Art Fairs

El presente texto en un manual de consejos hecho por mediadores para mediadores. Se ha realizado a través de laboratorios educativos en el marco de tres ediciones de la Feria de Arte de Bogotá ARTBO. Se publica con el fin de que pueda serle útil a otras personas, que en algún momento compartirán las mismas angustias, intereses e inquietudes.

Art Cologne was the first Contemporary Art Fair (CAF), Art Basel is the leading art fair globally, but todays Global Art Fair (GAF) model was invented by ARCOmadrid in beginning and  mid 90s turning the art fair into an 'experience'  showcasing global art as well as a full range of artistic and extra-artistic activities.

Curated art fair sections, panels and conferences, performances, collector's programs, Vip lounges and acitvities, parallel openings at museums...what today everyone considers normal of an art fair didn´t exist in the contemporary art fair. It is ARCOmadrid and its director Rosina Gómez-Baeza who end of the 80s and beginning of the 90s launches a set of activities that were to crystalize in today's experiential art fair model.

Why did ARCOmadrid and not Art Cologne or Art Basel able to pull off today's GAF model?

This is what is here explained with the corresponding data, names and facts.

CIGE-2009中艺博国际画廊博览会

China International Gallery Exposition (CIGE), Beijing, China. 2009

Supported by the Ministry of Culture of The People’s Republic of China, the Sixth Edition of the China International Gallery Exposition (CIGE 2009) takes place at the Exhibition Hall of the China World Trade Centre in Beijing in April. Under the artistic direction of Luca Zordan, CIGE 2009 hosts around 80 selected outstanding galleries from over 20 countries, presenting a panorama of cutting edge contemporary art, welcoming and encouraging any form of art expression, including photography, video, painting, sculptures, mixed media,
installations, prints, digital and net art, textile, design…

CIGE is China’s first and most established international art fair, presenting around 84 contemporary art galleries from over 20 countries. In 2009 CIGE strengthens its relations in China, presenting 23 outstanding art galleries from Mainland China and 9 from Taiwan. Solid ties and exclusive networks are established with neighbouring Japan and Korea, which are represented at the art fair respectively with 7 and 12 galleries. South East Asia vibrant contemporary art scene also emerges as great protagonist at CIGE, with the participation of 7 galleries from Indonesia, 2 from the Philippines, 1 from Singapore, and 1 from India. In 2009 CIGE widens its artistic horizons through Asia and the Asia-Pacific Region. For the first time in the history of CIGE participating galleries are from Pakistan (1), Mongolia (1), and Australia (2).

Facing the challenges and changes of the economical and political balance of our multipolar and interdependent world, CIGE would like to position itself as a dynamic and unique platform, open to contemporary artistic creations and visions from all over the world. For the first time in its history, CIGE presents art galleries from all the five continents (Asia, Europe, America, Africa, and Oceania).

CIGE 2009 features art galleries from Europe, Italy (3), Spain (3), Germany (3), England (1), Austria (1), and The United States of America (1), and is delighted to welcome galleries from Latin America (Cuba and Mexico), Middle East (Syria and Israel), and Africa (Kenya). The participation of art galleries from Syria and Kenya marks the first gallery presentation at CIGE of contemporary art from the Arab world and the African continent.

CIGE 2009 continues to focus on contemporary art, encouraging any form of art expression, including photography, video, painting, sculptures, mixed media, installations, prints, textile, design.

Understanding the relevance of technology and globalization on the economic infrastructure of the art world, CIGE 2009 SPECIAL PROJECTS invite galleries, artists, not-for-profit art organizations, museums, institutions, private collection, and visitors to reflect on our contemporary visual culture.

On the Second Floor of the China World Trade Center, MAPPING ASIA presents a selection of solo shows of contemporary artists from Asia. Mapping Asia Solo Projects are evaluated by an international Art Expert Committee of Major Museum Directors and Curators from USA and Europe, which will act as a Jury choosing and announcing the 3 most interesting solo shows in occasion of CIGE 2009 Opening Preview.

