Andrew Barsch - Journalist

The artful lot once again set their sights on Madrid as the entire city readies itself for ARCO’05. This is the 24th edition of the International Contemporary Art Fair, whose special guest country this year is Mexico. ARCO’05 focuses on the latest developments in the art world — including new media art — and the ARCO panel debates the past, present and future of contemporary art at the 3rd International Contemporary Art Experts’ Forum.

Making the cut
It seems that everybody who’s anybody in art today is trying to elbow their way into halls 7 and 9 of the Parque Ferial Juan Carlos I to get their “modern, contemporary, emerging and experimental art” on display. As the organisers put it, “Richness, diversity and high-end work confirm the success of an art fair that is a magnet for creators, mediators and other agents working in the international contemporary art world.” And bullshit aside, I recommend spending the 58 euros on the catalogue plus admission and taking at least a couple of days to ogle through what’s become one of our favourite weeks of the year.

ARCO organisers received nearly 600 applications for the event and had to narrow things down to a total of 272 galleries. The end result is 81 galleries from Spain and an additional 191 from 31 other countries. Those who didn’t make it this year, fret not. You can use the 18,000 euros it costs for a medium-sized stand to print out flyers for your gallery and hand them out at the door.

As one of last year’s highlights, in protest of what some circles have called the “globalisation of the art market which shuts out the struggling artist”, some ingenious performance artists set up an impromptu top manta at one end of the exhibition hall to get some attention for the “indie artist” who doesn’t have any ARCO buying power (see p9). But don’t hate those who’ve been discovered by the movers and shakers of the industry. Yes, somebody’s getting rich off all this, but they have damn good taste and are promoting the most cutting-edge, one-of-a-kind, politically charged, avant-garde art ever to be brought together under one roof. Be thankful that they’re globalising something thought-provoking instead of hamburgers, fizzy drinks, or tacky cross trainers. Would you hate your favourite band just because they got signed by a major label? Be happy for those who made it, and come out to show your support.

For those who made it
From the 272 gallerieswho came up with the money and managed to steer clear of the axe, I wanted to get an idea of just what ARCO’05 means to both gallery and artist, and what it does for one’s reputation and career in contemporary art. Everyone I spoke to seems to agree that it’s all about exposure, exposure, exposure. And let’s face it, who doesn’t like exposing themselves?

Walter Maciel, director of the Rena Bransten Gallery in San Francisco, says the most important thing about having a stand is that the gallery “gains exposure from European collectors and curators”. Marcel Fleiss of Galerie 1900-2000 in Paris is happy to be a part of things and says “I think that the contemporary world appreciates the very ambitious programme ARCO organises.” But could there be such a thing as too much exposure?

“There are too many art fairs today,” says Eric Franck from London’s Eric Franck Fine Art. “The artists cannot produce enough good work for all these fairs, therefore the quality has gone down considerably since the 80s.” But ARCO may have found its niche. What seems to make it so special is the gap that ARCO bridges from Europe to Latin America.

With more Latin American galleries represented here than anywhere else, Joel Beck, co-owner of the New York based Roebling Hall calls it “the leading fair with special emphasis on Latin American artists along with European artists. I think the rest of the world enjoys ARCO. Especially, of course, because everyone enjoys Madrid.”

Mexico lindo
Every year a “guest country” is chosen by ARCO and this time they decided to go the Iberamerican route. Mexico is the first Latin American country ever to be invited as a guest . . . maybe they felt a little guilty about that Hernán Cortés thing all those years ago. The organisers hope that this invitation “will offer an extensive overview of the current Mexican art scene by presenting a carefully designed selection of galleries and artists.”

