miart 2017

In April, a series of events took place within Milano Art Week thanks to a collaboration between Comune di Milano and Miart 2017. The participants of the Art Week were galleries and major museums such as Palazzo Reale, Museo del Novecento, Galleria d’Arte Moderna, Fondazione Prada, MUDEC, and even Basilica di Sant’Eustorgio. But the highlight of the week was the 22nd international Miart fair, organized by Fiera Milano and directed by Alessandro Rabottini, an art critic with an extensive expertise in Contemporary Art as an independent curator and a curator for public institutions.

Miart 2017 is the twenty second edition of the International Exhibition of Modern and Contemporary Art that took place between March 31 and April 2. “Miart is the only event in Italy that can bring together the most important Italian and international galleries, the most interesting works and the expertise of leading professionals.” – said CEO of Fiera Milano, Corrado Peraboni. And indeed, the event involved over 170 galleries from 14 countries inside and outside of Europe with the engagement of more than 60 curators and museum directors across the globe.

Miart strives to promote modern and contemporary art on the market. The fair was organized in six sections: Established, Generations, Emergent, Decades, On demand and Object. The section “Established” contained Contemporary as well as Modern art created before 2000, including artworks of the prominent Italian artist Giorgio de Chirico, along with early artworks of Picasso, Andy Warhol and Marc Chagall; In the “Generations” section visitors had an opportunity to follow the dialogue between different decades, observing different generation of artists displayed simultaneously. Artwork in “Decades” section was organized according to historical approach divided by time intervals, “On demand” section endued the public to observe life performances and installations causing the great interest of the visitors. Finally, “Object section” demonstrated the fine line between Arts and Design displaying decorative art and unique design objects.

Miart is more than just an exhibit space. In the duration of the fair a series of discussions (Miartalks) were carried out with an emphasis on the role of Biennales and recurring exhibitions. Important part of Miart was the series of Awards and Acquisition Fund with the total sum of over € 130 000.

An important benchmark of this year is for the first time in history of Miart, the establishment of the connection between Contemporary Art and Tourism. The cooperation with BIT, International Travel exhibition, that also took place in the Fiera Milano from the 2 till 4 of April, aimed to strengthen the synergy between Culture and Tourism, that contribute a significant share to the Italian economy.

To conclude, Miart presents an invaluable opportunity to encounter most prominent international galleries and observe artworks from champions of modern art to emerging modern artists. It is the crossing point where the actors of the industry can network and shape the direction of contemporary art market, while simple art lovers can engage with artists and galleries to become part of the bigger process that influences the artistic production.