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Showing posts with label ARCO. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ARCO. Show all posts

ARCOMadrid 2015

March 10, 2015
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The 34th edition of ARCO Madrid Contemporary Art Fair happens at a time when I am designing a 2,000-dollar home prototype for a rural area in a developing country and reviewing any artwork that costs as much as several homes, feels rather odd. That said, I've enjoyed this year's edition, especially Richard Mosse's beautifully portrayed basic house structures in lush surroundings. 

Richard Mosse's colour-infrared pictures of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are something I always look forward to in ARCO. The Ireland-born and New York-based photographer has been shooting landscapes, people and rebel soldiers in eastern DRC since 2011 using Kodak Aerochrome, a film developed in the 1940s for military surveillance. It reflects the infrared spectrum and renders green into pink.  

There have been various iterations of Mosse's Congo project in previous editions of ARCO (see my 2013 and 2014 posts). No warlords or IDP camps pictures this year but a more subtle portrait of the Congo conflict. In his short film "The Impossible Image" Mosse explains the project in more detail.

Richard Mosse, Come Out (1966) XXX, 2012 | Carlier Gebauer Gallery, Berlin

  
Alberto Casari | Galeria Lucia de la Puente, Lima

  
Markus Huemer, Wir haben jetzt klare Verhältnisse, aber wir wissen noch nicht welche | Galerie Max Weber Six Friedrich, Munich


 
Albrecht Schnider, Untitled (2014) | Galerie Bob van Orsouw, Zurich

 
Sarah Morris, Bye Bye Brazil (2014) | Galeria La Caja Negra, Madrid

   
Olafur Eliasson, Your Lunar Reflection (2015) | Galeria Elvira Gonzalez, Madrid

 
Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle, Cloud Prototype No 3 (2012-13) | Christopher Grimes Gallery, Santa Monica

  
Julian Opie | Galeria Mário Sequeira, Braga

  
José Lourenço, Untitled (2015) | Carlos Carvalho Contemporary Art, Lisbon

 
Asier Mendizabal, Placa (2014) | Galería Carreras Mugica, Bilbao
  
Charlotte Posenenske, Series D Vierkantrohr (1967) | Galerie Mehdi Chouakri, Berlin


 
Martin Parr, The Amalfi Coast, Sorrento 2014 | Studio Trisorio, Naples


  
Primož Bizjak, Telefónica Madrid (2012) | Gregor Podnar Gallery, Berlin


 
Quayola, Iconographies #20-1 (2014), "The Tiger Hunt" after Rubens | Bitforms Gallery, New York

 
Rafa Macarrón, Turista (2015) | Galería Juan Silió, Santander

 
Carlos Bunga, Intento de conservación III (2015) | Galería Elba Benítez, Madrid

 
José Dávila, Untitled (2014) | Galería Travesía Cuatro, Madrid
   
ARCO's guest country this year is Colombia, who brings ten galleries and twenty artists with the ARCO Colombia programme and a vast display of Colombian art in all major Madrid museums organized by the Colombian government.

Jorge Magyaroll, Trabajo Inacabado | Galería El Museo, Bogotá
  
 
Further artworks include a few photo collages.
 
Ángel Marcos, La mirada blanca 6 (2011) | Galería Max Estrella, Madrid
   
Teresa Margollés, Esta finca no será demolida (2011-13) | Galerie Peter Kilchmann, Zurich


 
Worth a mention is JustMAD, Madrid's affordable art fair happening within the Madrid Art Week and in parallel to ARCO. This year's edition displays very interesting photography, including works from the Puerto Rican & South African duo Christto & Andrew who live and work in Qatar.
  
Christto & Andrew, Hamour (2014) | Galería Espai Tactel, Valencia
About
ARCO International Contemporary Art Fair | Madrid | 25 February - 1 March 2015
JustMAD Emerging Art Fair | Madrid | 24 February - 1 March 2015
ARCO Colombia 2015

Previous Articles
ARCOMadrid 2014
ARCOMadrid 2013
ARCOMadrid 2012 and 2013 Prospect

 Featured Artists
Primož Bizjak
Carlos Bunga
Alberto Casari
Christto & Andrew
José Dávila 
Olafur Eliasson
Markus Huemer
José Lourenço
Rafa Macarrón
Jorge Magyaroff 
Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle 
Ángel Marcos
Teresa Margollés
Asier Mendizabal
Richard Mosse
Sarah Morris
Julian Opie
Martin Parr
Charlotte Posenenske
Quayola
Albrecht Schnider

Photos by PS
Cover picture by Richard Mosse, Come Out (1966) XXXIII, 2012 | Carlier Gebauer Gallery, Berlin
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ARCOMadrid 2014

February 22, 2014
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The 33rd edition of ARCO Madrid Contemporary Art Fair offers in 2014 an experience worked around its visitors. There is an oasis for charging phones, a food court arranged as a German Biergarten with live DJ sessions, an open TV set and a radio station. This is a first. What used to happen behind closed doors, including eating, now finally plays in the open. Lovely art as well.
 
