ARCO 2019: A Recap of the Contemporary Art Fair
Discreet and known faces, and a remarkable representation of young artists. What do they have in common? A passion for art and delivering a message.
The Contemporary Art Fair ARCO, hosted at IFEMA (Madrid’s area for events and fairs), had its 38th Edition last weekend. With Peru as the guest country, it aimed to consolidate the presence of Latin American art in Europe. The fair was inaugurated by the King and Queen of Spain and the President of the Republic of Peru, Martín Vizcarra.
This year, ARCO had its best year, with more than 100,000 attendees throughout the five days of the fair. The visitors could see a total of 203 galleries from 31 countries.
El Confidencial shared artist Elisa Hernando’s opinion on how this new edition stands out, for the number of "proposals by young and established artists, for all kinds of pockets, and many of them with an international projection.”
Some fun facts about ARCO:
You could buy a figure of Spanish King Felipe VI as long as you committed to burn it.
The most expensive piece was “Personnage et Oiseau, 27 juillet” (1963), by Joan Miró for 4 million euros.
The cheapest piece was “Everything about the contemporary is panda” (2017) for 700€.
Only 8% of the artists were Spanish.
Artists have to pay between 5,700 and 50,000€ for the spaces.
Comment: Art Pieces and Artists
Physical Objects and Hidden Meanings
Glenda Léon. “El poder de la palabra” (The power of words)
The installation had three type machines, each of them with something different. The objective was to symbolize the power of words. The first one had teeth. The second one, matches and sandpaper, since the possibility of contact would set it on fire. And the third one, nails and thin paper, and each time you typed, you would break the paper.
Textures and Colour
Spaces and Installations
Installation: “La Memoria del Vidrio” (The Memory of Glass)
Every few hours, the artist would call the visitors to refill the hour glass sculpture with broken glass. They wanted to send a message of sustainability and waste materials.
Sculptures
Rodriguez Méndez - “Región de Validez”
This was a line of unopened packets. The artist explained they contained shirts from his dead father that his mother sent to him along the years.
For next year, the new director of ARCO announced that it would be dedicated to the theme "It's Just a Matter of Time", from which artistic practices will be observed from the work of Cuban-American artist Félix González-Torres, and that the theme and the guest country will alternate every year (Telemadrid).