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Arte Fiera, taking place from February 2 - 4, 2024, is a showcase dating back to 1974 when BolognaFiere decided to create a small section devoted to modern and contemporary art within what was then called the Trade Fair. In 2024, the art fair will mark its 50th anniversary by celebrating its origins and focusing on its pioneering editions, which, in just a few years, catapulted it to international acclaim. This is a milestone that few international art fairs have surpassed, and that no other Italian fair has managed to yet. Due to the significance of this occasion, a stamp will be released by the Ministry for Business and Made in Italy.
The public programme will examine the happenings, figures, creations, and publications, relating to the beginnings of the fair's establishment in 1974. By doing this, Bologna will also commemorate the remarkable 1970s, a decade in which the city led the way in the realms of visual arts, architecture, and the creation of novel frameworks for interactions between politics, the arts, and society. Those years were both the source and the result of Arte Fiera's establishment, which sprang from the audacious and inventive atmosphere of the city and provided it with a swift boost.
The art exhibition will take place at the Bologna Fair District’s most elegant spaces, traditionally associated with the Fair. A total of 196 exhibitors will be showcasing their work, with the return of the Apalazzo, Laveronica, Lia Rumma, Lorenzelli Arte, Franco Noero, Ronchini, and Sprovieri Galleries.
Exhibitors, Curators and Sections
Three curated, invitation-only sections will complement the exhibition's main component, which will be divided into post-war and contemporary art: Pittura XXI and Multiples, which feature works released in editions ranging from artist publications to designs, as well as Photography and Moving Images. Davide Ferri, critic and independent curator will be curating Pittura XXI, while Photography and Moving Images has been entrusted for the second time, to Giangavino Pazzola, curator of di Camera - Centro Italiano per la Fotografia, Turin. Multiples will have a new curator, critic, and art historian Alberto Salvadori.
Percorso, an itinerary that connects some of the stalls in the main section thematically, will be present in addition to the curated sections. This year, Percorso will focus on ‘design’ as a common language that connects artists from all backgrounds and eras. For the 2024 edition, Percorso has the support of Ducati, the esteemed motorcycle brand connected to Bologna. The brand has opted to combine a format whose name conveys the idea of movement and energy, with a themed drawing that incorporates the element of design essential to its character.
Public programs and Special projects
Opus Novum, an annual commission for a new piece of art by a prosperous Italian artist, will be given to Luisa Lambri this year, an internationally famous artist whose medium is the photographic image. Lambri is best known for her photographs of modernist buildings so essential to design, that they border on abstraction. Her commission unites two buildings that epitomise Bologna's 1970s architectural scene: the Padiglione de L'Esprit Nouveau, a 1977 replica of Le Corbusier's 1925 temporary work at the Fair District entrance, and Alvar Aalto's Church of Santa Maria Assunta (Assumption of Mary) in Rioladi Vergato (BO), which was the architect's only permanent project in Italy. Furthermore, the second and last portion of the previous Opus Novum commission given to Alberto Garutti will be unveiled at the fair. This portion consists of a plaque that is permanently attached to the Fair District's main entrance and reads, in both Italian and English: All the steps I have taken in my life have brought me here, now. It is a poetic call to contemplate how everyone's route in a particular place and time was characterised by a combination of intentionality and coincidence, conscious and unconscious choices, as well as chance.
Arte Fiera and Fondazione Furla have extended their collaboration for the live art performance programme that will be curated by the Foundation's artistic director, Bruna Roccasalva. Daniela Ortiz, a Peruvian artist, is the featured contemporary artist for this season. She will be creating a new performance titled Tiro al Blanco. This complex art installation activated by a participatory performance will explore the global systems of political, economic, and cultural power, with a focus on the institutional processes that inflict violence on populations in the Global South .
