Spanish artists: a new section curated by one of the leading lights on the international scene, Mari'a de Corral. This curated invitational aims to put the accent on Spanish art’s internationalism, in an homage to the great masters of all times seen through today’s gaze, as represented by a selection of artists who are at the international forefront.

This section, featuring individual projects, and dominated by video-based pieces and installations, brings together work by the Spanish artists Jaime Pitarch (Dels Angels), Juan Carlos Brancho (Carmen de la Calle), Sergio Prego (Soledad Lorenzo), Sergio Belincho'n (Distrito Cuatro), El Perro (Salvador Di'az), Jacobo Castellano (Fu'cares), MP&MP Rosado (Pepe Cobo), Esther Partega's (Helga de Alvear), Simo'n Zabel (Sandunga), Alicia Marti'n (Oliva Arauna), Francese Ruiz (Strany de la Mota), Daniel Verbis (Max Estrella), Manu Muniategiaandikoetxea (Espacio Mi'nimo), as well as the artist of French descent based in Spain Pierre Gonnord (Juana de Aizpuru), and Mabel Palaci'n, represented by the German gallery Lothar Albrecht.

On Youthculture
Another feature of this 25th edition is the incorporation, for the first time, of urban art, hitherto hardly ever seen at events of this kind, and marginalised at major art fairs and biennales. To do this, ARCO commissioned Peter Doroschenko and Pedro Alonzo to curate the invitational On Youthculture, aimed at raising the profile of world urban art on the exhibition circuit, and highlight the work of artists who are outside the mainstream and who move within the realm of new trends, through selecting artists and galleries who present this new facet of the most dynamic urban centres, such as New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, London and Moscow.

This selection features such street art legends as the Californian Barry McGee ‘Twist’, one of the top graffiti artists; another American, Clare E. Rojas, working in large formats and incorporating elements of folk art; the French artist Nicole Eisenman; tableaux paintings with a hip-hop touch by New Yorker Tom Sanford; two artists who are exploring the world of abstraction through music, biology, and fashion, from the Puerto Rican Dzine (Carlos Rolon), who showed at ARCO’04, and the Venezuelan Carla Arocha; the Californian Ed Templeton, whose murals express the harsh realities of street life; the Muscovite Natasha Struchkova, with her great digital creations; and the young Ukranian Janna Kadyroa, with her spectacular installations.

The ARCO'06 Project Rooms
Consolidated as one of the hallmarks of ARCO, and one of its greatest programming successes, the ARCO'06 Project Rooms arrives at this 25th Anniversary edition of the fair with a renewed commitment to exploring the latest art trends, led by Agusti'n Pe'rez Rubio, Chief Curator of the MUSAC, and Octavio Zaya, an independent curator and art critic—two Spanish curators who have aimed to give this very international section a Spanish accent. Indeed, of the 22 projects selected, 12 are from Spain; however, this does not reflect any kind of localism, since the curators’ selection criteria have been based on quality and the artists’ international reputation.

The ARCO'06 Project Rooms has included pieces from artists on the rosters of both emerging and consolidated galleries, from different generations working in a variety of media and disciplines. Projects from Spanish galleries include those by Carmela Garci'a, Txomin Badiola, Leopoldo Ferra'n and Agustina Otero, Leandro Erlich, Abigail Lazkoz, Fernando Bryce, Fernando Rene's, Itziar Okariz, Lara Alma'rcegui, Won Ju Lim, Javier Arce, and Shoja Azari. Another Spanish artist, Olga Adelantado, was sponsored by a Mexican gallery; Alexandre Arrechea, Julie Merethu, and Josephine Meckseper come from Germany; Christian Jankowski, from the United Kingdom; Lara Favaretto, from Italy; Kris Vleeschouwer; from Belgium; Isa Melsheimer, from Austria; Susan Philipsz is based in the Netherlands and Japan; and Nadav Weissman comes from Israel.

theblackbox@arco
New technologies in video and digital art represent one of ARCO’s most recent strong suits, as reflected in this section, whose first edition showed it to be a space for exploring and promoting new discourses and electronic media.

