Finland has been selected as the next year’s guest country for the major art event ARCOmadrid art fair. The contemporary art fair held in Madrid, Spain, is one of the largest art events in the Spanish-speaking world. The ARCOmadrid art fair will be held on 19–23 February 2014.
As the guest country, Finland will have a large, pavilion-like exhibition space at its disposal. In addition, separate sections in the exhibition have been reserved for the use of Finnish galleries.
ARCOmadrid is the most important contemporary art fair in the Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking world with about 160,000 visitors every year. There are works by thousands of artists on display.
“ARCO is an excellent gateway into Latin America for Finnish visual art,” says Raija Koli, Director of Frame.
Frame Visual Art Finland will coordinate the Finnish participation in ARCOmadrid. The Finnish art will be curated by Leevi Haapala, Curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, who will select the Finnish galleries, artists and exhibitions to participate in ARCOmadrid. Haapala was selected as the curator by Carlos Urroz, Managing Director of ARCOmadrid.
Frame will publish the Finnish programme of ARCOmadrid in early September, when Haapala has made the selections. There will most likely be approximately 12 galleries included, each of which will showcase the works of one artist.
The guest participation of Finland in ARCOmadrid will be produced in co-operation with the galleries selected to participate, the Embassy of Finland, Madrid, the Finnish Institute in Madrid and Finpro.