Curated by art historian Clarissa Ricci, Numero Zero is another exhibit that explores the fair’s origins starting from a unique viewpoint: the catalogue of the first edition. Enlarged copies of every page in the first edition of the Arte Fiera catalogue (1974) are available in Il Primo Catalogo di Arte Fiera. Visitors can discover the ten Italian galleries that took part in that first edition, most of which are from Bologna. The exhibit, which was made in cooperation with the Associazione Nazionale Gallerie d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea (ANGAMC) and placed next to the Association's lounge, features a timeline of participation in Arte Fiera from 1974 to 1979. This creative method of highlighting the galleries' significant cultural contribution and growth has been used to illustrate the fair's evolution.
Highlights
Curated by Guendalina Piselli and in partnership with BPER, Book Talk, devoted exclusively to art books returns for its third edition with a full schedule of presentations. La performance a Bologna negli anni '70 (Edizioni MAMbo, 2023) is Uliana Zanetti's curation of an exhibit titled Praticamente non avevamo nulla da vendere translating to ‘Practically nothing to sell’, which honours the history of performance, and is the product of MAMbo's study and analysis of the museum's documents on the subject. Curator Francesco Zanot and artist Francesco Jodice present the book West, a catalogue of the artist’s show at the National Archeological Museum in Naples. The catalogue of the show during the Milan Triennial, Pittura italiana oggi, is presented by curators Damiano Gullì and Davide Ferri alongside artist Sofia Silva.
Paintings made between 2020 and 2023 by 120 artists (born between 1960 and 2000) make up Pittura Italiana oggi, a comprehensive collection of perspectives, articulations, and readings of modern art .
Arte Fiera Bologna has renewed its partnership with Mutina, the famous ceramics brand known for its strong links to contemporary art and an array of creations by the world’s top designers. Mutina announces its participation with a special exhibition project dedicated to Maurizio Cattelan titled BECAUSE. When Cattelan first started his creative career in 1991, he decided to ‘infiltrate’ Arte Fiera by setting up an unauthorised booth. Almost three decades later, in 2024, Mutina is honoured to contribute to the fair by setting the stage for the artist to make another appearance. With BECAUSE Cattelan refuses to address the matter and once more, leaves the public in a state of confusion. BECAUSE, conceived by Sarah Cosulich, curator of Mutina for Art, is an unexpected dialogue between two Cattelan pieces, enhanced by the location in which they are housed. The focal point of the exhibit made for the event is the ceramic collection Fringe, which Michael Anastassiades developed specifically for Mutina.
Arte Fiera and BPER
BPER Banca will be the main partner of Arte Fiera 2024, further solidifying its commitment to the art event. With this significant move, the main art fair and Italian art gallery network is now connected to a national bank with deep roots in its native country. The bank actively supports and promotes arts and culture, believing that it is vital to both, social inclusion and local development.
ART CITY Bologna
The most prominent artist to be born and raised in Bologna is Giorgio Morandi (1890–1964). In honour of Morandi's 60th death anniversary this year, the ART CITY Bologna project, curated for the seventh year in a row by Lorenzo Balbi, Director of MAMbo – Museo d’Arte Moderna di Bologna, will showcase a programme centred around works by Morandi. The following five special projects will use contemporary art to explore and reinterpret Morandi's work: a performance directed by Virgilio Sieni, who will direct the new production Elegia Luminosa at Bologna's Teatro Comunale and lead Atelier Morandi - Palestra Auratica, a series of gesture lessons; Joel Meyerowitz's photographs in Morandi's Objects will be shown in the Municipal Art Collections in Palazzo d'Accursio; Mary Ellen Bartley's works in Mary Ellen Bartley: MORANDI'S BOOKS, an exhibit at the Morandi Museum; Artist Tacita Dean's short film STILL LIFE and the studio of Giorgio Morandi will be shown in the new PIETRO space; there will also be a sound/live installation named Saturnine Orbit by Mark Vernon, designed by Xing for the Giorgio Morandi Home Museum and the Haystacks of Campiaro in Grizzana Morandi, in the province of Bologna.
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