Judging by what ARCO is famous for, this is not going to be your cornhusk Mexican-peasant workers’ art. Says press director Marta Cacho, “ARCO’05 aims not only to reflect the nature of the Mexican art scene faithfully, but also to describe the development of the artistic context that has existed in Mexico in recent years. It will present the works of around 20 galleries specialising in the historical, avant-garde, modern and contemporary art, as well as up-and-coming and experimental art.” In addition to the Mexican galleries present at ARCO’05, an exhibition programme will be running in such venues as the Reina Sofía, the Conde Duque cultural centre, the Casa de América, the Casa Encendida, the Alcalá 31 gallery and the Fundación Canal Isabel II. Don’t expect to find desert cactus landscape scenes with sombrero-toting muchachos taking their midday siesta. This is your 21st century scenester representation, so get ready for a ride inside what is sure to be a major highlight of the fair.

Defining the indefinable — new media art in The Black Box @ ARCO’05
“New media” is not easy to define, yet ARCO’05 has found it within its power to put together some of the most fascinating sections of this year’s event donning the term “new media art”, and The Black Box @ ARCO’05 is a world unto itself. Guides, glossaries and experts in the field don’t even attempt a definition of “new media”, and Black Box curator Mark Tribe admits that it’s “a slippery term that uses new technology as a medium”. Was the paint brush not once considered new technology? When applied to the arts in 2005 it has something to do with “going digital”.

The exhibition’s co-curator Gerfried Stocker takes a stab at explaining it like this: “The so-called Digital Revolution has long since spawned its own very specific forms and varieties of art, whose spheres of action are located mostly beyond the confines of the art establishment, which has scarcely accepted or even noticed them until now. This fuels the tendency of up-andcoming young artists to set up their own platforms, collaborative arrangements and business models, whereby the ongoing brain drain of this creative potential into the media and advertising sector threatens to leave the art establishment behind like a ghost town.”

Well, the “art establishment” at ARCO’05 seems to be doing their best to stay hip on the “new media” art front, representing this “scarcely accepted” art form with four different artists from four different continents. Not to give too much away, video animation, projections and sound offer a minimal description of some of the politically, spiritually and sexually charged content that these four artists deal with. And these are not handy little pieces to hang on your wall or to be set on the mantelpiece . . . so what’s the point?

“They are not restricting themselves to media art currents that are relatively easy to prepare and present, like graphics and video art,” explains Stocker. “Instead, what is to be found in their exhibition spaces are difficult-to-realise art forms, such as interactive installations and sound and media environments. They are thus making an essential contribution to bringing digital media art and the art establishment closer together, and these galleries’ dynamic, enthusiastic, young staffers are opening up presentation possibilities that do justice to these new forms of art.” It’s all about defining what can’t be defined. “Their work offers inspired alternatives to the standard commercial uses of new media,” adds Tribe, “and critical insights into roles these new media play in our lives.”

Get your fix
For those who have never been to ARCO in the 24 years since its creation, I can only say that it just keeps getting better with age. From its consciously disencumbering chill-out spaces to the sense-numbing stimuli of The Black Box, it’s impossible to leave the exhibition hall in the same state of mind that you went in with. Eric Franck may have had a point about the over-saturation of the market with these megaevent art fairs, and at times the whole idea comes off seeming like another globalised excuse to get everyone in the same place at the same time for some good old-fashioned money grubbing. But in the end, events like this do push the envelope, stimulate cultural advancement, and maybe even provoke us to take our world-weary minds out of our post-modern sceptic realm of thought just long enough to appreciate what someone else has to say.

Info
Opens: February 10, 5-9pm; February 11-14, 12pm-9pm
Venue: Parque Ferial Juan Carlos I, tel: 91 722 57 98 / 58 00 (Metro: Campo de las Naciones), Halls 7 and 9
Admission: Thurs, 30 euros (58 euros with catalogue); Fri-Sat, 28 euros (55 euros with catalogue); Sun-Mon, 24 euros (51 euros with catalogue) Admission with student reduction: Thurs, 20 euros (48 euros with catalogue); Fri-Sat, 19 euros (45 euros with catalogue); Sun-Mon, 17 euros (43 euros with catalogue)
www.arco.ifema.es