Review
SP–Arte 2021
At the 17th SP–Arte edition, which took place from October 20th to 24th, simultaneously in the at ARCA, a 9,000 square meter warehouse located in São Paulo, and on the Online Viewing Room (which was available until the 31st of October October ), 128 exhibitors, 84 in person and 44 exclusively in the digital medium were present. Over the five days, around 18,500 people visited ARCA, almost selling out all the tickets available, which this year counted on a limited audience capacity, due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
“We were able to deliver a safe event that brought exhibitors and artists closer to the public, in addition to improving our digital platform, making SP–Arte not only restricted to event days, but also consolidating itself as a channel of access and credibility for Brazilian and international art”, comments Fernanda Feitosa, director and creator of the Fair. The commercial success exceeded expectations, with a positive balance of sales and reserves, also generating post-fair optimism.
With an exhibition dedicated to the legacy of Lasar Segall, Almeida e Dale Galeria de Arte, held sales and reservations of the collection. Also a traditional fair participant, Bergamin & Gomide closed important sales, including those of works by Lucio Fontana and Donald Judd, and is betting with optimism on the post-fair.
One of the most sought after spaces, VERVE Galeria sold 95% of the first exhibited collection, which contained drawings, paintings and sculptures by Francisco Hurtz, and the second montage had more than half of its works sold. At the Viewing Room, the gallery recieved a proposition by an institution to acquire the entire collection.
Two days before the end of the face-to-face Fair, Portas Vilaseca Galeria had already sold all of their selected works: eight paintings and 18 drawings, all by the artist from Minas Gerais, Gustavo Nazareno.
The Viewing Room, available until the end of October, had more than 40 thousand accesses, which includes views in Brazil and from abroad. The digital space, enhanced in the 2021 edition, marked the event’s strong online participation in the art market, allowing public from all over the world to have access to the works of the galleries – both those that participated in person at SP–Arte and those that sell their works exclusively by the online page. With the Viewing Room, SP–Arte also guaranteed a strong participation of international galleries, such as Labor, from Mexico; Marian Goodman Gallery, from the United States of America; and Piero Atchugarry Gallery from Uruguay and the United States of America.
At STATE
Consensus among exhibitors, the Fair attracts, every year, an audience that is increasingly interested in consuming culture. Traditionally, SP–Arte brings together important names in contemporary art for in-depth discussions that foster art and culture. The STATE, space attached to ARCA, also hosted a large part of this program.
In addition to a space dedicated to publishers, Talks were held with curators, artists, journalists and representatives of the art market; an exhibition on art and technology curated by Ana Carolina Ralston and AR JAM, which brought sculptures in augmented reality created by more than 30 code designers and developers from an open call that had 35 teams enrolled. The visitation took place through QR codes installed throughout the space.
AR Jam is a BRIFW initiative in partnership with Hic Et Nunc, State Innovation Center, Centro-br and 8thWall, which aims to bring together developers, artists and designers to defend a more inclusive and diverse future based on sustainable practices among fashion, art and technology.
Talks took on an unprecedented format, promoting meetings and discussions between art professionals and the public of the 17th edition of SP–Arte. Designed to take place in an adequate way to the current context, Talks occupied the STATE bleachers, with more informal conversations, for between thirty minutes and an hour, in direct partnership with the exhibitors themselves and under the coordination of Felipe Molitor.
On the opening day, the 20th, Casa Chama promoted a conversation between the NGO founders, Digg Franco, Matuzza Sankofa and artist Cinthia Marcelle, about the importance of visibility and recognition of artistic productions by trans people and how anyone can be an ally of the NGO and its actions in the areas of culture, legal, psychosocial and entrepreneurship. Members Maíra Marques and Gabriela Davies, accompanied by the artist and researcher, Fabiana Faleiros, were invited to talk about the Active Potency project – articulation of art projects that debate the world’s urgencies and generate resources for organizations that work daily on the social struggles front.
