113,000 people; 18, 000 square meters; 5 days. These
are some of the figures of what, according to art critics and
journalists, was the best edition ever of arteBA Contemporary
Art Fair.
arteBA ’07 brought its 16th edition to a close with the
full satisfaction of having produced an event which resulted
in a first class art show, with a very large number of visitors
and an outstanding success in sales.
The true protagonists of this Fair were the art galleries,
with undoubtedly daring proposals of a high quality as well.
40% of the galleries came from abroad, mainly from Latin America
–which, thus, showed a wide panorama of the best productions
in the contemporary art of the region.
One of the acmes of the art fair was the first edition of the
OPEN SPACE, a space devoted to large format works and installations.
It became a great attraction both for visitors and art buyers
and a must for the media in general.
Other works of a great impact were those coming from what was
meant as the Tribute to the Great Masters, sponsored by Banco Galicia. arteBa and Banco
Galicia paid their homage to Delia Cancela, Dalila Puzzovio,
Juan Stoppani and Edgardo Giménez, celebrating these
masters’ creative genius –a creativity which in
the 1960s made them rise as referents of Pop Art. Visitors to
the fair had the chance to talk with the artists, learn about
their lives and enjoy their main art productions. Every artist
was assigned a space in the fair –one which, strategically
placed, allowed for the exhibition of an emblematic work of
his or her production.
The stage of this Fair counted also on 16 spaces for the Barrio
Joven Chandon. These “young art quarters”
produced presentations that were really outstanding for their
boldness, originality and quest for new experiences (not ignoring
the art market). There were also 9 spaces that belonged
to the project Caja Negra Cubo Blanco (Black Box White Cube)
–a Space for Videos sponsored by Converse that
showed the best of an expressive language always on the growth.
Last but not least, the art fair included the participation
of 31 institutions and companies related to art and of 18 specialized
publications –Argentinean and foreign- as well as the
ever controversial arteBA – Petrobras Award for
the Visual Arts.
Catalina León received the First Prize (Acquisition).
The artist received a $30.000 grant for her installation called
“Patio” – this work will be part of the permanent
collection of Fundación arteBA. The second prize, a $10,000
grant, was awarded to Diego Bianchi, for his work “Wikipedia
– Catálogo de Recursos” (“Wikipedia,
Catalog of Resources”)
arteBA ’07 was visited by over 250 guests especially
invited and coming from abroad; important art collectors
and patrons, museum directors and curators of international
collections, art critics and representatives of the media and
the most influential institutions in the field of the visual
arts were present in the fair.
Purchases got started the very day the fair was being
set . Chandon, for the seventh year in a row, became the first
purchaser of a work “behind closed doors” within
the premises of arteBA ’07 through its “Chandon
–arteBA Award”.
Chandon selected and acquired three works by three artists that
exhibited their works in the Barrio Joven Chandon. The selected
works were: “RL 1-6”, by Leandro Comba, produced
in 2007, exhibited in the Proyecto Nodos space –a work
made of painted melamine on a 183 x 99 cm canvas.; “Retazos
del Paraíso” (“Scraps of Paradise”),
by Ananké Asseff, produced in 2007, exhibited in the
art gallery Corazón Cordobés, a diptych direct
photograph (125 x 135 and 16 x 135 cms); and “Hotel Viena”
(“Vienna Hotel”), by Hugo Aveta, produced in 2007,
from the art gallery Corazón Cordobés, a diptych
direct photograph (125 x 135 y 16 x 135 cms). With each edition
of the fair a representative museum of Argentina is chosen as
host for the work to be acquired. In this case, the awarded
work will be donated to the MAMBA, Museum of Modern Art in Buenos
Aires.
The following day, the third edition of the Matching
Funds arteBA – Zurich Program was launched. This
enabled five museums purchase an art piece to eugment their
collection. The Museo Municipal de Bellas Artes Juan B. Castagnino
(Rosario) chose Jorge Demirjián’s Sin título
(Untitled) from his Serie de los Deportistas (Sportspeople Series),
1978, acrylic on canvas, 162 x 130 cms. (Galería Agalma
Arte). The Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires (MAMBA) chose
Marta Minujín’s Imaginando el estupor (Imagining
amazement), 2003, small mosaiques on glass, 210 x 110 cms. (Galería
Loreto Arenas). The Malba-Colección Costantini chose
Liliana Porter’s Fox in the mirror. Concert 2007. New
York, a digital video, 20' 19" (Galería Ruth Benzacar).