CIGE 2009 INTERNATIONAL SOLO SHOWS -also located on the Second Floor of the China World Trade Center- would like to present the works of international artists, who have entered in direct contact with China, valuing the importance of intercultural experience as well as of the capacity of adaptability to the local environment, its bio diversity and cultural richness.

In order to guarantee a display of international artistic quality, CIGE 2009 SUBLIMINALS and VIDEO LOOPS develop collaborations, quality partnerships and strategic alliances with museums, art institutions and cultural centres.

CIGE 2009’s FORUM will be co-host by UCCA, The participants invited to the conference are directors and curators of major American and European museums and art institutions who have deep and long relations with contemporary art in Asia.

The interactions between the art fair and worldwide institutions aim to stimulate dialogue and discussion, giving the cultural centres the opportunity to present their programs of exhibitions, and contributing to enrich cross cultural knowledge in China.

香港政府在千禧之後銳意發展創意工業，藝術忽然從非主流文化變成為解決社會、經濟問題的良方。拍賣市場天價交易、藝術博覽大小通吃——每年三月的巴爾塞藝展（Art Basel）和其他名目的藝博展覽，已成為了「全球第三大藝術市場」的一抺繁華城市風景。
資深藝評人兼前線藝術勞工梁寶山，見證藝博與創意論述如何在香港落地生根，遊走在台前幕後，以第一身經歷細說藝術圈的芳芷腥臊。無論你是駕輕就熟的老行家，抑或初出茅廬的藝文青，都應該能從書中了解這種講金又講心。
This popular read is a revision of my Ph.D thesis on art labour after the giant art fair franchise landed in Hong Kong in 2008. The introduction is a critical analysis on the discourse on creativity and how the post-colonial government has absorbed it into her policy. The main body of the book is a series of ethnography and art world gossip that account for the changes to the art scene brought by the influx of global capital and elites, thus to theorize cultural economy of the contemporary art world and how it produce a new form of labour.

Il presente elaborato si pone l’obiettivo di indagare il tema della diversità culturale e della valorizzazione delle differenze all’interno del mercato dell’arte contemporanea.
Come è ben noto, il concetto di diversità è legato a tutti gli aspetti della vita di un individuo, ma all’interno di questa tesi verranno discusse ed analizzate solo due  delle sue molteplici dimensioni: la provenienza geografica ed il genere.

La prima sezione sarà dedicata ad una recensione della letteratura in materia. Partendo dal concetto generico di diversità e dai suoi sviluppi recenti, mi concentrerò successivamente sulla sua dimensione geografica, spesso considerata indice di diversità culturale. La letteratura in materia è sostanzialmente suddivisa in due correnti. La prima sostiene che il mercato, attraverso i fenomeni di globalizzazione ed internazionalizzazione, abbia ormai assunto l’aspetto di un unico mercato globale in grado di offrire pari opportunità per ogni individuo che voglia parteciparvi; fanno parte di questa corrente di pensiero Waters (2001), Crane (2015) e Yogev ed Ertug (2015).
La seconda scuola di pensiero, in cui si inseriscono i contributi teorici ed empirici di studiosi quali Bourdieu (1999), Velthius (2013) e Quemin (2008; 2013), sostiene invece che il mondo dell’arte sia ancora ampiamente squilibrato in favore di una ristretta minoranza di Paesi prettamente occidentali.
Successivamente, l’attenzione verrà posta sul concetto di diversità di genere, un tema ancora molto spinoso nel mondo della cultura. Anche in questo caso verranno discussi ed analizzati i contributi teorici ed empirici di coloro che sostengono che le donne producano arte sistematicamente inferiore in termini di qualità rispetto alla controparte maschile (Cowen, 1996; Thorton, 2008) e che, per esempio, per questa ragione esse riescano raramente a raggiungere elevati prezzi di aggiudicazione d’asta. A queste teorie verranno contrapposti studi teorici ed empirici che tentano di dimostrare che la sottorappresentanza del genere femminile sia spesso motivata da pregiudizi ed istanze storiche e sociali, piuttosto che da differenze biologiche.