This year, 12 multimedia projects constitute the selection of theblackbox@arco, curated by Karin Ohlenschlaher, A'ngela Molina, Christiane Paul, Jemima Rellie and Mark Tribe, who have combined different media for an exhibition that aspires to spark critical debate, and support for new media art. This edition includes the Croatian-Dutch artist and filmmaker Dan Oki, with his video installation Oxygen4; the Brazilian ‘genetic art’ pioneer Eduardo Kac; the Canadian David Rokeby, an interactive art proponent; the young Swiss artist Dominik Eggermann, with his digital forest; the Indian artist Shilpa Gupta; Jenny Marketou of Greece, who using hacking as an art medium; the American Cory Arcangel; and the Austrian architect Herwig Weiser, with his multidisciplinary work. The Spanish contingent includes Patricia Dauder and Frederic Amat, presenting animated short films; Daniel Canogar, showing a multiscreen piece; from Mexico, the Internet artist Arca'ngel Constantini and one of George Legrady’s last creations.

Cityscapes
ARCO has always been a trailblazer in the exploration of new creative models, and this year it has revamped our principal showcase for emerging art, formerly called New Territories, and now, as I mentioned before, renamed Cityscapes. This new name refers to its new approach: highlighting the influence that urban spaces have on the art being produced by those who live and work there, to the point that these artists actually reflect the spirit of a particular city, even the synthesis of the different cultures that contribute to that spirit. The idea is to depict the city not so much as a physical space, but to show the impact of that city’s lifestyle on the creators working there, and what they create. The curators involved include: Kenichi Kondo (Beijing), Carol Lu (Beijing/Shanghai), Victor Zamudio-Taylor (Bogota/Guadalajara/Mexico City), David Liss (Calgary/Montreal/Toronto), Julieta Gonza'lez (Caracas), Jacob Fabricius (Copenhagen), Simon Njami (Douala/ Cairo/Johannesburg), Rachael Thomas (Dublin), Marilu Knode (Istanbul), Antonio Zaya (Havana), Zdenka Badovinac (Ljubjana), Christopher Miles (Los Angeles), Viktor Misiano (Moscow/Talinn), Isolde Brieimaier (New York), Miguel von Hafe Pe'rez (Oporto), Gisela Domschke (Rio de Janeiro/Sao Paulo), Camilo Ya'nez and Jorge Rojas (Santiago de Chile), and Eugene Tan (Singapore).

ARCO in Figures
The latest edition of ARCO features 278 galleries from 35 countries - 85 from Spain, 193 from abroad. Altogether, 197 stands are in the General Programme, selected by the Organising Committee, and 81 are in the curated invitationals. These galleries hail from five continents: Europe (213 galleries), North America (30), Latin America and the Caribbean (20), Asia (13), Africa (1), and Oceania (1). The largest national contingents are from the USA, Germany, France, Italy, and Portugal, and some of the fastest-growing are those from such new participants as China, Korea, Japan, and Singapore. ARCO’s constant renovation and its extraordinary international dimension can be seen once again in the number of countries participating for the first time—Croatia, South Africa, and Singapore—and the number of galleries making their ARCO debut this year: 52.

Institutional Collections
PROYECTO SALAS will once again showcase institutional and corporate collections at ARCO. This year, exhibitors in this section will include Afinsa; the Spanish Agency for International Co-operation; the City of Madrid’s Department of Education and Youth; the Conde Duque Cultural Centre; the City of Santa Cruz de Tenerife; the Beulas Foundation Art & Nature Centre; the Madrid Regional Administration’s Culture Council; the Directorate-General of Archives, Museums, and Libraries; the Province of Malaga; the Caja de Burgos Foundation’s Caja de Burgos Art Centre; the Telefo'nica Foundation; the Unicaja Foundation; the Cantabria Regional Administration’s Culture Council; the MEIAC-Extremaduran and Ibero-American Museum of Contemporary Art; the Ministry of Culture; Caja de Madrid’s Social Services Office; the Rekalde exhibition hall; the City of Alcorco'n; and Afinsa. Likewise, Vocento and newspapers El Mundo and El Pai's will have a stand as well.

