The 14th edition of the Art Madrid contemporary art fair has been inaugurated today, with the presence of more than 40 national and international galleries, bringing to the Spanish capital about two hundred emerging and consolidated artists, thus reaffirming the commitment of the event with the most contemporary creative panorama.
In the Crystal Gallery of Centro-Centro Cibeles, an impressive audiovisual installation receives visitors: twelve screens reproduce in loop the "Repúblicas Mínimas" by Rubén Martínez de Lucas, guest artist of this year.
Three of them have done it ex rookie for the Fair, and are part of "Stupid borders", the series with which Lucas defends that every nation is fleeting and all flag, useless:
"There is violence in the very idea of nation.
And there is violence in its symbol; the flag.
There can also be love, I admit it.
But or do you love all the flags
(and with them all humans
and all the animals
and to all plants
and all the stones)
or it is better not to love any flag. "
To demonstrate this, the Madrid artist appropriates a physical space (in the middle of the sea or a recently harvested field) where he creates a country of 100 square meters that lives (completely alone) for 24 hours ... these videos can be so ephemeral like their countries, so in Art Madrid you can buy some of your limited edition photographs or a book that summarizes his experience.
In addition, his most pictorial work, so to speak, is displayed on the stand of the Madrid gallery Bat Alberto Cornejo, along with the impressive paintings of the Cuban Gustavo Díaz Sosa, the metal sculptures of Carlos Albert or the fantastic miniature performances of Marta Sánchez Luengo.
A few meters away, in the privileged position of the veterans of Art Madrid, Collage Habana once again surprises with the works of Andy Llanes, Roldán Lauzán and Daniel R. Collazo, to whom this time the veteran Ernesto Rancaño joins, with some installations where he mixes photography, sculpture and artificial light.
This is the most international edition of Art Madrid: 40 percent of all exhibitors are foreigners. Next to the Cuban gallery, others from 15 countries attend, among them Germany, Lithuania, Argentina or Brazil.
For its part, the traditional curated program One Project, this year is entirely led by women, including its new police station, art critic Nerea Nubieto. Under the title "Fictions, masks and landscapes: color as a backdrop", the works are mostly unpublished by seven creators, where the international presence stands out again.
As the curator explains, those are works that invite us to build our own universes, because "through creation we can get rid of the burdens that slow down the development of society, dissolve stereotypes, invent new ones, appropriate what we want to change and, effectively, transform it. "
The authors of the interventions and works presented are Rūta Vadlugaitė (represented by Contour Art Gallery, Vilna), Virginia Rivas (DDR Art Gallery, Madrid), Mara Caffarone (Granada Gallery, Commune, Argentina), Nuria Mora (About Art, Lugo), Sofía Echeverri (Flux Zone, Mexico City), Manuela Eichner (RV Cultura e Arte, Salvador) and Alejandra Atarés (Víctor Lope Contemporary Art, Barcelona).
Art Madrid 2019 - a conference of which Arte por Excelencias is a media partner - will be open to the public at the Cibeles Center-Center Crystal Gallery until Sunday, March 3.
Photos: @yricardo
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