La mia domanda di ricerca consiste nel dimostrare se all’interno di una delle fiere internazionali d’arte contemporanea più longeve e celebri della storia, Art Basel, sia stato effettivamente raggiunto un grado di diversità tale per cui uomini e donne ed artisti e galleristi provenienti da ogni regione del mondo godano delle medesime opportunità e visibilità all’interno del mercato.

La seconda sezione, infatti, consiste nella mia elaborazione dei dati raccolti dal sito ufficiale di Art Basel ed integrati con ulteriori informazioni reperite in rete riguardanti gli artisti e le gallerie presenti all’edizione 2018 di Basilea. Verrà posta particolare attenzione sulla distribuzione geografica degli artisti e delle gallerie che li rappresentano, nonché sul processo di internazionalizzazione di queste ultime, e sulla distribuzione di genere tra artisti e galleristi. Partendo dai dati raccolti, è stata poi svolta un’analisi incrociata dei risultati ottenuti al fine di valutare il grado di inclusione e diversità all’interno della più rinomata fiera internazionale di arte contemporanea.

We live in an era of constant changes and artistic leaps in a region some call the Gulf of Oil, the oil that seems to be the most influential factor in stimulating change and shifting artistic expression in our Gulf communities. In addition, openness and interaction between the Gulf countries and the rest of the world has contributed to a further stimulation to our art scene’s maturity within a short period.
I have spent most of my research years tracking changes and transformations in the Saudi art scene and connecting them to the history of arts in the Gulf region. In this paper, I attempt to broaden my search by highlighting an aspect of visual arts in the Arab Gulf States the light of the following two questions:
What raises query in Art in GCC?
What stimulates creativity?
I attempt to document historically the status of visual arts in the Arabian Peninsula/Arabian Gulf in general and in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia in particular by drawing comparisons between common topics and tracing what generates and stimulates these artistic creations.

This paper will argue that the pursuit of the UAE's nation-state-building project, the implementation of neoliberal urban policies, and increasing security concerns together have led to the Dubai authorities projecting a selective, discretionary representation of diversity. Based on ethnographic accounts of the Dubai Art Fair in the city's new urban spaces, the article aims to offer insights into the politics of cultural diversity in Dubai today. The art fair is celebrated as a manifestation of Dubai's cultural diversity and openness to the world. This paper contends that the promotion of diversity through spaces of global cultural practice, such as the fair, must be understood through a joint analysis of both state-building and global processes. Bringing into play the notion of 'national globalism', the article elaborates on the inherent logic underpinning the political representation of cultural diversity in the UAE and the locations that are chosen for this purpose.

Introduction and Chapter 1 of  "The Art Fair Age"

From the ‘’biennalization’’ of the 90’s of the past century we have moved towards the ‘’fairization’’ of the world at the beginning of the XXI century. Art criticism has shifted and moved on, too. If then, and especially, with the proliferation of biennales in non-mainstream decision-making centres, the argument arose that there was an excess, however nowadays it is happening exactly the same with the unstoppable multiplication of fairs on a global scale.

The book deals with concepts like the art fair as "urban entertainment center", "new fairism", the curated art fair and the art fair curator, collectors and its motivations...

Here is the introduction and chapter 1.

Paco

Dossier | El mercado del arte tras la crisis
Introducción
por Ana Vico Belmonte y Paloma Villarreal S. de Cepeda

El coleccionismo desde la prehistoria hasta el siglo XVI: entre la motivación religiosa, el deleite artístico, los códigos de exhibición y el negocio
por Daniel Casado Rigalt (13-35)

Arte emergente. Sincronismos entre Universidad y mercado primario
por Alessandro Leggio y María Gracia de Pedro (35-44)

Desmaterialización del arte. Una mirada al ciberespacio
por Raquel Alonso Docampo (45-54)