The Museo Rosa Galisteo de Rodríguez (Santa Fe) chose
Remo Bianchedi’s N° 7, Serie Los Inocentes (Innocents`
Series), 2000, mixed technique on paper, 187 x 98 cms (Galerías
EspacioCentro). The Museo de Bellas Artes Juan R. Vidal (Corrientes)
chose for its collection a work by Carlos Silva called Polinya
1967, enameled wooden plaque, 60 x 60 cms. (GC Galería
de Arte).
The premises of the fair and its exhibits were visited by the
enthusiast members of the International Acquisitions
Program: Luis Pérez Oramas, The Estrellita Brodsky
Curator of Latin American Art, from the MOMA (New York) together
with Estrellita Brodsky, the honored guest for this edition
of the fair; and Julián Zugazagoitia, director of El
Museo del Barrio from New York. The MOMA acquired three etchings
by Eduardo Stupia exhibited at van Riel Gallery and also showed
a strong interest for an installation by Alejandro Puente (Galería
Ruth Benzacar). El Museo del Barrio bought two videos for its
collection, one by Liliana Porter, “Fox in the Mirror”
and “Streamline” by Jorge Macchi, both from Galería
Ruth Benzacar.
For the first time and with great success the “Programa
American Express / + arte para el bellas artes” (American
Express Program / + art for the Fine Arts Museum) was
carried on. This aims at enlarging the public patrimony of the
museum. During the fair, the purchase and donation of two works
“La familia numerosa” (The numerous family) by Horacio
Zabala, and “Naturaleza y niño” (Nature and
child) by Juan Del Prete, from the Asociación Amigos
del Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes (AAMNBA), were carried out.
Both art pieces were chosen by a Selecting Committee whose members
were Luis F. Benedit, Alejandro Puente and Adriana Rosenberg.
Success was reflected not only in the figures of the
art sales. The program developed at the arteBA Auditorium is
an outstanding, original event as regards non scholar spaces.
LATIN AMERICAN CIRCUITS / ART COLLECTING CIRCUITS:
Interaction, roles and perspectives was the name chosen for
this last chapter in a cycle of three. The Prime Time (6 pm)
was devoted to the Program and these sessions were attended
by prestigious agents from the field of art collecting. The
participation of directors and curators of museums and international
foundations in the program was highly positive since they favor
strong policies so as to build first class collections of Latin
American and International art; as well as the presence of private
art collectors, beyond the weight of their own acquisitions,
that cause the expansion of the cultural field.
Full house debates reached real peaks. There were four round
tables and each was conformed by art collectors and Argentinean
as well as foreign agents for the visual arts: Julián
Zugazagoitia (Director, El Museo del Barrio, New York), Luis
E. Pérez Oramas (The Estrellita Brodsky Curator of Latin
American Art, The Museum of Modern Art (MOMA), New York), Marcelo
Pacheco (Chief Curator, MALBA - Colección Costantini),
Gabriel Pérez-Barreiro (Latin American art curator, Jack
S. Blanton Museum of Art / The University of Texas at Austin,
Austin), Eduardo Costantini (President, MALBA - Colección
Costantini), Jorge Helft (Art Collector, Buenos Aires), Estrellita
Brodsky (Collector; member of the Latin American Acquisitions
Committee, Tate Modern, London; and member of the International
Council, The Museum of Modern Art (MOMA), New York ), Sebastián
López (Director, Daros Latin America - Rio de Janeiro),
Juan Cambiaso (former president of arteBA Fundación,
member of Malba Board , member of the Managing Committee of
the Asociación de Amigos del MAMBA, Buenos Aires; international
patron for the Asociación de Amigos del Museo del Prado,
Madrid), Justo Werlang (President, Fundación Bienal del
MERCOSUR, Porto Alegre), Carlos Cruz Puga (Art Collector, Santiago
de Chile), Juan Carlos Verme (Art Collector and President, Museo
de Arte de Lima (MALI), Lima), Ilona Katzew (Latin American
art curator, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles),
Natalia Majluf (Director, Museo de Arte de Lima (MALI), Lima),
Abaseh Mirvali (Executive Director, Fundación/ Colección
JUMEX, México DF) and Ariel Jiménez (Curator,
Patricia Phelps de Cisneros Collection, Caracas).
While the gates to this sixteenth edition of arteBA
were being closed, everybody agreed as to the fact the art fair
had taken a long, unique jump while foreseeing next year edition´s
challenge. |
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