Bologna, Arte Fiera turns 44 and launches, for the first time, a section entirely dedicated to contemporary painting

Arte Fiera, Italy’s longest-running modern and contemporary art fair, will be 44 years old in 2020, with a new, rich edition to be held Jan. 24-26 at the Bologna Fairgrounds. The 2020 edizioe will be the second directed by Simone Menegoi, flanked by Gloria Bartoli as deputy director: 155 galleries will exhibit in the two pavilions, distributed between the Main section (108), the Photography and Moving Images section (20), and the brand new Focus (8) and Pittura XXI (19) sections. In total, there will be 345 artists that the galleries will bring to Bologna.

Let us come straight to the two main novelties: it is announced as very promising Pittura XXI, the first section ever of a fair (both Italian and foreign) to be entirely dedicated to contemporary painting. Curated by Davide Ferri, it aims to offer the public, collectors and insiders an overview of the work of emerging and mid-career artists, nationally and internationally, who work in this medium. The idea stems from the fact that in the historical phase we are going through, painting is back in vogue on the art scene, and consequently Arte Fiera does not want to miss the opportunity for an in-depth look. Focus, the brand-new section, will instead examine artistic research from the first half of the 20th century and the post-World War II period, with a different slant each year. It is deliberately reduced in size, and is intended to be an in-depth look at a particular aspect of twentieth-century art. The debut edition is signed by Laura Cherubini, an art critic and historian, who focused on the renewal and linguistic innovations of Italian painting between the late 1950s and the late 1970s.

Fotografia e Immagini in Movimento, on the other hand, is in its second edition, this year curated by the Fantom collective (represented by Selva Barni, Ilaria Speri, Massimo Torrigiani, Francesco Zanot), and aims to be an observatory focused on some of the most recent research in the field of photography and video, to which are added some unavoidable points of reference in the past. As for the Main Section, the aim is to reconfirm the model started last year, dictated by the care for quality and consistency of the stands, and promoted by gallerists and collectors alike. Therefore, this year again, galleries have been invited to present a limited number of artists, exactly as happened last year: each gallery will therefore be allowed to bring to Bologna up to a maximum of three artists for medium-sized stands and up to a maximum of six for larger ones. The only exception to the rule (and this is another of the novelties of the 2020 edition) is the possibility of exceeding the limitof six artists with a curatorial project dedicated to a group, movement, or artistic current of the 20th century. Also, as in the 2019 edition, a significant percentage of galleries will present a single artist, responding to the Fair’s solicitation to this effect. This strong presence of monographic stands, which constitute as many in-depth studies on Italian or foreign artists, new proposals or established masters, already stands out as one of the characteristic features of Menegoi’s direction.

As for the prizes, there will be five, all awarded on Friday, January 24. The three new prizes are the Prize for Painting Mediolanum Art Building Padova (for the best work in the Painting XXI section, which will become part of the collections of Casa Mediolanum Padova), the Wide Prize (for the work that will have best interpreted the concept of interaction between form, color and space) and the A Collection Prize (a “mini-residency” with which the winning artist will be able to create a project in the form of a tapestry with master weaver Giovanni Bonotto). Reconfirmed instead are the Rotary Prize (in its ninth edition), for the most creative installation at Arte Fiera, and the ANGAMC Prize, which enhances the role and career of an artist affiliated with the National Association of Modern and Contemporary Art Galleries and who has distinguished himself or herself for human and professional merits.

Then the Public Program returns, which will follow the same format as in 2019, and again there will be the second chapter of Courtesy Emilia-Romagna, the cycle of exhibitions set up as part of the fair that involves modern and contemporary art collections, both public and private, in the Emilia-Romagna region. The format includes a temporary exhibition as a moment to enhance and learn about an artistic heritage that acts as a sort of “diffuse museum,” seen from the perspective of a curator who changes each year. For the 2020 edition, the curatorship has been entrusted to Eva Brioschi, an art historian and critic, who will present in Pavilion 15 the exhibition L’opera aperta, which takes its cue from Umberto Eco’s essay of the same name. In this voyage of discovery of the collections present in the Emilia-Romagna region, visitors will encounter 20th-century masters such as Giorgio Morandi, Carla Accardi, Gerhard Richter, Gianni Colombo, and Salvo, but also artists who deserve to be rediscovered, such as Mattia Moreni, Alberto Sughi, and Dino Pedriali, without forgetting the protagonists of the new generations such as Yang Fudong and Yuri Ancarani.

Second year also for the project Oplà. Performing Activities, curated by Silvia Fanti (Xing): as part of this schedule, Arte Fiera will present performative interventions signed by Alessandro Bosetti(L’ombra); Luca Vitone(Devla... Devla...); ZAPRUDER filmmakersgroup(ANUBI IS NOT A DOG); and Jimmie Durham(THE BUREAU). Durham, fresh winner of the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement during the 2019 Venice Biennale, will offer the audience a re-enactment of one of his iconic performances, Smashing, performed only once before. Artist Eva Marisaldi, on the other hand, will be the protagonist of the Arte Fiera 2020 special project with a work created specifically for the occasion. The project is titled Welcome, and it consists of two parts: a large installation that will welcome visitors at the entrance to the Fair, and a widespread intervention in various points of the fair pavilions and the city of Bologna. The project is made possible thanks to the support of BPERBanca and the technical sponsorship of Italia Zuccheri and Space World Air. Marisaldi will also speak at the Teatro Comunale di Bologna, sealing the collaboration between the Fair and the city’s important institution, by presenting four sound works (these are works that, coordinated by software that exploits chance, will give life to a score that is never the same). The works are created in collaboration with Enrico Serotti (musician) and will be on view starting with the performance of Richard Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde, with which the 2020 Opera Season will open.

The Arte Fiera bookshop will still be managed by Corraini Edizioni, while content partner for the second year in a row will be Flash Art magazine, which will curate the organization of a dense calendar of talks. Among the protagonists who will take turns on stage are Michelangelo Pistoletto, Laura Cherubini, Andrea Viliani, Nicola De Maria, Gianni Emilio Simonetti, Luigi Bonotto, Patrizio Peterlini, Paolo Icaro, Cecilia Canziani, Raffaella Perna, Paola Mattioli, and Silvia Giambrone. Arte Fiera’s workshops will be curated by the Golinelli Foundation: this year’s offering will be an experiment on the possibilities of distributing and sharing art in our everyday di-gitimate. Starting with the exhibition project at the center of the U.MANO exhibition on display at the Golinelli Arts and Sciences Center, it will be possible to immerse oneself inside its installations in a small roomideal decorated with works produced by vertical plotters, mixing reality with Augmented and Virtual Reality techniques in dialogue with each other.

Arte Fiera will open from Friday, January 24 to Sunday, January 26, 2020 from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. For all the info you can visit the Arte Fiera website.

Bologna, Arte Fiera turns 44 and launches, for the first time, a section entirely dedicated to contemporary painting

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