Arte Fiera in Bologna is about to start: all the news of the big contemporary art fair

The new edition of Arte Fiera, number forty-two of the modern art market fair with the longest history in Italy and the first in our country in terms of turnover, is about to start: from February 2 to 5, pavilions 25 and 26 of BolognaFiere will become the temporary home of 151 Italian and international galleries that will ensure, as every year, the high quality of the event. They will be joined by 30 exhibitors of publishing, graphics and creativity, raising the number of attendees to 181. The artistic direction has also been entrusted for 2018 to Angela Vettese, who is leading Arte Fiera for the second year: the curator has decided to maintain the curatorial slant, thus continuing the 2017 turnaround, but there will also be in-depth studies on individual artists and theoretical reflection.

Several new features will characterize the 2018 edition of Arte Fiera. On February 2 and 3 there will be a conference, curated by Angela Vettese and Clarissa Ricci, titled Tra mostra e fiera: entre chien et loup, organized in collaboration with the IUAV University of Venice and under the patronage of the University of Bologna, and focused on the topic, as topical as ever though little investigated, on the hybridization between exhibitions and fairs. The meetings will be attended by academics, artists, critics, curators and various other personalities from the art system. Another novelty will be, in the Main Section, the subsection Modernity, which will welcome small solo shows of current artists, presented by individual galleries. We will therefore see exhibitions by Joan Jonas (Galleria Alessandra Bonomo), Giosetta Fioroni (Galleria Maurizio Corraini), Gianni Piacentino (Galleria de’ Foscherari), Eugenio Spinoza (Galleria Umberto di Marino), Terry Atkinson (Galleria Six), Marino Marini (Guastalla Centro Arte), Olivo Barbieri (Guidi & Schoen), Martino Genchi (Galleria Michela Rizzo), Maria Lai (Nuova Galleria Morone), Regina José Galindo (Prometeogallery), and Emilio Isgrò (Studio Guastalla).

Arte Fiera has also decided to strengthen the link with the city by enriching the POLIS section, which represents precisely the connection with Bologna, with new declinations. The POLIS / ARTWORKS project includes installations, curated by Angela Vettese, in different spaces of the city (we will see works by Vito Acconci, Andreco, Valerio Berruti, Alik Cavaliere, Mario Cresci, Luigi Mainolfi, Rachele Maistrello, Sanna Kannisto, Giuseppe De Mattia, Dennis Oppenheim, Luigi Veronesi), the POLIS / CINEMA section will be a review of films that will take place at the fair and at MAMbo, to reflect on the communist and post-communist identity of much of Bologna and Italian culture, and again we will see the POLIS / PERFORMING THE GALLERY projects, dedicated to performance interventions, and POLIS / BBQ, which offers a glimpse of the independent art scene in Bologna with exhibitions, performances and openings. Finally, the Printville section, curated by Amedeo Martegani and dedicated to printmaking and multiples, will be expanded.

Several prizes will also be awarded during the fair: the Euromobil Prize (twelfth edition), reserved for artists under 30 at the fair; the #ContemporaryYoung Prize (fourth edition), for artists under 40 at the fair whose work can be traced back to the idea of making and building; and the ANGAMC Career Award (second edition), recognition for the history and activity of a gallery owner affiliated with ANGAMC - Associazione Nazionale Gallerie d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea. Finally, Arte Fiera will be accompanied, as usual, by the ART CITY Bologna program, the institutional program of exhibitions and events promoted by the City of Bologna in collaboration with BolognaFiere, now in its sixth edition and entrusted to the artistic direction of Lorenzo Balbi. The events, including exhibitions, installations and performances, will be ten, joined by a special project, and all united by some key elements: monographic projects by a single Italian or international artist proposed by a curator, site specific and set up in places usually not accessible to the public. As part of the program, there will beArt City White Night on Saturday, February 3, which aims to invade Bologna with hundreds of initiatives for a white night dedicated to art.

The fair is open from Friday, Feb. 2 to Sunday, Feb. 4 from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., on Feb. 5 from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Preview by invitation Thursday, Feb. 1 from 12 p.m. to 9 p.m. Tickets: 25 euros full (22 with print-at-home formula), 32 two-day pass, 35 three-day pass, 37 euros four-day pass. Reduced: 15 euros, for groups of at least 15 people. Free for children up to and including 10 years old. Visitors holding CartaFreccia and a Frecce ticket with a destination in Bologna are entitled to free admission for one of their companions. Schoolchildren are entitled to a reduced ticket at 10 euros (free for accompanying persons). Free gifts also for YoungERcard holders, while Card Musei Bologna and Genius Bononiae holders will get a 50 percent discount. Disabled persons get in free of charge (the accompanying person, on the other hand, corresponds to the full ticket: they get in free in case the disabled person compulsorily needs an accompanying person). Information can be found at www.artefiera.it.

Image: a photo from the 2017 edition of Arte Fiera.

Arte Fiera in Bologna is about to start: all the news of the big contemporary art fair

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