From 22nd to 26th of February 2023, ARCOmadrid Contemporary Art will dedicate its 42nd edition to the Mediterranean. This year it will bring together a greater international presence with more than 400 collectors from 36 different countries.
One of the artistic movements that can be found at ARCO is architecture, a discipline that we wanted to highlight in Connections by Finsa through three installations:
VERBENA guest lounge
The joint proposal by HANGHAR and DIIR studio was the winner to create the fair’s VIP lounge, where “to play a tribute to celebration”, in the words of those in charge. “The room moves away from isolation in favour of interaction, exploring new forms of relationship where folklore and contemporaneity are mixed in an open-air dance, a verbena”, they explain.
A large red marquee articulates the staging and creates a halo that invites you to discover the interior. It recreates an atmosphere of fairground connotation, without restrictions, where benches, bars, tables and porticoes are the protagonists.
City of galleries
This is how Pedro Pitarch’s studio defines the common and rest areas of the fair. This proposal for ephemeral urbanism emphasises the role of the galleries as the main elements. Moving around the fair recalls the movement of an urban space, in which visitors walk through its streets and avenues discovering works, spaces and events.
Unlike the conventional contemporary art fair scheme, in which cultural and public spaces are usually deliberately isolated from the gallery space, in ARCO 2023 they are actively used to articulate the fair space, as “public squares” of the particular city.
The Mediterranean: A Round Sea
The design of the exhibition space of the central programme The Mediterranean: A Round Sea (El Mediterráneo: Un Mar Redondo) is the work of Andrés Jaque, recently appointed dean of Columbia University. Revolving around this concept, it will reflect the different cultures and countries that are articulated around this sea.
