ARTEFIERA BOLOGNA 2017

Arte Fiera 41st Edition

Directed by Angela Vettese, an updated edition: Main Section, Solo Show, Nueva Vista, Special Projects and a Photography section. Art and nature: a new and innovative graphic style

With the direction of new artistic director Angela Vettese, Arte Fiera is set to hold its 41st edition with an updated version, confirming its identity as the most consolidated and historically rich Italian art fair. From the 27th - 30th January 2017, the longest-running event for Italian modern and contemporary art is set to bring new innovations to the pavilions of BolognaFiere.

“I have been a regular visitor to Arte Fiera,” explains Franco Boni, President of BolognaFiere, “and this year, at my first Arte Fiera as President of BolognaFiere, I have been able to feel with my own hands the energy that this event generates, mobilizing the whole city and its institutions around the fair. I am also particularly happy that my first Arte Fiera coincides with the appointment of the new Artistic Director, Angela Vettese, who has created the outline of an Arte Fiera that has been significantly updated. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the former artistic directors for their work because their contributions have been essential in consolidating the event’s position on the international circuit of contemporary and modern art fairs.”

NEW GRAPHIC STYLE

The first new development for Arte Fiera 2017 is the new graphic style that has been completely updated to highlight what has always distinguished the fair’s approach to art: on one hand nature in its many forms, on the other hand the human capacity to define it, accepting it with a mental flexibility that includes also its more perturbing aspects.

The graphic project has been developed by Andrea Lancellotti of Studio Lancellotti, Milan.

THE SECTIONS

The new layout for Arte Fiera 2017 develops across two large pavilions of the Bologna Exhibition Centre housing the displays of the 153 exhibiting galleries.

A MAIN SECTION and a series of SOLO SHOWS will be held, both of these chosen by the artistic director together with a selection committee. The two sections include 133 galleries, to which can be added those of the curatorial sectors. The gallery owners and managers involved in the Committee, selected based on their interest in modern or contemporary art and their origin within the territory are: Laura Trisorio, Studio Trisorio, Naples; Marco Niccoli, Galleria Niccoli, Parma; Massimo Di Carlo, Galleria dello Scudo, Verona, Alessandra Bonomo, Galleria Alessandra Bonomo, Rome. Further guaranteeing the high quality of the event are the international figures involved in the art market: the curator Roberto Pinto (Professor of History of Contemporary Art at the University of Bologna) and the art historian Maria Grazia Messina (Professor of History of Contemporary Art, University of Florence and President of the Technical Committee ‘Art and contemporary architecture urban periphery’ at the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Tourism).

Art Fiera will be completed with a small section of new proposals curated by Simone Frangi, entitled NUEVA VISTA and dedicated to the artists considered worthy of a new critical reinterpretation, not only young artists.

A new section of PHOTOGRAPHY curated by Anglea Vettese.

“The experts’ meticulous and disciplined analysis led to the decision to create an edition of the fair that is more compact with a lower number of participants compared with previous editions in spite of the increasing demand for admission. Ate Fiera aims to serve as a venue for the exhibition and sale of modern and contemporary art, which we have decided to present mixed together, and at the same time as a location for reflection on the themes and languages of the latest current events,” explains the new artistic director Angela Vettese.

Welcoming the visitors to Arte Fiera 2017 will also be a new bookshop “Printville” curated by A+Mbookstore, an innovative space that proposes rare volumes as well as remaindered books from the König bookshop in Cologne alongside the usual selection of books and art catalogues.

Alongside the Bookshop the area TALK will offer a rich programme of meetings, some of which will be dedicated to the more interesting publishing propositions at the bookshop.

NUEVA VISTA
curated by Simone Frangi

Designed as a pilot edition (in a spirit of exploration) the section Nueva Vista lays the foundations for the development of a curatorial project within the fair context: a project that reflects on the intricate and controversial relationship between artistic research and the market, producing at the same time a precise critical look capable of transversally observing generational and geographical origins of artists and galleries involved.

Nueva Vista is designed, in fact, in order to shed light on, within a commercial context, the balancing point between discourse and saleability of emerging artistic research, between a critical process and formalization, between planning commitment in social and political spheres and sustainability. Particular attention has been reserved, and will be reserved in future, to those galleries that investigate and reflect critically on that ideological cut-off point imposed between Western and non-Western artistic practices.

SPECIAL PROJECTS
curated by Chiara Vecchiarelli

A new section entitled Special Projects, curated by Chiara Vecchiarelli, will bring performance to the fair, at MAMbo and the city’s science museums with a series of ‘Artist Lectures’ - works in the form of conferences, lessons or guided tours – structured as Time Specific Artist Lectures, which explore the relationship between the contemporary and the history of art, proposing a temporal dialogue between works and a series of Site Specific Artist Lectures, in which the dialogue is between the works and the collections of the city’s science museums.

AGENDA INDEPENDENT

Agenda Independents is an exhibition that presents the works of Franco Ariaudo, Alessandro Calabrese, Stefano Canto, Feng Chen, Kenta Kobayashi, Giuseppe De Mattia, Pedro hernandez, Joanna Piotrowska and Alberto Sinigaglia.

In an attempt to map a series of experiences recognised as fundamental within the contemporary art scene, the exhibition originates from the meeting between some Italian and international galleries, brought together by a shared sensibility and attention to photography and its recent developments. Selected based on the quality of their research, Capsule, Colli Independent, G/P Gallery, Madragoa, Materia, Metronom, Pedro Alfacinha and Viasaterna have been invited to take part in an exhibition that, on one hand positions itself as a genuine exploration to investigate the increasingly frequent contamination between photography and other artistic languages, and on the other aims to provide evidence of the positive fragmentation of a clearly unique scenario.

THE PRIZES

This year will also see the return of the Arte Fiera Prizes.

The Euromobil Group, main sponsor of Arte Fiera Bologna, is promoting the 11th edition of the Euromobil Prize Under 30 for artists exhibited by the galleries at the Fair. Il Premio della Giuria (Jury’s Prize), selected by an expert jury, will be awarded on Saturday 28th January at 4pm. A second award will be chosen directly by the public (The Public’s Special Prize) to the work (and therefore the artist) that receives the highest number of votes from visitors to Arte Fiera in addition to votes received from those who have viewed the work on the website www.gruppoeuromobil.com.

In its third edition the Videoinsight® Foundation Prize, which will be assigned by Rebecca Russo – President of the Videoinsight Foundation, collector, sponsor and creator of the Videoinsight® Method – will be awarded to the exhibited work that best promotes amongst those that view it the idea of “care of the self” and the concept of life as research, in accordance with the ideas of Michael Foucault. Videoinsight® means a deep and evolving awareness that involves the mind and emotions, obtained through the vision of selected works of contemporary art.

The sixth edition of the Rotary Valle del Samoggia Prize is dedicated to the most creative installation presented at the Fair. The prize, established to promote the culture of contemporary art amongst the young generations and to spread the ideals of the Rotary club, will make use of a close collaboration with the Rotary International 2072 Emilia-Romagna and San Marino, with Rotaract Bologna and with the Libera Accademia di Studi Caravaggeschi “Francesco Maria Cardinal del Monte”. The prize offers recognition and a sum of money that will be awarded to the winning gallery.