Adaptación y cambio de la moneda española en los siglos XVIII al XIX. Del Antiguo Régimen a los sistemas políticos constitucionales
por Daniel Sanz Platero (55-74)

Una aproximación al mercado de las monedas del emperador Vespasiano y sus variables
por Patricia Labrador Ballestero (75-96)

El arte del lujo
por Laura Sánchez Alonso (97-120)

Análisis del sector ferial en el mercado del arte español: caso de estudio FERIARTE
por Paula María de la Fuente Polo (121-140)

El estado de conservación como pilar en la valoración económica
por Alba Trashorras Rodríguez (141-162)

El mercado del arte, negocio y fiscalidad
por Ángeles Felipe Núñez (163-178)

La inversión en obras de arte como valor refugio
por África Fernández Margarit (179-196)

El marketing en el mercado del arte
por María Marcos Alonso (197-218)

Aspectos jurídicos del tráfico internacional de obras de arte
por Javier Fuentes García (219-244)

Restitución del arte robado durante el periodo nazi: el caso de Adele Bloch Bauer
por Anna Figueras Nogales (245-266)

La protección del patrimonio cultural subacuático en aguas internacionales dentro del ordenamiento jurídico español
por Iris Oña Muñoz (267-292)

En torno a la idea del mercado del arte
por Paloma Villareal Suárez de Cepeda (293-320)

El mercado del arte en tiempos de crisis
por Ana Vico Belmonte (321-346)

WHAT THE PRESS HAS SAID ABOUT THE BOOK

"Paco Barragán's new book From Roman Feria to Global Art Fair, From Olympia Festival to Neo-Liberal Biennial: On the 'Biennialization' of Art Fairs and the 'Fairization' of Biennials provides great food for thought, historical awareness, and analysis in a time of much needed self-criticism and reappraisal of these art events looking for new directions."
GERHARD HAUPT, Editor-in-Chief Universes-in-Universe

"This book paints a refreshing and truly global picture on the world of biennials and art fairs as well as offering a valid alternative to the generally accepted narrative."
MICHELE ROBECCHI, art critic and Editor Phaidon Press

"The book struck us for the extensive research behind it" [...]it appears to be one those monographs which will have to appear in every scholar researching biennials".
CHRISTIAN OXENIUS, Content Manager, International Biennial Association (IBA)

"A very timely and necessary book that offers a critical and well-informed perspective on two of the artistic events that have most transformed the art market in the first decades of the Twenty-first century: art fairs and biennials."
DENNYS MATOS, art critic el Nuevo Herald/Miami Herald

"With From Roman Feria to Global Art Fair, From Olympia Festival to Neo-LIberal Biennial Paco Barragán has certainly built a device with a stimulating thesis that forces us to deepen a story that can be made up of different alternatives and that must be studied bearing in mind the stratification of events that underlie facts that we consider banal and inevitable due to our laziness."
WALTER BORTOLOSSI, Artslife

"Paco Barragán has written a referential book on the history of art fairs and biennials based on an intense and sustained investigation effort. The narrative is extremely legible and rigorous and summarizes an immense bibliography that conveys a very useful and convincing overview of this fascinating history."
CARLOS JIMÉNEZ, Artnexus 

ABSTRACT
The book "From Roman Feria to Global Art Fair From Olympia Festival to Neo-Liberal Biennial On the ‘Biennialization’ of Art Fairs and the ‘Fairization’ of Biennials" constitutes an essential and much needed book with relevant historical, social, economic and art historical information about the genealogy of art fairs and biennials from ancient Greece and Rome to contemporaneity. Paco Barragán’s ambitious and profound research sheds new light on the origins and typologies of both art fairs and biennials and the contradictory phenomena of the ‘biennialization’ of art fairs and the ‘fairization’ of biennials in the twenty-first century. The book is further complemented with a series of charts and timelines that provide clear, easy access to the information and Pablo Helguera’s artoons function as a kind of poignant and witty ‘New Institutionalism.’ With a humoristic, down to earth style, Paco Barragán challenges the reader, offering a wide array of sources and proposing an essential historical perspective on two of today’s most relevant and most controversial art platforms.

