ARCO Madrid celebrates 35 years with more than 200 galleries and a new headquarters in Lisbon – LaTercera (Record)

The weather was totally adverse to Spain for Contemporary Art Fair ARCO Madrid when opened in 1982. With an almost nonexistent collecting, the idea of ​​starting an international meeting of art seemed more a fad than real a necessity. One thing that the cause is just four years after the Reina Sofía would open as a center of art, and in 1992 as a museum of contemporary art.

Despite the instability of the circuit, the gallerist Juana Aizpuru I was convinced to take the plunge, making excite the then director of Ifema, a large ballroom which in those days was being built in the capital to host all kinds of exhibitions and conferences. Thus was born ARCO 82, the first edition of the show this week 35 years old.

With ups and downs, the game remains one of the largest in the world and real bridge between Latin American artistic production and the European market. So says Carlos Urroz, who has directed ARCO Madrid the past five years and who has managed to weather the latest economic crisis that hit Spain. “We were concerned but we rethink. The same happened with the crisis of 92. ARCO has proven to be a stable fair, and our strategy has been to favor quality over quantity and size of the fair, “says Urroz to La Tercera.

Proof of good health is still ARCO Madrid next May that will open a new version in Lisbon, Portugal under the same slogan: a fair boutique, small but extremely demanding in the selection of its participants. “Lisbon is going through a moment of glory, is the best platform to expand,” says Urroz.

For now, however, the director focuses on the final details of the Madrid event opens its doors in Thursday and Sunday and on its anniversary will focus on counts rather than honor a special country, as has been the tradition in the past 20 years. This edition of ARCO Madrid will host 221 galleries around the world, highlighting the selection of 33 that have been important for the history of the show, gathered in section Imagining other futures. They are English Lisson Gallery with Joride Voight, the Belgian Zeno X works brings Michael Borremans & amp; Mark Manders; Parisian Chantal Crousel; Brazilian Luisa Strina with Alexandre da Cunha & amp; Fernanda Gomes and Marian Goodman Gallery, featuring John Baldessari & amp; Tino Sehgal.

Also as unprecedented activity this year different spaces not used to such expressions receive interventions of contemporary art, as an Arab house hosted by the project of the Palestinian artist Khalil Rabah, Tobacco Study space will have the Brazilian Adriano Amaral and the National Archaeological Museum will receive the installation of the Fina Barcelona Millares, among others.

the Chilean delegation

a regular at the fair is the Chilean Isabel Aninat, who along with his gallery participated in the general section of ARCO Madrid. On the stand will bring together works of its most political artists: photographs will Lotty Rosenfeld and Juan Castillo, along with new life, art action held in New York by Raul Zurita, who joins the artists represented by the gallery Chile. While contemporaries are among the most Mónica Bengoa, María Ignacia Edwards and Catalina Mena.

While the Solo Project section where invited galleries focus on the presentation of an artist in particular and this year revolves around the relationship between art, dance, drama and humor; two local galleries participating. D21 display (and incidentally honors) the work of artist Carlos Leppe, who died in 2015. It is the performance Waiting Room (1980) with unprecedented record of the time. While the debut of Patricia Ready Gallery in the event is the work of the young artist Patricia Domínguez who shows video installation Eyes will be the latest in pixelated, where used as a central figure on a horse that serves to discuss the Cultural shaping between Chile and Spain.

ARCO Madrid was also one of the first Basel fairs after it began to include talk shows and lectures on contemporary art, bringing the show to experience something beyond only the acquisition of works. The practice then has spread to hundreds of art fairs born worldwide. Nevertheless, Carlos Urroz is cautious in talking about the Spanish collecting. For him still several years to settle. “We have no real tradition of collecting and why you should always keep working on it. But it’s true, if the early 90 collectors were little more than 20 activities are today more than a thousand. I see the glass half full “.