The main novelty is that for the first time, ARCOmadrid will be held in March, and not in February as usual.
Its director, Maribel Lopez, has announced at a press conference that from now on it will continue to be held in the first week of March, in order to make it easier for collectors with school-age children to attend the fair. In addition, the assembly of the fair is becoming more and more elaborate and the change to March provides more time for the organizers to do it.
Another new feature is that there will be more places to rest, since “one of the most common complaints is that there are not enough places to sit”, as the director acknowledged. And there will also be a greater gastronomic offer.
Maribel Lopez says that this edition has received more requests than ever. “Many are new galleries and there have also been many others that had not been here for a long time and wanted to return to the fair.”
The greater the number of applications, the more difficult the sifting becomes for the organizing committee. “We don’t want the fair to grow in number of galleries to guarantee its quality,” says ARCO’s director, who acknowledges that around two hundred galleries have been left out.
This year’s expectations “are good”, both in terms of sales and number of visitors. Last year 95,000 people visited the fair, and this year a similar volume of visitors is expected.
To encourage sales, this year 2024 the fair is inviting around 400 international collectors, as well as some 200 professionals from the art world, similar to last year’s figures.
In addition, in collaboration with Acción Cultural Española, foreign collectors and professionals are encouraged to get to know Spanish contemporary art better through guided visits by national curators. And, young collectors are encouraged with a specific program and an advisory service for new buyers sponsored by the Banco Santander Foundation.
For several years now, the fair has not had a guest country, but a theme or region on which a special program is held. This 43rd edition sets its eyes on the Caribbean and is titled La orilla, la marea, la corriente: un Caribe oceánico, will feature 19 galleries from 10 countries (including Spain) and has been curated by Carla Acevedo-Yates and Sara Hermann Morera.
The term “oceanic” together with “Caribbean” responds to “a vision of the Caribbean in which ideas come and go, flexible and open,” said Maribel Lopez, who assures that this program will feature “very interesting projects that are not at all predictable. She also points out that an architectural proposal has been designed for this program that will guarantee “a very high exhibition experience”.
Another of the programs curated in this edition of ARCO will be, once again this year, Opening, in which young galleries with a maximum of 7 years of trajectory will be presented, with the aim of bringing new artists and scenes to the fair. Fifteen national and international galleries are participating, which have been selected by Cristina Anglada and Yina Jimenez Suriel.
For its part, the program Never the Same. Latin American Art, will present 12 galleries from Latin America and is curated by Jose Esparza Chong and Cuy Manuela Moscoso.
In the Artist Projects program, 32 galleries will present 28 artist projects specially designed for installation in spaces distributed throughout the fair.
As for the experts’ forum parallel to the fair, it will be dedicated on Wednesday to the world of collecting; on Thursday, to art institutions; on Friday, March 8, Women’s Day, to women in the art world; and on Saturday and Sunday, to Arts Libris, with presentations of publications, artists’ books and other publishing initiatives.
Once again this year, different national and international private companies join different initiatives in the form of acquisitions and recognition to artistic creation, through the delivery of different awards such as the Lexus Award for Best Stand at ARCOmadrid 2024, VIII Cervezas Alhambra Emerging Art Award, XVII Illy Sustainart Award, XIX ARCO/BEEP Electronic Art Award, I Fondazione Per L’arte Moderna e Contemporanea CRT Acquisition Award, I ENATE-ARCOmadrid 2024 Award, X Opening Award, Catalina d’Anglade Award and the Emerige-CPGA Award.
The ARCO Foundation also awards the “A” Awards to Collecting in its 28th edition, recognizing four collections: Mario Cader-Frech, Jose Antonio Llorente and Irene Rodriguez, Vasa Perovic and Fundação PLMJ.
ARCOmadrid 2024 will be held from March 6 to 10 in pavilions 7 and 9 of IFEMA’s Fairgrounds.
Images courtesy: ARCOmadrid. Maribel Lopez, director of ARCO, and Juan Arrizabalaga, general director of IFEMA MADRID, during the presentation of ARCOmadrid 2024.
Image 1ª “I, from the series be real”, 2023. Gabriella Torres Ferrer. Embassy Gallery.
Image 2ª “Western Union: Small Boats”, 2002. Isaac Julien. Helga de Alvear Gallery.