January 24–26, 2020
Application forms to participate in Arte Fiera 2020 are now online
Arte Fiera, Italy’s longest running modern and contemporary art fair (founded in 1974) continues its journey of renewal under the guidance of art critic and curator Simone Menegoi. The 2020 edition is set to see some important new features.
Beginning in 2019 the fair introduced new exhibition criteria: the limited number of artists that each gallery could present (no more than three for medium-sized stands and no more than six for large stands). The next edition will maintain this rigorous curatorial approach but with an exception in the Main Section. In the case of an exhibition project focused on a period, trend or 20th century movement, galleries will be allowed to present more than six artists.
Alongside the Main section, which will range from the Modern to the Contemporary, with a particular focus on Italian art, there will also be three curated sections by invitations only, two of which will be taking place for the very first time.
Pittura XXI will debut in 2020 and is a section dedicated entirely to painting from this millennium. This is an innovative format for an international art market event: for the very first time a fair will focus its attention on the most traditional, yet debated language of contemporary art with the aim of offering an overview of national and international emerging talents as well as established artists. Curating this section will be Davide Ferri, critic and independent curator who has substantial experience of writing on, and curating exhibitions of, contemporary painting (for example the exhibition The Inevitabile Figuration. A Scene of Painting Today, Museo Pecci, Prato, 2013).
Another important new feature is the section Focus, dedicated to art in the first half of the 20th century and the Post-War Masters. Each year a new curator will be invited to determine the content of the exhibition, choosing to focus on a period, a trend or artistic current according to his/her expertise and preference. The opening edition will be curated by Laura Cherubini, critic and art historian who is particularly well known for her contribution to the study of Italian art from the 1960s and ’70s. The theme of the section will be painting and its declinations in Italian art from the end of the 1950s to the end of the ’70s: a key period during which painting in Italy was not only alive and well, but during which it managed to redefine itself in a conceptual and formal sense.
Following the excellent response to its inclusion in the 2019 edition, there will be a return of the section Photography and Moving Images, curated by Fantom (the platform consisting of Selva Barni, Ilaria Speri, Massimo Torrigiani and Francesco Zanot). Continuing the journey that began in 2019, the section will propose a reflection on the present and the future of two media that define our daily visual horizons. Photographic and video work will be presented without any constraints in terms of genre, technique and content, but prioritising its dialogue with other artistic disciplines.
Finally, the Selection Committee for Arte Fiera 2020 will be composed of Stefano Cortesi (Cortesi Gallery, Milan-London), Massimo Di Carlo (Galleria Dello Scudo, Verona), Giangi Fonti (Galleria Fonti, Naples), Fabrizio Padovani (P420, Bologna), Carlo Repetto (Repetto Gallery, London), Federica Schiavo (Federica Schiavo Gallery, Milan).
Applications to participate at Arte Fiera 2020 can be made on the website www.artefiera.it until September 2.
Contacts
Show office
artefiera [at] bolognafiere.it / T +39 051 282863 / T +39 051 282929
Product Communication and Event Manager
Isabella Bonvicini: isabella.bonvicini [at] bolognafiere.it / T +39 051 282920
BolognaFiere – Press Office
Gregory Picco: gregory.picco [at] bolognafiere.it / T +39 051 282862
Arte Fiera - Press Office
Sara Zolla: press [at] sarazolla.com / T +39 346 8457982
