arteBA opens its 27th edition with new proposals

May 2018, Buenos Aires. The 27th edition of arteBA will open its doors to the public from Thursday, May 24 to Sunday, May 27 at La Rural (Palermo, Buenos Aires) with a renewed approach in its selection of curators and the Fair’s different sections, in which over 400 artists and 80 galleries from 27 cities will participate this year, with an enriched dialog between emerging and recognized artists and proposals involving performance, talks, debates and presentations.

With over 50% of the galleries coming from abroad and an extensive list of professionals and collectors convened for the occasion, arteBA figures as a key event on the international agenda for generating networks, exchange and collaboration. During a week when art takes center stage, Buenos Aires’ galleries, cultural institutions and museums prepare to offer visitors the very best the city has to offer.

Among the main novelties, Stage is particularly outstanding: a new area of the Fair that agglutinates the galleries with less than 5 years of opening. Also in 2018 arteBA launches Zoom, a program of artistic interventions that will infiltrate the layout of the fair. In its inaugural year, sponsored by Quinquela Fondos, the pieces, selected by invitation will be curated by Alejandra Aguado, and they will be located in both entrances of the arteBA pavilions. Finally, so that adults can share the "arteBA experience" with their family, arteBA Niños is inaugurated, a space supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Nation, will offer a program of workshops and activities for the youngest. During the four days the attendees will have the opportunity to meet the wide range of modern and contemporary artists that offer the participating galleries in the 27th edition of the fair, and participate in multiple options of agenda and activities: art tours, conference programs, performance cycles, book presentations, awards and other highlights.

SECTIONS

Assembled by a selection committee consisting of Ana María Battistozzi, Orly Benzacar, Eduardo Brandão and Sabine Schmidt, the Main Section will include 52 galleries, 9 of which will participate in the new Stage IRSA modality, while 17 will each present one outstanding artist for Cabinet GNV Group, for which the advisory committee is made up by Ana María Battistozzi, Patrick Charpenel and João Fernandes. This section also dedicates space to the Plaza de los Maestros, featuring key pieces by great modern artists. The seventh edition of Solo Show Zurich curated by José Luis Blondet will include the participation of 9 Latin American artists from important galleries invited. A renovated edition of U-TURN Project Rooms will be curated by Magalí Arriola, establishing dialog between 12 galleries with specific projects. Finally, Barrio Joven, curated by the duo Santiago Villanueva and Miguel A. López, is the section dedicated to independent, emerging and alternative projects that represent artists of a young career at the Fair, and this year 15 galleries will be present, featuring different proposals with a particular impetus in performance, set in a specially designed space. The Performance Box section confirms its profile at the Fair with a program hosted by the Performance Biennial and, thanks to the support of ArtexArte, Performance Box combines outstanding artists of the discipline and videos curated by Rodrigo Alonso. In its sixth edition, Isla de Ediciones, with the support of Fundación Proa premieres the opening of a curatorial duo composed of Nancy Rojas and Santiago García Navarro and invites 5 international publishing projects, offers a library space specialized in contemporary art and a collective table with independent labels by Panorama Pulse. Designed by Federico Churba with materials from Ternium. Isla de Ediciones also has its own auditorium with programming of tables and book presentations.

This year, the Prime Time program of the Open Forum, sponsored by the of the Buenos Aires City Government, explores collecting through various experiences and trajectories promoted by leading national and international collectors; and three conversations with consecrated artists will be part of the Art Conversations fragment.

The Fair also has a Networking program that enables guests to get to know the local art scene and to participate in special visits to collections, galleries and museums, in this program curators and museum directors from over 20 institutions arrive to the country. Thanks to the contribution of private patrons and with the collaboration of the Argentine Agency for Investment and International Trade, more and more Argentine artists enter the heritage of prestigious institutional collections through our Program of Acquisitions of International Museums, in which participating museums such as Guggenheim NY, Reina Sofía National Art Center Museum in Madrid, Tate Gallery in London, LACMA - Los Angeles, MACBA in Barcelona, among others. In addition, we continue working in the Federal Program of Museums adding to this edition the Franklin Rawson Provincial Museum of Fine Arts, the Castagnino +macro Museum in Rosario, the MACBA - Aldo Rubino Foundation and the Lucy Mattos Museum in Buenos Aires. We want to highlight the importance of the private support that, with the same incentive, sustain their commitment in the Program of Acquisitions of Companies: La Rural celebrates at arteBA 2018 its ten years of uninterrupted acquisition with its program Impulsarte; Madero Harbor has four editions adding exquisite works by Argentine artists to its collection and the Matching Funds Program arteBA-Banco Ciudad allocates funds for three new museums to increase their collection: Municipal Museum of Fine Arts of Tandil, Museum of Contemporary Art of Salta and Museum of Contemporary Art of the South of Lanús.

In addition to the activities within the scope of the Fair, arteBA proposes a cultural map of the city to the entire visiting public, facilitating visits to key contemporary art circuits throughout Buenos Aires during this week: Distrito de las Artes (Arts District), the new Palermo/Villa Crespo zone and the Recoleta/Retiro corridor.

In strategic squares all over the world, 2017 has been a year of significant visibility, awakening interest on the part of new publics whom we eagerly await during the month of May with Buenos Aires’ best art proposition, in order to get to know our art scene better and to thoroughly enjoy the city.