This year's highlights include the Cornwall Eden Project in the Atacama Desert by Michael Najjar; or Sanja Iveković Sunglasses, a wonderful project resulting from the collaboration with various women's shelters, in which the artist attaches a picture of a model to a personal story of violence and abuse. The beauty of the models takes over the stories of pain and suffering and confers the women a strength that could not have been perceived with the text alone. 
 
 Below is a selection of artworks. 


Hans-Peter Feldmann, Sonntagsbilder | Mehdi Chouakri Gallery, Berlin


Caio Reisewitz, Pirituba, 2014 | Galeria Luciana Brito, São Paulo
 
Caio Reisewitz, Joaçaba, 2010 | Galeria Luciana Brito, São Paulo


  
Los Carpinteros | Ivorypress, Madrid
   
Michael Najjar, Sands of Mars, 2013 | Galeria Juan Silió, Santander

 
Miguel Rothschild, Insomnia XIII, 2013 | Kuckei + Kuckei, Berlin
   
Ralf Ziervogel, Endeneu Rot, 2012 | Kewenig Gallery, Berlin
   
Sanja Iveković, Sunglasses, 2002-4 | Galería Visor, Valencia

 
Tomás Saraceno, Sagitarius, 2013 | Andersen's Contemporary, Copenhagen

    
Tomás Saraceno, Carina, 2013 | Andersen's Contemporary, Copenhagen
 
Elger Esser, La Grande Be, 2009 | Kewenig Gallery, Berlin
      
José Dávila, Untitled, 2013 | Galería Travesía Cuatro, Madrid
   
José Dávila, Untitled, 2013 | Galería Travesía Cuatro, Madrid
   
Knopp Ferro, Space 21:31, 2014 | Dan Galeria, Sao Paulo
 
Ian Monroe, Lines of Light 14, 2014 | Galería Casado Santapau, Madrid
     
Carlos Garaicoa, En Construcción (VI), 2012 | Galería Elba Benítez, Madrid
   
Luciano Romano, La Città di Marmo, 2010 | Galleria Studio Trisorio, Neaples

 
Richard Mosse, Lost Fun Zone, 2012 | Galería Leyendecker, Tenerife

Adelita Husni-Bey, Working for a World Free of Poverty, 2014 | Galleria La Veronica, Modica (Sicily)

 
Opening, ARCO's section for galleries with a life shorter than seven years and with a focus on the youngest art scene, presented very interesting work by Adelita Husni-Bey, and with a great format. It's a  series showing the global economic growth percentages according to IMF data with coloured Lego pieces.

The Solo Projects section focuses this year on Latin America with Manuel Mérida (below) as one of the selected artists. 
 
Manuel Mérida | Espace Meyer Zafra, Paris

    
The communal spaces look like this:
Cover picture the Oasis at El País

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ARCOMadrid 2013

February 28, 2013
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Dario Urzay, Lego en la Materia, 2013
Adequate and restraint is how you would tag the 32th edition of Arco, Madrid's international art fair. Very few jaw-dropping moments but admirable efforts by galleries and management to keep up the show.

The 2013 Arco edition starts with a lot of tension: a skyrocketed VAT on works of art and a disappearing budget from Spanish institutions, once serious acquisitors. Nevertheless, plenty of aspects for lauding this edition: the highest international participation ever, many invited private collectors and professional buyers, an online service to purchase artwork up to 5,000 € and Turkey as a focus country. Arco's director Carlos Urroz continues his good work. However, and as I already suggested last year, it would be great if Arco offered a different value proposition. Something that would turn it to a unique and extraordinary event...

Back to the art, Solo Objects, a new section for large artworks, has been striking. Big objects in a vast space, suggestively lit.... Quite dramatic.

Alice Aycock, Spin-the-Spin. Background, Guillermo Mora, Entre tu y yo. 2012

Clara Montoya, 2 (x,y,z), 2012

Susy Gómez, Lejos de expresiones completamente automáticas, 2012

Else, there were few installations or sculptures at this Arco edition. One of those few was the series "men & bricks" by Portuguese artists Baltazar Torres at the Mario Sequeira Gallery. Torres's little men on, around and under bricks managed extremely well to convey the construction-bubble-burst anxiety.  Another interesting installation, We Are One Body, by Eulalia Valldosera on show at Studio Trisorio, shows footage of recent riots in Athens on an ancient-looking amphora.

