As ARCO 2016 was under way on Friday, February 26th, it was announced that the Fair will relaunch its Guest Country section next year, with the presence of "one of the most active art markets in Iberian-America, Argentina," the honored country for 2017. ARCO 2017, the event's 36th edition, will be held from February 22nd to February 26th of next year, and the gallery selection will be headed by Inés Katzenstein, independent curator and Director of the Art Department at UTDT (Universidad Torcuato Di Tella). Following its usual format, Focus Argentina will include both the participation of galleries at the fair and a series of exhibitions across Madrid, curated by independent Argentinean curator Sonia Becce to extend the presence of her country's current artistic production to different Spanish spaces. In the same way, Argentinean art professionals will participate in the Experts Forum, presenting Argentina's art market and offering a panoramic view of the most relevant aspects of today's collecting, curating, and criticism in the South American nation. The program will have the support of Argentina's Ministry of Culture, the Argentinean Embassy in Spain, and arteBA.
In a press release, ARCO informed that the decision to invite Argentina as Guest Country is based on "the quality of Argentinean artists who have participated in recent editions of the Fair. (…) Historical figures like Alberto Greco—the conceptual artist who spent his last years in Barcelona until his death in 1965—established artists of the 1980s like Guillermo Kuitca, and artists now presenting retrospectives, like Leandro Erlich and Jorge Macchi, or photographer Graciela Sacco, among others, have all been represented at ARCOmadrid by both Argentinean and Spanish galleries. The new edition will bring together key figures of the new generations active in the Argentinean scene, offering its audience an opportunity to encounter works by Adriana Bustos—one of which was acquired by the ARCO Foundation in 2012—Pablo Acinelli, Diego Bianchi, and Osias Yanov, and more recent discoveries like Luis Pazos or Ana Sacerdote. (…) The event will also feature the work of other well-established artists like Adrian Villar Rojas, Amalia Pica, and Pablo Bronstein."
Argentinean galleries have also been an important factor in ARCO's decision, among them Ruth Benzacar, the first Latin American member of ARCOmadrid's organizing committee and a strong driver behind the Europe-Latin America connection at the fair, and Jorge Mara, who has moved between Madrid and Buenos Aires for a long time. Among the nine Argentinean galleries present this week at ARCOmadrid 2016 are Ignacio Liprandi Arte Contemporáneo, Barro Arte Contemporáneo, Del Infinito Arte, Rolf Art, Ruth Benzacar Galería de Arte, and Nora Fisch.
For their part, Argentinean collectors like Constantini, Amalia de Fortabat, Juan and Patricia Vergez, and Aníbal Jozami, among others, have a long connection with ARCOmadrid.
In 1997, ARCO devoted its program to Latin America, with the participation of fourteen countries from the region. In 2005, Mexico was the Guest Country in the Fair's 24th edition, in 2008 the focus was on Brazil, and in 2015 the spotlight shone on Colombia.
For more information, visit the ARCOmadrid Web Page: www.arco.ifema.es