january 2004	news
Arco Top International Galleries A Highlight Of Arco s 23rd Edition
Top International Galleries A Highlight Of Arco s 23rd Edition ARCO, Madrid s International Contemporary Art Fair, will be holding its 23rd edition at the best artistic and economic juncture of recent years. A spate of new art museums, new collections, and a highly professionalised gallery scene all constitute a favourable scenario, further enhanced by Spain s bright prospects for growth. Given this context, ARCO is presenting a top-flight contingent of prestigious art galleries from around the globe, as well as invitationals programmed by leading international curators. The fair s multidisciplinary approach will be more marked than ever, featuring architecture, design, interior decorating, and fashion, as well as a world-premier academic conference bringing together some of the most illustrious minds in contemporary art theory and practice. Together with the presence of Greece as the special guest country, which will include a series of events aimed at presenting the best of the current Greek art scene to the Spanish public, ARCO has a number of important new sections this year: two invitationals, focusing on the art of Africa and the Nordic countries; a high-profile meeting, the 1st International Visual Studies Conference; and ARCO will also be heading into the streets of its host city with the public art programme Open Madrid, which originated in the Open Spaces section from previous editions of the fair. ARCO s usual spaces for experimentation will be back, as well: UP and COMING and PROJECT ROOMS, both exploring new models of creation through the selections made by 26 curators from around the world, who will be bringing to Madrid the freshest art from the international scene. A highlight will be The Americas programme, presenting for the first time a global vision of the most important emerging art scenes ranging from Mexico to Canada. A total of 274 galleries?91 from Spain and 183 from abroad?are featured in the 23rd edition of the International Contemporary Art Fair, from Europe (211), North America (26), Latin America (28), Asia (7), Africa (2), and Oceania (1). This year will be ARCO s most international ever, with the first participation in its history of African galleries (from Mali and Senegal), and the return of representatives from such countries as Canada, Colombia, Finland, Guatemala, South Korea, and Sweden. The UP and COMING section always takes a look at the most cutting-edge experimental art on the international scene. This year s selection of 53 galleries from 21 countries brings to Madrid the work of young artists from every corner of the globe, whose common denominator is their daring interpretation of our globalised world. From Japan to Puerto Rico, from Denmark to Mali to Canada, this programme highlights the breakdown of borders that has made room for a new artistic space, the key to which is cultural exchange. New languages and media, galleries committed to alternative trends and ways of operating within the art market, and young artists who have yet to break into the international circuit?these are the defining traits of a programme that shows the art of tomorrow, today. Curated by 23 international experts and critics, UP and COMING will feature six sections at ARCO 04: The Americas, Asian Party, Global Game (IV), Nordic Countries, Complex Projects II, Crossroads, and Fragments d Afrique. Amongst these, the African selection, curated by Simon Njami, is bound to be the great discovery of this 23rd edition of the International Contemporary Art Fair, along with Nordic Countries, curated by Marianne Torp, which will show the deep changes that their art is currently undergoing. Between the oneiric, the virtual, and the scientific, high tech and digital art will, once again, be the guiding lights of the selection proposed by Myriam Solar for Complex Projects. New technologies also represent a major thread running through the programming of the Asian galleries chosen by Hou Hanru and Mami Kataoka for Asian Party, Global Game (IV), whilst The Americas aims to offer a variety of different disciplines providing an overall view of the two continents, North and South. Rounding off the programme is the open-themed Crossroads, offering a tour of European galleries and their artists, selected by Rafael Doctor and Agustín Pérez Rubio.

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