Baltazar Torres
Eulalia Valldosera, We Are One Body, 2012
  
Wonderful textures by Mexican artist Bosco Sodi at the Galeria Carles Tache.
Bosco Sodi, Untitled, 2012

The Infra series by Richard Mosse, on show at the Leyendecker Gallery, has been around for a couples of years, however, it is always great to see. Mosse's project is impressive. Shot in Eastern Congo with a colour infrared film (Kodak's Aerochrome), he portraits the conflict in a way where beauty transcends the pain or horror. Romantic, but grotesquely so, rather surreal. All together a different approach to war photography. In Mosse's words:
 "I feel strongly that something that is 'just made up' can speak more powerfully and more clearly than a work of journalism"

Richard Mosse, Infra
  
Incredibly powerful was Guy Tillim's shot of the South Pacific sea at the German Gallery Kuckei+Kuckei. The photograph, called Haapiti, Moorea, is a landscape of the sea with rather dull colours and an equally so composition. Despite this, or rather because of it, the shot is amazing. In a talk at the Lannan Foundation on July 2011 Guy gives away his take on landscape photography when he says: 
"Perhaps the scene is only beautiful when all the elements are palpably part of the whole. [...] There are obvious ways to convey the components of the scene, either through detail or monumentally. But what of that which lies in between? The indeterminate space that conveys the texture, its feeling, its sensation, its quotidian elements alongside the spectacular. I think there isn't an answer because each scene is a place of meditation, of emptiness. It provides its own context because in a certain way of looking it cannot be anywhere else. What is photographed? Nothing and everything, when you have no desire to leave the frame".
Guy Tillim is a South African award-winning photographer who has worked as a news photographer for Reuters and Agence France Press. Similar to Richard Mosse (mentioned above), Guy has documented the conflict in the DR Congo focusing on the details of everyday life rather than on the bloodshed. Congo Democratic is a fascinating series shot in Kinshasa during the 2006 general elections and Soldiers (2002), a series of black-and-white portrays of child soldiers in Eastern Congo. 
  
Guy Tillim, Haapiti, Moorea, 2011
    
Back-lit photograph by Raffaela Mariniello at the Studio Trisorio, Naples, at Arco for the first time.

Raffaela Mariniello

Surprisingly, there seemed to be no 3D printed objects at this Arco edition. Watch the space for next one. For a moment I thought that Photo-topography by Carlos Garaicoa at Galeria Elba Benitez was 3D printed but it turned to be a photograph transferred to polyspan. Good work still.

Carlos Garaicoa, Photo-topography, 2012
 
A video projection on suspended water bottles was the great installation by Daniel Canogar at the Madrid based gallery Max Estrella, which also showed an intriguing rained mirror by Jorge Perianes.

Daniel Canogar
Jorge Perianes

Aglaia Conrad, featured last year, presented Carrara Cuts at the Nadja Vilenne Gallery; a series of aluminium mounted, black-and-white pictures of the Carrara marble quarries.

Aglaia Konrad, Carrara Cuts, 2013
 
Broken Line is a wonderful collection of colourful object cuts by Isidora Correa at Die Ecke Arte Contemporaneo (Santiago de Chile).

Isidora Correa, Broken Line, 2011
 
Neon lights and mirrors in Hopelessness, a work by Chilean artist Iván Navarro brought by Distrito 4. The Madrid based gallery has at this edition predominantly exhibited young artist's work, strongly betting for Rafael Macarrón (Madrid 1981), an award-winning artist who was allocated nearly half of the booth. His sculptures are hilarious. The three on show here were raised plywood boxes containing a detailed room filled with surreal beings of all sizes and colours.

Iván Navarro, Hopelessness, 2011
Rafa Macarrón, House Garden, 2013
 
Another artist to follow is certainly Ruth Gómez on show at the Mario Sequeira Gallery. Her work Spray is a graffiti progressively painted.

Ruth Gómez, Spray / Starting Over #1, 2013
 
Undoubtedly the most interesting introduction was to Mexican artist Teresa Margollés, winner of the 2012 Artes Mundis prize. Teresa's work is fascinating. It explores death and our relationship with it. Her work includes 32 años. Levantamiento y traslado donde cayó el cuerpo asesinado del artista Luis Miguel Suro, a piece that uses the bloody floor tiles on which the artist was murdered in Mexico. What Else Could We Talk About?, her contribution to the 2009 Venice Biennale, had the floor of the exhibition space continuously mopped with water used to wash bodies in a morgue in Mexico.

Teresa Margollés
 
Fiscal Canvas by Karmelo Bermejo is a great piece to close with. The artist suggests with this work a way forward in the art market. He challenges the buyer and the gallery not to declare the acquisition / sell of the piece. And he even goes further: the canvas, since it is left unpainted, can be used to support another artwork... which would consequently be undeclared as well. Realistic or less so, it is surely a proposal with a dose of future thinking. 

Karmelo Bermejo, Fiscal Canvas, 2013

About
ARCO International Contemporary Art Fair, Madrid 13 - 17 February 2013

Featured Artists
Alice Aycock
Karmelo Bermejo
Daniel Canogar 
Isidora Correa
Susy Gomez
Ruth Gomez
Aglaia Konrad
Raffaela Mariniello
Teresa Margollés
Guillermo Mora
Richard Mosse
Ivan Navarro
Jorge Perianes
Bosco Sodi
Guy Tillim
Baltazar Torres
Dario Urzay
Eulalia Valldosera

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