Madridfoto 2010

Madridfoto is the first international contemporary photography fair held in Madrid. From Thursday 7th to Sunday, May 10th May, forty seven galleries will be travelling from near and far to show their works at the fair. Private and public collectors from Spain and further afield will be turning up to see the latest in photography and video, contact galleries and take in a wide breadth of work by over 350 artists who, while working in the same medium, propose a wide diversity of aesthetic and conceptual themes.

Madridfoto showcases up to fifteen non-Spanish galleries, 30% of the total. This proportion of galleries from outside Spain guarantees variety and a high level of international artists. Besides, the selection of Spanish and international photographers represented by Spanish galleries, seventeen based in Madrid and the rest from around the country, make this event an exceptional opportunity to overview current art and photographic practice in Spain and abroad.

Thursday 7th is a special preview day set aside for contacts between players in the art market: giving invited collectors and agents from the culture industry a chance to meet with galleries. Besides, as part of its mission to popularize contemporary art and foster photography collecting, Madridfoto opens its doors to the general public on Friday 8th. Admission can be purchased at the exhibition centre at 12 Euros.

Galleries at Madridfoto: 3 Punts Galería, Barcelona / Adhoc, Vigo / Blanca Berlín Galería, Madrid / Carles Taché Galería, Barcelona / Carlos Carvalho ARTE CONTEMPORÂNEA, Lisbon / Dolores de Sierra, Madrid / Drissien Galerie, Munich / Ego Gallery, Barcelona / El Museo, Bogotá / Espacio Mínimo, Madrid / Estiarte, Madrid / Fernando Pradilla, Madrid / Flatland, Utrecht / Fúcares, Madrid / Galería Cubo Azul, León / Galería Enrique Guerrero, Mexico City / Galería Hartmann, Barcelona / Galería Juan Silió, Santander / Galería Juana de Aizpuru, Madrid / Galería La Caja Negra, Madrid / Galería Mário Sequeira, Braga / Galería Marta Cervera, Madrid / Galería Moisés Pérez de Albéniz, Pamplona / Galería Oliva Arauna, Madrid / Galería Senda, Barcelona / Galería Soledad Lorenzo, Madrid / Galería Spectrum Sotos, Zaragoza / Galería Tagomago, Barcelona / Galería Vértice, Oviedo / Galerie Clairefontaine, Luxembourg / Galerie Stefan Röpke, Cologne / Galerie VU´, Paris / Gallery Taik, Berlin - Helsinki / Guidi&Schoen ARTE CONTEMPORANEA, Genoa / Kunstagenten, Berlin / La Fábrica Galería, Madrid / Luciana Brito Galería, São Paulo / Luis Adelantado Valencia - Miami / MasArt, Barcelona / Max Estrella, Madrid / Moriarty, Madrid / My Name Is Lolita Art, Valencia-Madrid / Nicholas Metivier Gallery, Toronto / Patricia Conde Galería, Huixquilucan / Sandunga, Granada / Travesía Cuatro, Madrid / Vanguardia, Bilbao.

Madridfoto has a parallel educational and informational function to promote private collecting of art and photography. Publishers taking part at the fair, including APERTURE, La Fábrica, EXIT, TF or Turner, have turned the luxury of collecting photography into a passion affordable to all types of publics.

Madridfoto focuses on all the agents involved in contemporary art. Keenly aware of the importance of specialized publications in recent years, both for their contributions to photography and for their function as channels of information for all art lovers, publications like Eyemazing or Camera Austria International have been invited to the fair. Both share space with Spanish magazines like Lápiz, Exit or ArteContexto, whose critics, curators and art experts contribute with their knowledge on art, aesthetics and culture. Through this initiative, Madridfoto wants to bridge the gap between regular subscribers and new readers who have recently discovered these publications that are currently defining the future of an emerging cultural industry.

The main goal of the design of the exhibition hall by the Jaque Arquitectos studio is to ensure a comfortable visual visit to the fair and to promote interaction among visitors. Instead of the right-angled intersections so characteristic of the grid pattern at this type of events, For Madridfoto Jaque has created open spaces encouraging a better appreciation of the works on show. Besides, the area of all participating galleries is identical, so as to highlight the work of the artists regardless of the size of the gallery. In other words, the public will have a pleasurable access to photography thanks to a friendly, welcoming atmosphere.

A feature differentiating Madridfoto is its special focus on contemporary photography. This specialisation, coupled with its human-scale, makes it standout among other existing art fairs.

www.Madridfoto.es is the fair’s official website and the best source of information on this new initiative. Taking into account that Madridfoto makes its appearance just as web 2.0 is emerging as an alternative to unidirectional communication, the fair is using new channels like Twitter (where it publishes information in real time) or Facebook (with the creation of a specific group), and a blog open to everyone (www.Madridfoto.blogspot.com), where art lovers and professionals can meet and discuss specific info about the fair, generating contents undoubtedly adding further interest to the event.

A catalogue of Madridfoto featuring information about all participants at the fair is also on sale. It will also be available at La Central, the fair’s official bookstore.

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