ART FAIRS:Art Madrid 2020

Art Madrid, the most important contemporary art fair in the Spanish capital, celebrates its 15th anniversary this year with an edition that is more dynamic and transgressive than ever with changes that promise to please all attendees and participants. The fair defines itself as an open and global proposal that offers the perfect opportunity to discover and acquire singular works covering all disciplines.

By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Art Madrid Archive

In the 15^th edition of Art Madrid join their forces 27 Spanish and 14 foreign Galleries from 9 countries, including 13 new galleries represented at Art Madrid for the very first time with 200 artists. Among the Galleries in  the General Sector, Gallery BAT Alberto Cornejo among other artist presents works by Gustavo Díaz Sosa, one the most exhibited Cuban painter in Spain. He owns more than thirty prizes and his works are part of important private and public collections all over the world. He has also collaborated in artistic projects involving other languages such as: cinema, television, theater or illustration. 3 Punts Galeria presents works by Samuel Salcedo. Human emotion takes on sculptural form in Salcedo’s hyper-realistic creations. Some figures stand naked and vulnerable, caught off-guard in intensely private moments; others sport animal heads, masks or simply their underwear. Among others Galleria Stefano Forni presents the work of Luciano Ventrone who is internationally recognized as one of the master realist painters of his generation, he believes that his works are really about optics. And Alberto Zamboni who is fascinated by tales of adventure and the great unknown and strives to capture this sense of odyssey within his misty landscapes. The current body of works in Art Madrid is a summa of his inspirations. Uninterested in the representation of reality per se; the human figure becomes the pretext to create a oneiric depiction of reality, imagined through the prism of his remembrances.  Under the “Salvajes: La cage aux fauves”, goes a step further in its ONE PROJECT program, turning it into a sphere of dialogue (but also of conflict) where nine artists will share the space face to face presenting specific projects to the fair. The program is directed by the art critic and independent curator Fernando Gómez de la Cuesta. In a backwards journey in time, “Salvajes: La cage aux fauves”, takes as starting point the classic dichotomy that existed between the great official salons and those creators who subverted the state of the question, either from their convoluted participation in them or by generating new alternative devices such as independent or des refusés salons. Participating Galleries: DDR Art Gallery, Madrid; Galería ATC, Santa Cruz de Tenerife; Kaplan Projects, Palma de Mallorca; MA Arte Contemporáneo, Palma de MallorcaPlastic Murs, Valencia.

Curated by Mario Gutiérrez Cru, the program PROJECTOR’20 is dedicated to visual and interactive arts and action art.  In this edition, the Art Madrid will have a booth dedicated to presentations and live actions with   renowned artists from the field of performance and video creation. Art Madrid-PROYECTOR’20 program started its activity on February 12  at Medialab Prado with “All Prophets are Wrong”, a master class by Patxi Araújo and the opening of his “Sherezade”, a site-specific work at the facade of Medialab Prado. Also, toady,  Olga Diego in her masterclass “The flight as a creative matter”, stages a practical session to work on the concepts of “Flight, Art and Action”, their interrelation and the need for audiovisual registration as a definitive work induced by the original ephemeral work. On February 14, with the title “Time and image”, Lois Patiño proposes an approach to these two concepts through his work and the treatment that is made of these universal elements. For Art Madrid-PROYECTOR’20, Sala Alcalá 31 collaborates again with Art Madrid in this program to hold on February 20, a round table of professionals including Rafael Doctor, Karin Ohlenschläger and Berta Sichel in a debate conducted by Miguel Álvarez-Fernández. They all will discuss the evolution of the fixed image in contemporary culture until reaching the new media. Finally, in this cycle of previous activities, Art Madrid organises on February 22, a visit to the studio of the artist Eduardo Balanza.

Performances: In “RRAND 0-82”, Iván Puñal (a.k.a. The Pleasant View) will explore the concept of “random” and “chaos” through live audiovisual performance. For this, uncontrolled elements will be introduced into the performance through mathematical algorithms, both to generate visual frames and improvised sound spaces so that the result is “non-repeatable”, “uncontrolled” and “non-voluntary”.  Eunice Artur y Bruno Goçalves’s “Partitur” is inserted in the fascinating and vast panorama of the creation of graphic annotations. The evolution of electronic music requires a new system of notations where we seek, among other things, to understand the relationship of new phenomena, such as the relationship between loudness and plastic manipulation in performance; unpredictability and error as ways of generating non-linear readings and/or new graphic forms of notation. The performances will be held on Art Madrid’s booth D5 on Feb, 26, 27 & 28. Arturo Moya Villén y Ruth Abellán present “Tonel de las Danaides” singing each inside the mouth of the other. The sound resulting from the interaction of the two voices in a single cavity, directly controls the water produced by the performers themselves in a video that is screened during the performance. The same sound also governs the appearance of sounds from water recordings.

Info: Art Madrid 2020, Galería de Cristal de CentroCentro Cibeles, 1 Montalbán St., near Plaza de Cibeles 1, Madrid, Duration: 26/2-1/3/20, Hours: 11:00-21:00, Admission: Full-fare ticket 15€, Reduced Ticket (people over 65y, unemployed, students and groups (20 minimum)) 12€,  Children up to 12years- free, www.art-madrid.com