Madrid celebrates art in style
ARCO is the most important contemporary art fair in Spain. It's also a mess. During the week of ARCO Madrid is filled with alternative fairs, exhibitions and ephemeral spaces that complete the content of the fair-fair.
There is a lot, and everything seems (and usually is) interesting. Also, a million people are expected. How much art. How many people. It is not convenient to be blocked and for that it is this guide, subjective, incomplete and messy, of increased ARC, of the extra-ARC.
ARCO takes place in IFEMA, which may not be the most charming place in town. However, it works like a blank canvas, serve the joke, for what happens within its pavilions.
**Each year the fair chooses a guest country; this is Peru. ** In this edition, 24 artists selected by Sharon Lerner and seven Peruvian galleries that are part of the “Perú en ARCO” program visit Madrid. Here the mess begins. How many galleries, 203, nothing more and nothing less.
So many stimuli need…more stimuli. This is ARCO and we have come to exhaust ourselves visually. We receive these in the non-artistic spaces of IFEMA.
This year we have something new: it is the Winery Opening , a project by the daring ** Ansón&Bonet ** that brings the world of wine closer to Art.
It is an ephemeral wine bar (only lasts from February 27 to March 3) and that has an offer of wines selected by landscapes.
The space is designed by Selina Feduchi and it is a kind of continuation of the Opening section of the fair dedicated to emerging artists. It is a novelty and a rarity.
Also, surprise, this year you can eat well and in an attractive environment, in ARCO. It will be thanks to the Spin-off that NuBel opens at IFEMA. space has done Paula Rosales, Madrid architect from the More-co studio and creator of the Reina Sofía NuBel.
The works hanging on the walls are from Alicia Velázquez, who uses aged rum (Zapaca rum is also behind this action), coffee, almond and rice milk, brown sugar, watercolour, Chinese ink, felt-tip pen and graphite.
As Peru is the guest country on the menu, there will be nods to its gastronomy with dishes such as octopus with olive or the Chifa-wok of buckwheat and knuckle. We can finally leave ARCO with a happy stomach.
To leave ARCO with a full and happy stomach
So far we have not left IFEMA. It's time to go to Madrid. The journalist and curator Fietta Jarque has coordinated the exhibitions of the city that have Peru as the protagonist.
'Nasca' is the largest exhibition that has ever been dedicated to this pre-Columbian culture in our country. It is in the Fundación Telefónica and in it you can see ceramics, understand a little more the geoglyphs or lines of Nasca and even fabrics from Paracas, always elusive.
The Amazon jungle reaches Slaughterhouse in one of the main dishes of this ARCO. ** 'Amazonias' shows the cultural production of a land without clear borders** in which there is much more artistic vitality than, from our European ethnocetrism, we imagine.
Peruvian photography also finds its niche. He does it in Casa de América, in the expo 'Stratos of a Landscape', from the Jan Mulder photography collection.
There are more collectors in Madrid exhibiting her work. Eduardo and Mariana Hochschild They show part of their collection at the Royal Academy of San Fernando.
A very interesting exhibition takes place outside of Madrid, but close to Madrid; that is, in Boadilla. These are installations, drawings, sculptures, paintings, videos and books by artists from the international contemporary art collection assembled by Luiz Augusto Teixeira de Freitas. Some names that can invite us to leave the usual artistic circuit route are Cildo Meireles, Gordon Matta-Clark or Thomas Ruff.
Face with fish, Shipibo Conibo, Iquitos, 2005. 'Layers of a Landscape'
ARCO is not the only fair that takes place this week. How easy it would be if it were. There is more. Also celebrated (let's take a breath): Art Madrid, Just Madrid (turning 10 years old) , drawing room , (centered on drawing) and urvanity (which includes urban art) .
This year a new fair begins, ** SAM (Salon of Modern Art) **, which gives way to modern art and where you will see pieces of leading names such as Picasso, Giacometti and Barcelo.
The fairs are spread throughout the city and even occupy hotels. The case of the Hybrid Art Fair It is unique because it is celebrated at the Petit Palace Santa Barbara Hotel from the 1st to the 3rd of March which is converted, rooms included, into a large gallery of galleries.
Hotels do not resist mixing with art. The Urso hotel has just presented, together with Grassy, 'La Vitrina', an action that unites art and jewelry in the hotel lobby.
It is an exhibition space provided by the Hotel Urso in which, for a year an artist will be in charge of staging the Grassy jewels.
Each year four different screen prints by the same artist will be seen. The collaboration has started Luis CabanasOrtiz, who has designed a light box (he is a great connoisseur of Chinese culture) behind which you can see bracelets, rings and earrings. The visit is free and if we also go on a Thursday, we will find live music.
The Palace also joins the artistic stimulation of these days and presents Mask, a sculpture by Rafael Canogar which can be visited until March 15 courtesy of the Alvaro Alcazar Gallery and the artist himself. Guests staying at this hotel (it is the official organization of ARCO) will come across this totem.
The blue room Only You Wafer , yes, that beautiful one in which we want to spend afternoons reading, becomes another atypical exhibition room.
Coinciding with ARCO, the hotel joins the suarez jewelry to present an ephemeral action: an exhibition in which the jewels of the new collection coexist, IAMSUAREZBYDFACE, along with works by artists D*FACE and Okuda San Miguel.
There are more winks (or directly, hugs) to ARCO in the city. This week artists, gallery owners, collectors and visitors look for places to meet and, if possible, eat well. You can see them in La Trainera, Have with Ten, La Parra.
A different proposal is the one proposed by ** SOMOS , at the Barceló Torre de Madrid 5*.** In this space with views of Gran Vía and designed by Jaime Hayón, you can taste a menu designed for the fair with a fixed price of 45 €.
Some stores also want to join the fair. The project The brand, that proposes a lifestyle based on health has an arm called LAB focused on collaboration with brands and people who stimulate the life of the city.
Taking advantage of ARCO, Lamarca LAB joins the Peruvian gallery revolver lime to celebrate the art of Peru. This collective exhibition is visited in one of its spaces (all interesting) in the Salesian neighborhood.
In ARCO you can also dance, for that, we will go to a museum, to the Queen Sofia. There at NuBel, on fair nights there is a party with an electronic music DJ; this edition inaugurates: Greg Wilson.
The ARCO post takes place in collectors' houses and for those we don't have the safe-conduct. We do have other clues: if you want to run into someone go to Cock or Club Matador (requires being a member or having friends who are) or the halls of the Palace, the Villa Magna or the Santo Mauro, where gallery owners, artists and collectors stay.
These are some clues to get around extra-ARCO, and we haven't even mentioned what can be seen in Madrid's museums and galleries. Exhausted? That's the idea.