The second edition of SPARK Art Fair is confirmed, BAF has been postponed to March and Arte Fiera has been postponed to May, so something in this world muffled by Covid is starting to revive a little; SPARK dates have been set from 24 to 27 March 2022. And for this second edition there are also some news. Christoph Doswald, Bettina Leidl, Marieke Wiegel and Fiona Liewehr will be the curators of the special sections: “Spark Expanded”, “Photography” and “The Fourth Wall”. Obviously, the fair aims at the usual presence of established galleries together with younger galleries, in order to have proposals for stands with established authors who are confronted with emergent authors. The three sections, as is now customary for other fairs, therefore act as a counterbalance or reinforcement to the choices of the participating galleries and become a new frontier in the debate on contemporaneity.

In the words of Christoph Doswald, curator of the Spark Expanded: Out of the Booth section, “The development and questioning of traditional concepts of art and artworks is a productive constant in contemporary art. It is only natural that, under such conditions, the standardized art fair format of the exhibition booth has a restrictive effect. Despite the broad fundamental approach on which these works are based, they currently have a great social relevance: often developed outside of art-institutional platforms and mainly physically situated there, these artworks undoubtedly generate a certain broad impact, either through their presentation in public locations, through participatory involvement or through their mass-media impulses, to mention just a few aspects “.

Which, said in other words, means making us understand that there are artistic products a little over the top, very difficult to place and exhibit, either because they are too ephemeral or because they are too oversized (a bit like “Unlimited” by Art Basel). Here, this section gives them space. Among others, this section includes the Austrian Layr gallery, with works by Stano Filko, the Turkish gallery Dirimart, with works by Sarkis and the Hungarian gallery Kisterem with the work of Mátyás Fusz.

The photographic section (Photography: Female Photographers in Focus), curated by Bettina Leidl and Marieke Wiegel is entirely focused on female photographers. This section, in a somewhat ostentatious way, places gender law as a principle from which to start talking about photography. Others include the Belgian Ibasho gallery (which features the work of Margaret Lansink here) and the Dutch Flatland gallery (with works by Valérie Belin). This section, moreover, is linked to FOTO WIEN, the festival that takes place from 9 to 27 March 2022 in the Augarten Atelier and which emphasizes how photography has become a cornerstone of the modern art market.

Finally, The Fourth Wall: Synthesis of the Arts, section curated by Fiona Liewehr. Here multidisciplinary works find space, also poised between applied arts and architecture, theater and fashion, as within a common environmental framework that is capable of grouping or incorporating any formal sign. In this section we find the Charim Gallery, with works by Scott Clifford Evans, and rauminhalt_harald bichler, with works by Gilbert Bretterbauer.

In total, eighty galleries (from fifteen countries) have joined this edition, many of the works exhibited are previewed and even some of these have been created specifically to be exhibited at this fair, which is a sign of cultural vivacity and participation not only dictated by the temperature of a growing market or in turmoil after so many lockdowns. Among the younger artists (that is, those who do not exceed forty years of age) these names are worth mentioning: Michael Fanta, Elisa Alberti, Anouk Lamm Anouk, Robert Grabis, Alex Urban.

It is not possible, for obvious reasons of space, to give the names of all the galleries, but (without wanting to hurt the others that we do not name) I want to mention: Galerie Crone, if only for its consolidated history; Hubert Winter, in memory of a glorious brand; Galerie Krizinger, because it kept the memory of the whole Wiener Aktionismus alive; Galerie nächst St. Stephan (and which after years has also incorporated the name of the owner in the logo: Rosemarie Schwarzwälder) because after supporting authors of the caliber of Vito Acconci and Joseph Beuys, still in the nineties it made a change of register in the authors proposed , in line with the re-emergence of abstract poetics (with names such as Herbert Brandl and Helmut Federle); Georg Kargl Fine Arts thanks to its eclectic and innovative activity; Jecza Gallery, favored by the young age of the owner Andrei, by the fact that its headquarters in Timişoara is unique and because it maintains an open dialogue at three hundred and sixty degrees; Nicolas von Senger because in 1996 hosted the “Angel’s Noise” exhibition by Maurizio Cattelan.

Trusting in freedom of movement, with or without Green Pass, I hope that this fair will have its deserved success and that sales will live up to expectations.

Bruno Sain

Info:

SPARK Art Fair Vienna
24/03 – 27/03/2022
MARX HALLE
Karl Farkas Gasse 19
1030 Wien
www.spark-artfair.com