The book can be ordered via AbeBooks or Amazon USA.

Nowadays, with the rapidly developing science and technology, art also expands its field of influence to a great extent and increases its visibility in this direction. Based on this, art fairs, biennials, triennials, documentaries are great importance for art to reach a wider audience. In this respect, Artankara International Contemporary Art Fair increases the visibility of Ankara in national and international art scene and makes an important contribution. This research was conducted to determine the profiles and motivations of the visitors of the 5th Artankara International Contemporary Art Fair. The data of the research were obtained with the prepared questionnaire and interpreted as percentage and frequency. As a general result of the study, it can be said that the majority of the participants visiting the fair are university graduates or students, young people in the 21-30 age group, who follow the art, are interested in art and especially interested in painting. In addition, a great majority of the participants have participated in events such as art fairs, biennials, exhibitions in the last year, they will spend or spend a long time in the fair, they will participate in the next fair and recommend the fair to their friends. In this context, it is revealed that the visitors of Artankara International Contemporary Art Fair consisted of a young profile at university level and that they visited the fair with the motivation arising from their interest in art or their one-on-one art and left the fair satisfied with artistic satisfaction.

Large areas of the State of Rajasthan are covered with the Thar Desert, and camels have played an essential role in the life and culture of the people of the region. Camels are one of the few who can survive the harsh conditions of living in a desert and are often referred to as the Ship of a Desert. Camels form a significant part of the livestock of the people living in the various villages, small towns, and cities situated in and near the Thar desert.

While previous researchers have attempted to explain the uncertain quality of visual arts with reference to branding theory, they have overlooked the role of art fairs. Socio-cultural approaches to branding allow us to explore the function of intermediaries in valuing contemporary arts. This article aims to analyze the role of art fairs in the process of branding young and emerging artists. In particular, a prestigious art fair, Frieze London, serves as an instrumental case study for developing a systematic understanding of art fairs in terms of valuing and branding contemporary art.

This research critically analyses the Contemporary African Art Fair 1:54, in
London. Created as a space of resistance to promote African art and artists within the international art scene, it is sustained that indeed, the counterspace is the casualty of a manoeuvre of the Western art world to renew itself after the end of art in postmodernism. The art fair 1:54 fails its purpose because, being in its nature, purely commercial and following the Western model of art market, it becomes accomplice of the spectacularisation and further exoticisation of the works of art produced by artists of African heritage.
Furthermore, it is argued that, being part of the mainstream is the ultimate
goal of artists of African heritage and therefore, their art practices respond to parameters establish by the West that enable them to get it. As a result there is no such a thing as African Aesthetics anymore. This investigation proposes further research looking at decolonial art practices happening in the continent and the Diaspora, which favour social value over exchange and surplus value.

The Venice Biennale Sales Department represent an important example of commercial platform in Italy. Aiming to shed light on its role as a predecessor and pioneer, the paper offers an overview of how sales were managed, investigating the decades following WWII, when the Sales Department was directed by the dealer and gallerist owner Ettore Gian Ferrari.
The Sales Department was part of the Venice Biennale from the very first day (1895) until the
institutional Reform of 1973; although many mistakenly believe that it was closed after student protests in 1968. In the background there is the growing gallery system and all of the issues related to the post-Fascit era of the Biennale.
New findings from the Biennale‟s Historical Archives of Contemporary Arts (ASAC) and from Gian Ferrari‟s Archive (Museo del Novecento) highlight not only the key role that the Venice Biennale Sales Department played, but also the changes in sales and buyers over this 20 year post-war time span.

Chapter 2 of The Art Fair Age

I discuss the impact of curators working with art fairs and the idea of the "curated art fair" as a differentiating element and provide different examples of it. The idea of the curator as infomediator and also the concept of 'New Fairism" in an analogy with New Institutionalism: a new way of understanding and reformulating the function of the art fair as an institution and artistic structure.

