The first and oldest international art fair in Italy celebrated its 40 years with a total of 58,000 visitors (+10% on 2015)

The 40th edition included 222 exhibitors (190 galleries, 16% from outside Italy) more than 2000 works by over 1000 artists.

Outstanding pavilions presentation, strong visitors attendance and exceptional foreign collectors presence confirm Arte Fiera’s position as the premier fair in italy for contemporary and modern works.

With Art City and Art White Night Bologna and their 200 events under the patronage of the Bologna Council, Bologna’s art week confirmed its credentials as the capital of modern and contemporary art in Europe during the period of Arte Fiera.

The 2016 edition of Arte Fiera celebrated its 40th anniversary by promoting two special activities: the Italian première  of Mathew  Barney's  operatic  film  project  River  of Fundament and the opening of a two venues homage exhibition ARTE FIERA 40, a colossal tribute focused on both leading artists of the last 40 years, and new emergent under 40 year old talents (hosted between the Bologna’s MAMBO - Museum of Modern Art -  and Pinacoteca – National Gallery) .

The ARTE   FIERA   40 homage  exhibition, which  will  run  until  March  28th  2016,  has been  curated by Giorgio  Verzotti and Claudo  Spadoni, fair directors, in collaboration with a jury made-up of curators and directors of leading art institutions and museums, including Francesco Bonami (curator and president of   the   selection    committee), Luca    Lo    Pinto (curator   of   Kunsthalle    in   Vienna), Laura    Carlini Fanfogna (director of the Institution of Bologna Museums), Giacinto Di Pietrantonio (director of GAMEC in  Bergamo), Hou  Hanru (director  of  MAXXI  in  Roma), Andrea   Bellini (Director  of  the  Centre  for Contemporary Art in Geneva), Alberto Salvadori (director of the Marino Marini Museum), which selected the best works by artists under 40 along the fair, whose works had been brought to the Pinacoteca and displayed alongside those of the key figures of the past 40 years.

MAIN SECTION

This year more than ever Arte Fiera has underlined its role as a meeting place for those currents and movements that have underwritten the international success of Italian Sales in recent years. The numbers highlight how Arte Fiera offered visitors an ideal pathway between the artistic currents and movements that have  written  the history of  international art: from Futurism to Metaphysics, passing through Kinetic Art, Pittura Analitica, Conceptual Art and finally Arte Povera and Transavantguardia.

The Main section enabled the public to admire not only the works of the Italian great masters such as Giacomo  Balla, Giorgio  de  Chirico and Giorgio Morandi,  but  also works by artists  that  have dominated  the  international  art  market,  such  as Lucio  Fontana, Alberto  Burri, Emilio Vedova, Enrico Castellani, Piero Manzoni, Enrico Castellani, Turi Simeti, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Alighiero Boetti and Mario Schifano plus numerous international icons such as Pablo Picasso, Fernando Botero, Yves Klein, Joseph Kosuth, Joan Mirò and Hans Hartung, in addition to the protagonists of the current scene like Gina Pane, Daniel Buren, Manolo Valdés,  Rebecca Horne, Ai Weiwei, Nick Cave and Jaume Plensa.

The attendance at the fair of a growing number of Italian and foreign collectors underlined the quality of the works in the main section in line with the financial data from the art market. In order to ensure the quality of the transactions and to meet the requirements of the most selective collectors as well as those new to collecting, this year Arte Fiera involved Artprice to provide consulting services and access to its data bank concerning the art market.

PHOTOGRAPHY

The  new  exhibition  layout,  which  included  the  addition  of  Pavilion  32,  enjoyed  exceedingly  positive feedback from the Galleries involved in the new launch of a Photography section. Fabio Castelli of MIA Photo Fair, who curated the selection  of the photographic  galleries, said, “In spite of some perplexities about the decision to dedicate a new pavilion to photography, the decision proved to be a success because the  cluster  of  photography  galleries  was  much  more  attractive  to  visitors  as  it  allowed  the  visitors  to experience a part of the exhibition dedicated solely to photography”

SOLO SHOW

The  section Solo  Show offered monographic   overviews by  narrating  the  symbiosis  between  gallery owners  and  artists  that  has  been  so  fundamental  to success  throughout  the  history  of  art.  In  this itinerary among  outstanding  booths  the  variety  took  over through installation,  drawing, painting and photography and mixed media.

NEW PROPOSALS

In addition to the particular industry attention to the section, plus participation of younger visitors, the Under 40 Prize was awarded to three young artists who exhibited in the new Pavilion 32 within the New Proposal area  and their work  was  a testament  to the quality  of the curatorial  research  in there: Valerio  Rocco Orlanco, Guglielmo Castelli, Valentina Miorandi.

Alongside  private  collectors  from  Europe,  America  and  Asia,  representatives   of  private  and  public collections  attended  the show,  including the  Venice  Guggenheim;  the  Pinacoteca  Agnelli  (Torino); Club Italia (Milan);  Museo  Maxxi,  (Rome);  Fondazione  Sandretto  Re  Rabaudengo  (Turin),  Museo Maxxi,     (Rome);     Fondazione     Ratti,     (Milan);     the     Rembrandt     Foundation     (Den     Haag, Netherlands);  Mathaf Museum (Doha Qatar); Deloitte Collection, (Milan); Carige Private Bank; Bank Intesa San Paolo; Unicredit Wealth Management;  the Consulate  for Business and Culture  of the German Embassy; the Commonwealth of the Bahamas, among many others.