On the 22nd, Friday, Central Galeria promoted a meeting between artist Gretta Sarfaty and art researcher Mirtes Marins de Oliveira, anchor of SP–Arte’s podcast, “Arte em meio-tempo”. The spoke about the process of re-editing the book “Auto-Photos”, a facsimile of a rare 1978 edition, as well as other stories related to art and life. The gallery owner Thiago Gomide introduced the artist Luiza Crosman, who is holding her first solo exhibition at Bergamin & Gomide next year, with her research on the works “A Garota do tempo” (“The weather girl”) and the seer. VERVE proposed the debate “Me and others: the masculine crisis”, with artist Francisco Hurtz; professor, writer and lawyer, Renan Quinalha and with researcher and professor, Mateus Nunes, based on the artistic proposal “Eu e os Outros” (“Me and Others”), by Francisco Hurtz, exhibited at the VERVE booth. The open conversation addressed topics such as the political consequences of masculinity, but also about art, democracy and virility.
On Saturday, the 23rd, promoted by Casa do Povo, the Autonomous Spaces and Tactical Dependencies table invited Benjamin Seroussi (Casa do Povo), Mauro Restiffe (artist) and Eliana Finkelstein (Vermelho Gallery). The conversation presented the collaborations between the different agents of the art system, having a representative of an autonomous space (Benjamin), an artist (Mauro) and a partner-director of the gallery (Eliana). The multifaceted and restless nature of Fernando Zarif’s work (1960-2010) was celebrated with the release of the book “Fernando Zarif – Multiple Unit”, which accompanied a video exhibition on the gables of the Minhocão in São Paulo. During the launch, a preview of the exhibition was shown to SP–Arte visitors, with videos by Barbara Gancia, Bia Lessa, Branco Mello, Cacá Ribeiro, Carolina Ferraz, Erika Palomino, Fernanda Torres, Lenora de Barros, Liana Padilha, Malu Mader, Marina Lima, Paulus Magnus, Sergio Mekler and Tony Bellotto reading excerpts from the book.
Also on the 23rd, the 01.01 Art Platform dealt with the ethical-aesthetic meetings between Abdias do Nascimento and Mestre Didi, presented by artist and researcher, Ana Beatriz Almeida. On the occasion, the trajectory of the two artists were presented, relating them to their ancestry and reflections in the current world that narrated the trajectory of the artists. Closing the 01.01 programming, on Sunday, the last day of the Fair, collector Ademar Britto presented the speech Collecting and Innovation, detailing how he has immersed in the visual arts, the encouraging of young artists and the current highlights of his collection and research in art .
SP–Arte Digital Experiences
Organized by consultant and art market specialist Vivian Gandelsman, SP–Arte Digital Experiences proposed a navigation through projects, discussions and creative proposals to contribute to artistic production in the digital field. The project, which took place on the second day of the event, brought together a network of professionals who are in constant dialogue and face common challenges.
The activity, which is part of a movement that seeks sustainability in the digital art market, was composed of five Talks: Transdisciplinary Collaborations, a dialogue between the artist from Maranhão, Thiago Martins de Melo, and designer Raul Luna about the creative process and the conception of the digital exhibition “Animal Crepuscular”. Vivian Gandelsman talked about the process of selling the work and mapping buyers.
In NFTs and Blockchain Technology, collector Bernardo Faria and Vivian Gandelsman spoke about the digital art market and, more specifically, about the NFT cryptocurrency (non-fungible tokens). With experiments in the digital field, artist Vitória Cribb presented relationships between her technological creative processes, formalization and personal perspectives within digital artistic production.
In Capital Co-constitution and Subjectivity, artist Ode presented Notes on Travecacceleration, thoughts on blackness sided with transvestility as the artist’s cisgender capital-colonial dismantling practices. The last Talk, called Practices of Experimentation and Disciplinary TRANSgression, brought the artist Dani Pinheiro and the playwright João Turchi, from the Mexa group, to talk about the actions of the collective, which move between art and politics in addition to addressing transdisciplinary practices and collaborative digital projects.