And finally, I also provide examples of how art fairs can be platforms for 'relational curating' by facilitating an instant feedback: conceptualization, selection, production, exhibition, inaguration, and social interaction can be compressed into one or various days.

If, according to the so-called new philosophy, heritage is understood as
the presence of the past in the present, the eponymous Jagiellonian Fairs
may be seen as a peculiar kind of manifestation of the annual medieval
fairs brought into existence mainly by the King of Poland and Lithuania,
Władysław II. These had the aim of facilitating free trade and the opening
up of functioning trade routes in the areas of the exceptionally vast
kingdom which resulted, along with complex anchoring points, enabling
not only the flow of goods but also of news and ideas from around the
world, thereby creating, as we would say today, an intercultural creative
space for communication, exchange and coexistence. At the outset, it
is worth clearly emphasizing that cultivating the past forms of fairs in the perspective displayed here, namely new thinking on the subject of heritage generally along with the creative inspiration of Jagiellonian
heritage itself, is not about the passive reconstruction of the past in every respect, lovingly maintained and guarded values and ideas of long ago, but sometimes empty, insignificant artefacts and passing them
on, analogous with museum exhibits/objects, in a pristine condition to
the next generation. In the case of ‘new’, that is critical (reflexive) attitudes to heritage, one thing is for certain regarding their contemporary use and regarding their actual, that is, their active use by a given generation in times considered current to it.

This paper hopes to give a brief overview of Art Basel Hong Kong. Specifically, it  will be presenting the art fair’s history; marketing, financial, and exhibition strategies; sales, and participating galleries. It also aims to discuss Art Basel Hong Kong vis a vis Hong Kong International Art Fair (Art HK), its predecessor.

The entry of contemporary art from Africa on the international art scene has been treated as a fait accompli by many, following Okwui Enwezor's All the World's Futures, Venice Biennale. However, while many celebrate visibility, the economics of engagement spell a different story. With only nascent art infrastructure and market the main economic benefits of the rise of African art are largely accruing to galleries in the developed world, who take on representation of African artists. Art Basel participation in this case is clearer demonstration than Venice of the disparity between politics and economics, with only 2 South African galleries taking part and the bulk of African artists being represented by established non-African galleries. The push for African national pavilions in Venice in the absence of solid local art sectors, which can leverage this participation is therefore placing African contemporary art at risk of becoming yet one more African raw material export.

This essay discusses a selection of the Frieze Projects art commissions, ranging from 2003 to today, not so much in order to evaluate the critical integrity or autonomy of individual projects so as to their instrumental value for advancing the art fair as an ideal market for contemporary art. This involves spatial, social and institutional legitimations of the fair as site and setting, often achieved through self-reflexive or context-reflexive art works – and here, the art market, despite its status as a ‘special market,’ reveals itself as operating under mainstream neoliberal or ‘neocapitalist’ economic strategies. Paradoxically, we might ask, ‘what is the value of art in the art market, when it stands outside of it’?

This feature include three short essays I wrote for the ArtCo magazine in Taiwan to review the several art fairs and events in Hong Kong during the Art Basel month March 2015. The first comments on the Art Basel effect, that the market force has marginalized cultural institutions in the public sector. Culture cannot takes roots in the fast shifting cityscape and the open economy. The second reviews exhibitions at the Duddell's and Para Site that using politics as the catch phrase but with failing in challenging politic.  The last one report about the dynamic of the two artist/ cultural districts, namely the Fotanian and the Island South Cultural district.

Die Art Basel ist nicht nur »Messe« im zweifachen Wortsinn, zeitlich und räumlich konzentrierte Zusammenkunft von Händlern, die ihre Waren feilbieten und gleichzeitig Ort ihrer Demonstration als »heilige‹ Güter« mit abertausenden von Pilgern, ein Wallfahrtsziel der Anbetung klassischer und zeitgenössischer Kunst. Sondern sie wird gerade deshalb zur entscheidenden Zeugin eines Wandels der heutigen Beziehungen von »Kunst« und »Geld« – mit allen Konsequenzen auch für die Bewertung dessen, was als »echte« Kunst zu gelten hat. Die vorliegende Studie, Ergebnis einer mehrjährigen »ethnographischen« Feldforschung, versucht diesen Wandel in der Wahrnehmung der Beteiligten – Messemacher, Galeristen, Sammler, Kuratoren, Kunstberater und Künstler – detailliert nachzuzeichnen.

