ARCOlisboa, the recent international contemporary art fair, has decided to adapt this year’s edition into an online version of the fair, over the course of four weeks, while trying to replicate the spirit of this important project that has been inspiring the Portuguese artistic scene since 2016, increasingly gathering new audiences and international interest. Just like in previous editions, EDP Foundation is a patron of the 2020 edition.
ARCOlisboa online edition will be available from 20 May to 14 June, via the website arcolisboa.com in partnership with the platform artsy.net, presenting and selling works from the galleries selected by the fair’s Organising Committee and by the commissioners for the sections Opening and Africa in Focus.
As has been the case with previous editions – although this time, broadcast digitally –, these activities will be complemented by other events, such as a programme of talks held between guests working in these fields, which are expected to connect the Portuguese arts scene with both a Portuguese and international audience.
The General Programme for galleries includes the presence of Portuguese references such as Cristina Guerra Contemporary Art, Filomena Soares, Pedro Cera and Vera Cortês, as well as up-and-coming galleries such as Balcony, Bruno Múrias, Madragoa or Nuno Centeno. Among the Spanish participants are Elba Benítez, Elvira González, Heinrich Ehrhardt, Helga de Alvear or Juana de Aizpuru, and international participants such as Balice Hertling (Paris), Georg Kargl (Vienna), Greengrassi (London), Marcelo Guarnieri (São Paulo) or Sokyo (Kyoto).
The section Opening, which will be organised for the first time by the independent institution Kunsthalle Lissabon, is made up of a selection of galleries taking part in the fair for the first time and, just like with the 2019 edition, curator Paula Nascimento will be responsible for selecting the galleries for the programme Africa in Focus.
Via the platform artsy.net, which is linked to the fair’s website, contemporary art lovers and collectors will be able to explore the selection of works that each participating gallery prepared especially for this digital project. This section will focus on the selection made by a group of guest curators and collectors for the Curators and Collectors Pick, including curators Luiza Teixeira de Freitas, Bruno Leitão and João Laia.
The ARCOlisboa Fórum, which can be accessed through the arcolisboa.com website, will feature an average of three weekly talks, streamed live. These include the participation of artists such as Nadia Belerique or Diana Policarpo in talks hosted by art commissioners João Mourão and Luís Silva /Kunsthalle Lissabon, Paula Nascimento and Filipa Oliveira.
In turn, curators João Ribas and Miguel Mesquita will explore Portuguese institutions and the reality of contemporary art in Portugal, and Brazilian curator Tiago de Abreu Pinto will lend a new perspective to the already-familiar dialogue with Portuguese collectors, which will include the participation of art collectors Armando Cabral and António Cachola, among others.
The programme will also include contributions from the Lisbon Municipal councilwoman for Culture, Catarina Vaz Pinto, and Tobi Maier, Director of Egeac’s Municipal Galleries, and will be complemented by talks about contemporary art publications managed by ArtsLibris.