Ephemeral Architecture at ARCO
Architecture has become established as an artistic discipline at ARCO through different actions. The most important is its Architect and Space Design Project, which this year has been developed by Grupo AMMEBA, aiming to give the fair maximum visibility, smooth crowd flow, and the possibility for both visual and physical rest. To do this, the layout has been stripped of nonessential references and elements, using only black and white, in order to concentrate the viewer’s attention totally on the art. Specific designs were carried out for the spaces The Written Word, The ARCO Bookstore, and, for the first time, a space devoted to the ARCO Foundation—all of them in the nexus between the fair’s Halls 7 and 9, as well as for the curated invitational theblackbox@arco.

Another design action is for the ephemeral architecture projects, or Chillouts, sponsored by the Spanish Ministry of Housing through the Arch Lab project, which this year will be created by architecture students from the universities of Barcelona and Vienna, chosen in a contest. The winning designs are Jaburbu', by Luis Arredondo, and Alive, created by Lukas Galehr and Rupert Zallmann.

Grupo Ammeba includes the architects Pablo Berzal and A'ngeles Mira, the art historian David Pastor, and the economist Thanos Touris.

ARCO Foundation - Si'sifo
For the first time, to mark this very special edition of the art fair, the ARCO Foundation will have its own stand. Its architectural design will enhance the impact of one of the Foundation’s most recent acquisitions, Antoni Abad’s, Si'sifo (Sisyphus), a thematic video of great artistic beauty that represents the constant and tireless efforts that the ARCO Foundation has carried out over its 20 years of existence to promote collecting.

Proyecto Avio'n
For the second year running, ARCO will have special cultural programming in its Proyecto Avio'n venue (which, as its Spanish name indicates, is inside an aeroplane fuselage), which will include performances by the British artist Kira O’Reilly, part of the programming from the Madrid Region’s 6th Contemporary Scene Festival.

International Contemporary Art Experts Forum
Prestigious collectors, artists, and directors and curators from the world’s major museums and art centres, along with critics and exhibition administrators from nearly 30 countries will once again meet at the International Contemporary Art Experts Forum, an event that has had an extraordinary international impact, and consolidated its reputation as one of the world’s most important meeting places for analysing and debating the issues concerning today’s international art scene.

Its programming this year features nine series of panel debates, held during the art fair. The major topics to be approached include: the current state of art criticism in Spain, the recent past and present of museums, new systems and channels for creating and distributing art, collecting, media, visual culture, art training, art and feminism, and Austrian art today.

ARCO’06 Catalogue
Published by Ediciones El Umbral, the ARCO'06 Catalogue’s nearly 1000 pages will provide a visual tour of this edition’s programming, with information on each of the participating galleries, institutions, and artists, as well as approximately 1000 images of the most important works on show. The Catalogue’s layout, as well as the ARCO’06 corporate graphics, was designed by David Herna'ndez Cervera. The Catalogue will also be available on a CD-ROM produced by Ediciones El Umbral. Both versions will be on sale a month before ARCO’06 opens its doors, at specialised bookstores and major commercial centres around Spain, to achieve maximum coverage for the upcoming edition of ARCO.

Contemporary Madrid, Art in February
The rich mix of satellite events makes the entire city of Madrid one of the hottest spots on the international scene during ARCO week. Nearly all of its museums, art centres, and exhibition halls schedule their star events during ARCO, presenting the thousands of visitors who throng to Madrid for the event with the very finest that they have to offer. Institutions such as the Reina Sofi'a National Art Centre, the Conde Duque Cultural Centre, La Casa Encendida, and Canal de Isabel II will host events for Austria’s Special Guest Country programming in Madrid. The result is a cultural and artistic explosion, spilling over into the street with the Madrid Abierto public art projects, staged around some of the city’s most emblematic monuments.

ARCO (Asociacio'n Amigos de Arco)
Feria de Madrid , 28042 Madrid

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