Arte Fiera Art First celebrates its 35th edition this year, to be held in Bologna from 28 to 31 January 2011. One of the first international modern and contemporary art fairs organized in Italy in the 1970s, Arte Fiera has gradually become Italy’s largest and most important art fair. Every year, this must-see event is the first exhibition devoted to modern and contemporary art, and attracts gallery owners, collectors, curators, artists, and art lovers from Italy and around the world.

Aware of the new function that art fairs have assumed on the art market, Arte Fiera Art First has maintained its role of showcase and continues to cultivate and promote Italian and international art from the early 20th Century right up to the latest trends, while progressively increasing synergy with local institutions thanks to a programme of high-level collateral events.

More than 200 galleries are present in the Bologna Exhibition Centre’s 15,000 square metres – divided into three sectors (modern art, contemporary art, and latest trends) plus an emphatically international section reserved to Young Galleries with not more than five years of activity.

This edition offers many new features and events, such as:

AT THE EXHIBITION CENTR

The Art Talks space presents the roundtable entitled Art Education Programs‚ organized by IACCCA (International Association of Corporate Collections of Contemporary Art), which has chosen Arte Fiera Art First as the ideal occasion to introduce itself to Italy and to discuss various forms of art education that corporations with collections of contemporary art now promote and offer to their employees. Speakers include: Jacqueline D'Amencourt of LHOIST Group (Belgium), Janina Vitale of DZ Bank, Frankfurt (Germany), and Aline Pujo of Fondation Neuflize Vie (France), who will discuss the subject with moderator Walter Guadagnini of Unicredit Group (Italy).

Arte Fiera Art First also presents two important Prizes dedicated to young artists. The 5th edition of the Euromobil Under 30 Prize - main sponsor of Arte Fiera Art First – addressed to young artists represented by galleries at Arte Fiera and selected by a jury of critics and professionals. This year’s winner will be announced in the “I luoghi dell'arte, I luoghi del design” space. The 8th edition of Furla Prize, the Italian prize recognized as a fundamental stepping stone for Italian artists to embark on an exchange from abroad, with the cooperation of Arte Fiera organizes a roundtable at the Fair with the participation of its five finalists and the Italian and foreign curators who selected them. The patron artist of this edition is Christian Boltanski, who created the graphic image and the motto Pleure qui peut, rit qui veut. Every day, the Art Café Space, in cooperation with Corraini Edizioni, offers meetings and presents art books and catalogues. Critics, artists, publishers, and gallery owners discuss various aspects of the art world by means of the latest publications.

IN THE CITY

During the four days of Arte Fiera, Bologna becomes an ideal setting that alternates between past and present. From 28 January to 27 February 2011, Arte Fiera and the City of Bologna present the 6th edition of Bologna Art First, entitled “If one winter’s day a traveller”, curated by Julia Draganovic. This a unique path that each visitor will experience as an intimate voyage to discover old buildings and historical places by means of site-specific installations, created by both well-known and rising Italian and foreign artists at galleries at the Fair, that dialogue with the memory of important symbols of the city.

The cooperation among foundations, institutions and private collectors attracts to Bologna highly recognized people within the Italian and International art world: at MAMbo there is the European preview of American artist Matthew Day Jackson’s personal exhibition “In search of...”; at Palazzo Pepoli (one of the historical buildings of Fondazione Carisbo), there is “Pleure qui peut, rit qui veut”, with works by the five finalists of the 8th edition of the Furla Prize (29 January - 6 February 2011); in the Aula Magna di Santa Lucia (Great Hall of Santa Lucia) “Lady performance” is a meeting with Marina Abramovic, promoted by the Alma Mater Studiorum in collaboration with Arte Fiera, in which the artist will personally comment the Italian preview projection of the film Seven Easy Pieces, seven famous historical performances of renowned contemporary artists, considered one of the principal events of the solo show recently dedicated to the artist at MoMA in New York (Friday, January 28th 2011); at the Salone del Podestà in Palazzo Re Enzo, “Happy Tech - Machines with a human face” a show of art+science that explores our relationship with new technologies, sponsored by Fondazione Marino Golinelli and curated by Giovanni Carrada and Cristiana Perrella; the Spazio Carbonesi hosts Svoboda, curated by Daria Khan: a collective show of contemporary Russian art that investigates the concept of freedom in Russia by means of site-specific works by eleven artists; lastly, at the Basilica di Santo Stefano, is a show dedicated to Shozo Shimamoto, one of the founders of the Gutai group, curated by Achille Bonito Oliva.

Arte Fiera’s cooperation with the city’s institutions is confirmed with the “Grow with art” project, a weekend at MAMbo organized during the Fair by the Museum’s Education Department. This project offers children and teenagers a “hands-on” experience with contemporary art and its languages.