Essay titled "Neo-modernity, Neo-biennalism, Neo-fairism" in TERRAROLI, Valerio (ed.), Art of the Twentieth Century. 2000 and Beyond, SKIRA: Milan, 2009. pp. 274-291

This essay basically deals on how art fairs assume tasks more akin to biennials and art theory and how biennials behave like art fairs and drive the global art market.

This Essay was published in 2009 and articulated concept of neo-modernity and how this affects the artworld in the guise of a neo-biennalism and a neo-fairism, id est, the "fairization" of biennials" and the "biennalization" of art fairs.

After a controversial debate, the German “act reforming the cultural property protection legislation” has been passed and approved by the Federal Council. It has taken effect on 6th August. So what does the law actually say? What kind of art is affected by it? This panel discussion brings together experts from cultural policy, law and sciences. The fifth workshop of Forum Kunst und Markt/Centre for Art Market Studies investigates the intervention of politics into the dealings of the art trade in a global perspective: What opportunities do the art markets gain and lose in different political systems and the resulting diverse forms of government (monarchy, dictatorship, democracy etc.)? Which authorities and institutions are involved in specifying the political guidelines and measures? How are these institutions specifically involved and what are the consequences for the trade? How do the art markets react to these acts of state control and intervention?

The Biennialization and Fairization Syndrome
(IntervIew wIth Paco Barragán by Michele Robecchi)

“Art history hasn’t shown much interest in the social and economic conditions of art and its relation to the history of the art market.”
                                                                                                Paco Barragán

In his latest book "From Roman Feria to Global Art Fair, From Olympia Festival to Neo-liberal Biennial: On the “Biennialization” of Art Fairs and the “Fairization” of Biennials", curator and writer Paco Barragán challenges the dominant narrative about the genealogy of art fairs and biennials.

Read on and you will discover that Latin America had at some point the highest concentration of biennial exhibitions, what went wrong with ART COLOGNE, and why a truly comprehensive and balanced study on the phenomenon of fairs and biennials has yet to be made.
                                                                                                  By Michele RoBecchi

Maihahambing ang Art Fair bilang isang uri ng teksto o text sa ilalim ng  kritikong marksismo nina Walter Benjamin at Conchitina Cruz. Ngunit kung paanong pinaglalaban ng dalawang manunulat ang kahalagahan ng  produksiyon upang ibunsod ang akses sa literatura at paglika ay siyang pagkabigo ng Art Fair Philippines na itaguyod ang sining na kayang maglingkod sa mababang uri; gayundin ay pagkabigo sa kaniyang posisyon sa kasalukuyang sistema ng produksiyon.

100% Risk, 100% Trust: Towards A New Visual Performance

LIVE is a performance program by visual artists fueled by the participating galleries of Art Athina 2019, as well as independent artists, and will take place throughout the duration of the art fair in multiple sites at Zappeion Mansion.
LIVE is a three-day programming initiative, curated by Sozita Goudouna, that showcases “New Visual Performance” experimentation and liveness and their implications for cultural production.
Welcoming the diversity within performance practice and the creative industries this year’s edition sheds light on the evolution of theatricality from its origin in the theatre to its present use in other art forms and focuses on collaborative practices between historic visual artists that have experimented with performance and emerging artists.
Context
Contemporary live art and durational performance are often predicated on the perpetuation of dominant narratives with regards to what the medium of performance can be or become.
LIVE aims to unfold and challenge these narratives by inviting visual artists who haven’t experimented with the medium of performance or with performative artistic practices, as well as visual artists who have explored the legacy of performance and who attempt to construct a different visual and interdisciplinary future for the medium.
LIVE aims to scrutinize both the visual and aesthetic potential of the notion of performativity, especially in the context of a contemporary art fair as well as of the Athenian cultural milieu.
Sozita Goudouna employs Performa NY Biennial’s unofficial mantra “100% risk, 100% trust” to highlight the profound commitment to giving visual artists full confidence and the risk that this practice entails for commissioning and producing visionary time-based pieces by artists who haven’t yet experimented with liveness.
Performances in Undisclosed Time
Pop-up parallel visual performances are taking place at various spaces of Zappeion mansion in undisclosed time with the participation of visual artists, dancers, actors, and directors.

