From August 30 to September 1, the arteBA fair will open its doors to the public for the third time at the Costa Salguero CenterThe largest purchases are expected during the previous openings on Wednesday 28 and Thursday 29 August, dedicated to special guests, mainly collectors and representatives of institutions.
The fair will test the art market. Experience shows that, however severe the crisis Argentina is going through, When the major projects appear, the financial situation can take a backseat. In this way, the art presented by the exhibitors will have its weight when it comes to defining the success of the Fair. The responsibility of selecting the galleries, the spaces and the art with sufficient appeal and quality was this year in the hands of the curators. Carla Barbero and Florence Malbranin addition to the gallery owners Mora Bacal (Ruth Benzacar), Amparo Díscoli (Cosmocosa) and Ricardo Ocampo (W-Gallery).
Although the Argentine economy is not the best, the presence of 400 artists and 65 galleries from 15 different cities has been maintained since 2023 with few variations. The Costa Salguero space located on the Costanera Rafael Obligado is very large and allows for large displays, but it has a soulless architecture. Its appearance and the comfort of visitors will depend on the grace of the design, in charge of Horace Torcelloauthor of the Architectural Master Plan that he will present together with two young colleagues.
The gallery owners of the main section face in this edition a cost of around 50 million pesos for a stand of around 100 square meters. The expense is excessive and they do not hide it.. It is exactly about 331,500 pesos per square meter, to which must be added –to reach that amount– VAT and some final finishing details.
Asked about the figures, which they say are double those of last year, the managers of arteBA respond that they have increased in line with the inflation rate. However, all gallery owners consider it inevitable to invest this money, and even more, they say that it is essential. “So we don’t fall off the map”they point out. ArteBA is the place where they feel they have to be.
The cost of the Buenos Aires stand is often compared to that of the Madrid ARCO fair, an undertaking paid for by the Spanish government. In Argentina, for several years, the government financed the travel and stay of buyers from various museums around the world, so that they could come and make their purchases. But today it is necessary to go out in search of private sponsorship.
The importance of the 2024 Fair lies in the great visibility it brings, especially in the local media. There are buyers who started with arteBA and are waiting for this date to look at the horizon of modern and contemporary art. And only then do they choose a work. It is the public with the taste and eye educated by arteBA.
The gallery owners feel that no matter how great the effort, they cannot allow the prestige gained by the fair until 2020, during almost 30 years of history, to collapse. Founded in 1991, arteba became the largest fair in Latin America and today, after an institutional catastrophe that meant the resignation en masse of all its founders and of Love Amoedo for president, set out on the path to recover lost ground. TO Larisa Andreanithe president of the Foundation, has this enormous responsibility, well supported by Lucrecia Palacios Hidalgo and Maia Guemes who has held this position for decades.
The current management of arteBA has its own merits, including financial support for young gallery owners who must make the big leap to the established galleries. And sometimes they fall by the wayside. Stage This is a new program of graduated subsidies. You have to know the environment to understand the difficulty of taking this step. The most experienced gallery owners should always keep in mind that with the payments for their stands, they contribute to supporting the income of young people.
Like every year, the Utopia Sectiondedicated to young art and the most recent productionswill bring together artist-run galleries, for-profit and non-profit organizations, and other experimental platforms for marketing. It is the place where keen collectors go to discover artists who may make it big in the future, as well as good works at low prices.
The Main Space will house galleries with a track record. Among others, there will be Aldo de Sousa, Calvaresi, Alejandro Faggioni, Barro, Constitución; Cott, Palatina, Herlitzka, Sendrós, Ruth Benzacar, South of Punta del Este; Floating Island, Miranda Bosch, Maria Calcaterra, Mite and Roldán Moderno; Diego Obligado and Subsuelo de Rosario; Nora Fisch, Rubbers, Piedras, Maria Casado, Jorge Mara – La Ruche, Pasto, Revolver, Van Riel and Rolf. Utopia includes, among others, Atocha, Aura, El Mirador, Fulana, Grasa, Komuna, Gascón; Jamaica, NN, Intemperie, OHNO, La mesa, La Arte; La Copia, POPA, Satellite, Pioneer and the Bogotá Communal Hall.
Source: Ambito
I am an author and journalist who has worked in the entertainment industry for over a decade. I currently work as a news editor at a major news website, and my focus is on covering the latest trends in entertainment. I also write occasional pieces for other outlets, and have authored two books about the entertainment industry.
