ARCOmadrid 2019

ARCOmadrid has once again prepared an extensive program of professional activities and parallel exhibitions for the 2019 edition of the fair, inviting curators, artists, museum directors and leading art world figures to participate in a wide-ranging program of panel discussions and professional Meetings. In this way ARCOmadrid 2019—taking place from February 27 to March 3—will continue to serve as a gathering place for art world professionals from around the globe, while at the same time offering a unique perspective on contemporary art as seen from the cross-roads of Europe and Latin America.

Divided into sections Forum and Professional Meetings, ARCOmadrid’s discursive platform provides a broad spectrum of art world professionals a platform for discussion and debate. With Peru as this year’s Guest Country, the 2019 Forum will include an inaugural talk by the Peruvian Nobel Prize winner Mario Vargas Llosa in conversation with Juan Manuel Bonet, while the Peru Forum will offer a series of panel discussions directed by Miguel A. López and focusing on Peruvian art, culture and cultural institutions. Participants in the Peru Forum will include Fernando Bryce, Gabriela Germaná, Roberto Huarcaya, Sharon Lerner, Natalia Majluf, Alfredo Marquez and others.

The Collecting Forum will consist of various talks and discussions such as conversation between Jean-Jaques Aillagon, General Manager of the Pinault Collection and formerly the French Minister of Culture in conversation with Marta Gili, Curator and Art Advisor, as well as a panel discussion with Margaret C. Conrads, Chief Curator of the Crystal Bridges Museum; Marcela Guerrero, Assistant Curator at the Whitney Museum; Dani Levinas, Chairman of the Board of the Phillips Collection; and Jeremy Strick, Director of the Nasher Sculpture Center, and moderated by George Stolz. In addition, the Artists Forum will feature a panel discussion with Valerie Brathwaite, Elena Tejada-Herrera, Cecilia Vicuña and led by Agustín Pérez Rubio, Curator Berlin Biennale 2020.

ARCOmadrid 2019 will host the 8th Meeting of European and Ibero-American Museums (organized by the Reina Sofía Museum) with participants including Sofía Hernández Chong-Cuy, Director of the Witte de With Museum, Inés Katzenstein, Latin American art curator of the MoMA, Cuauhtémoc Medina, Chief Curator at the MUAC, among others, many of whom will also participate in the talk at the Forum  about the 8th Meeting of European and Iberoamerican Museums, also held at the fair. As usual, ARCOmadrid has also invited numerous art world professionals to attend the fair, such as Christina Lehnert (Curator Portikus), Justine Ludwig (Executive Director, Creative Time) Adriano Pedrosa (Artistic Director, MASP) Matilda Olof-Ors (Curator Modern Museet) Daniela Zyman (Chief Curator & Artistic Director of Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary/TBA21) and many others.

In conjunction with the fair, a series of satellite exhibitions focusing on Peruvian contemporary art and contemporary art collections will be on view in museums and art centers throughout Madrid, with solo shows of artists such as Armando Andrade Tudela, at the CA2M Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo, Raimon Chaves & Gilda Mantilla and Maya Watanabe, as well as various group shows. Selections Peru’s leading contemporary art collections will also be exhibited in Madrid, including the Eduardo Hochschild Collection, at the San Fernando Royal Academy of Fine Arts, the Jan Mulder Collection, at Centro Cultural Conde Duque, the Luiz Augusto Teixeira de Freitas, at Sala de Arte Santander, Collection and Latin American highlights from the ARCO Foundation and CA2M and the Instante Fundación will host a show promoted by CIFO Europe with Peruvian artists from the collection of Ella Fontanals Cisneros. These exhibitions will find a counterpart in “Peru at ARCO”, the special section of the fair dedicated to Peru and curated by Sharon Lerner, Chief Curator of contemporary art at Lima’s MALI Museum.

ARCOmadrid 2019—the 38th annual edition of the fair—will also host the awards ceremony for the 23rd prestigious “A” Collectors Prize, awarded each year by the Fundación ARCO to leading collectors and art institutions dedicated to contemporary art. Cleusa Garfinkel; CAAC del Museo de Arte de Lima – MALI; The Meadows Foundation; the Banco de España Collection; the HEF Collection, Juan Entrecanales Azcárate; and the Kells Collection, Juan Manuel Elizalde and Choli Fuentes, are the winners on this occasion.

With this blend of Professional Meetings, events, activities and special guests, ARCOmadrid 2019 will once again transform the vibrant Spanish capital into an incomparable international art world gathering, demonstrating yet again the fair’s role as a unique bridge between the European and Latin American art scenes.