The Exhibitionist is partnering with the Artissima art fair for the 2017 iteration of Artissima Live, which invites international publications to be in residence during the course of the fair, to publish about the art, programs, and events taking place over the course of four days in the city of Turin, . Alongside the editors of ATP Diary (Milan), Artdependence Magazine (Antwerp), Aujourd'hui Magazine (Lisbon), Fruit of the Forest (Milan and Miami), and Kabul Magazine (Milan), The Exhibitionist will publishing columns, essays, and interviews highlighting the work of curators, artists, and others involved in Artissima 2017. As a journal focused on curatorial practice and the history of exhibitions, The Exhibitionist will aim to examine various forms of curatorial labor visible at the fair, consider the historical contexts that the fair itself aims to reconsider, and think about the art fair as a particular form of exhibition. Here, curator and art historian Vittoria Martini elaborates on the Deposito d'Arte Italiano Presente, a curated section conceived for Artissima 2017. Organized by Martini and Ilaria Bonacossa, Artissima's Director, Deposito d'Arte Italiano Presente reconsiders the history of Italian art since 1994, the year in which Artissima was founded. Through works by 124 artists made in the past twenty-three years, Deposito d'Arte Italiano Presente offers an object-based archive of contemporary Italian art. Through a series of four texts published over the course of the fair's four days, Martini will explore the art historical context of Turin, the legacy and influence of Arte Povera on the Italian scene, and Artissima's role as a catalyst within contemporary Italian art since the 1990s.

Art Dubai, the best-known art fair in the Arabian Gulf opened its doors this March for the tenth time. Although this is the 10 year anniversary of an art fair that began quite small and catered locally, one can hardly sense a festive ²air. Melanie Sindelar has all the details.

[English below]
Em abril de 2019, durante a 15ª edição da SP-Arte, a organização comprou pelo valor de R$ 20 mil, e doou para a Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo, a performance Atoritoleituralogosh, de Cristiano Lenhardt. A obra, uma das seis selecionadas pelo curador Marcos Gallon para a Seção Performance da SP-Arte, foi a segunda performance vendida durante a rea-lização da feira, desde 2005, e também a segunda incorporada ao acervo da Pinacoteca, um museu com aproximadamente 4 mil obras. Este arti-go, com base em relatórios e pesquisas sobre o mercado de arte contempo-rânea, trata das repercussões da compra dessa obra e sua doação para a reputação da SP-Arte, o colecionamento de performance no país e a preser-vação de trabalhos do gênero por meio da doação para um acervo público. Palavras-chave: Mercado de Arte Contemporânea. Mercado de Arte no Brasil. Performance. Coleções de Arte. SP-Arte.

ABSTRACT In April 2019, during the 15th edition of the São Paulo International Art Fair-SP-Arte, the fair's organization bought for R$ 20,000, and donated to the São Paulo State Art Gallery (Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo), the performance art work Atoritoleituralogosh by Cristiano Lenhardt. The work, one of six curator Marcos Gallon selected for the Performance Section of SP-Arte, was the second performance sold during the fair since 2005, and also the second included in the Pinacoteca's collection, among approximately 4,000 works. The article, based on reports and research on the contemporary art market, inquires the reverberations of the purchase and the donation of Atoritoleituralogosh to SP-Arte's reputation, the performance collecting in the country and the preservation of works of this genre through the donation to a public collection.