Crazy about art a Bologna: a week of 188 events kicks off today, animated by 200 artists, in 108 places in the city, an ideal itinerary designed to lead to Art Fair, the international event of modern and contemporary art scheduled in the capital from the 4st to the XNUMXth of February. The "aperitif" event is called Art City and boasts the direction of Lorenzo Balbi, artistic director of Mambo, the modern art museum of the capital. The highlight will be on Saturday 2 February, when the 43rd edition of the fair-market will also be in full swing. In fact, the most eagerly awaited appointment is the White Night, when no one can go to bed before midnight, because galleries, museums, private exhibition spaces and many shops remain open for a choral party dedicated to art. For the occasion, a small train will take the most curious around the most significant places. A total of 10 days to enjoy in Bologna for art lovers.
It starts today at Villa delle Rose with a large retrospective dedicated to Goran Trbulyak, Croatian artist, active since the end of the 60s in the field of conceptual art and the so-called New Art Practice, dedicated since the beginning of his career to the search for alternative means of production and representation of the work. Almost every day, however, there is a preview or even more than one and it spans every expressive field, a lot of photography and even cinema thanks to the collaboration with the Cineteca di Bologna Foundation.
Mark your appointment in your diary atEsprit nouveau, the building opposite the Fair, reproduced in '77 by the architects Giuliano Gresleri and José Oubrerie, a faithful replica in every detail of the building created by Le Corbusier for the 1925 universal exposition in Paris. In Bologna 'Les gens d' Uterpan', a pair of world-famous French choreographers, coordinates a group of performers who will insinuate themselves into the spaces of the Pavilion and among the visitors with unpredictable and engaging movements.
It is impossible to list all the events and it is advisable to refer to the rich program that can be downloaded from the Internet from the sites of Art Fair e Art City.
The city reception point Bologna Welcome has also created theArt Week Card, which includes admission to the Fair, the Genus Bononiae museum circuit and the National Art Gallery; access to the permanent collections of the civic museums and to temporary exhibitions; the two-hour guided tour of the historic centre, the ascent to the Torre degli Asinelli and exclusive access to Casa Dalla. To orient yourself among the various proposals of 2019, a newspaper in tabloid format is also published with a map, times and description of the main events, together with a Promenade Art Week guide.
If this is the side dish, and what a side dish, the main course remains the exhibition-market scheduled in the exhibition halls of the exhibition centre. The new artistic director is Simone Mengoi and, in an interview with Corriere di Bologna, he summarizes his poetics for the Fair as follows: "Italian, undergoing renewal and ambitious".
His first move was to reduce the number of artists that each gallery can bring: three for the smallest stands, down to six for the largest ones. A scissor that will allow the curious and collectors to orient themselves more easily and to concentrate on some great talents.
As the website states, the 2019 edition is “a fair that focuses on its Italian spirit, but keeping in mind an international quality standard; which exploits its strength on modern and post-war art, but looking at contemporary trends; which strengthens its bond with Bologna and its region".
In addition to a careful selection of galleries in the Main Section and in the Photography and Moving Images section, the artistic direction of Simone Menegoi brings five major projects to Arte Fiera: the exhibition Only figure and background, curated by Davide Ferri, which brings together first time works from the institutional collections, public and private, of Bologna and Emilia Romagna; Hey there. Performing activities curated by Silvia Fanti, a program of actions by Alex Cecchetti, Cristian Chironi, Cesare Pietroiusti and Nico Vascellari that take place at the fair, on its outskirts and in the city; the educational workshops of the Golinelli Foundation linked to the theme "Art and Science", present for the first time at the Fair; a talk program entrusted to Flash Art magazine, which inaugurates an all-round collaboration with Arte Fiera as "content partner"; “Hic et Nunc”, a “no VIP lounge” created by the artist Flavio Favelli and dedicated to all the public of the fair.
Finally could not miss the food, in an era that has known how to re-evaluate taste and make cooking a true art. Space therefore for quality also in this area: in VIP Lounge The Bite of the Priest presents a gastronomic proposal in a revisited Bolognese style, declined in a Restaurant and Bistrot version. The Champagnerie by Laurent-Perrier is also back, while the bar in the Centro Servizi is managed by FICO – Eataly World.
Among the side events, it is worth noting the Fruit Exhibition, the independent art publishing market at Palazzo Isolani, in Piazza Santo Stefano.
