“From Roman Feria to Global Art Fair From Olympia Festival to Neo-Liberal Biennial On the ‘Biennialization’ of Art Fairs and the ‘Fairization’ of Biennials”, new book by Paco Barragán
Artpulse Editions, Miami FL, 2020
Book Abstract:
“From Roman Feria to Global Art Fair, From Olympia Festival to Neo-liberal Biennial: On the ‘Biennialization’ of Art Fairs and the ‘Fairization’ of Biennials constitutes an essential and much needed book with relevant historical, social, economic and art historical information about the genealogy of art fairs and biennials from ancient Greece and Rome to contemporaneity. Paco Barragán’s ambitious and profound research sheds new light on the origins and typologies of both art fairs and biennials and the contradictory phenomena of the ‘biennialization’ of art fairs and the ‘fairization’ of biennials in the twenty-first century. The book is further complemented with a series of charts and timelines that provide clear, easy access to the information and Pablo Helguera’s artoons function as a kind of poignant and witty ‘New Institutionalism.’ With a humoristic, down to earth style, Paco Barragán challenges the reader, offering a wide array of sources and proposing an essential historical perspective on two of today’s most relevant and most polemic art platforms.”
About the Author:
PACO BARRAGÁN was the artistic director and curator of CIRCA Puerto Rico and PhotoMiami art fairs between 2004-2007, after which he authored in 2008 The Art Fair Age (CHARTA). He was co-curator of the Prague Biennale at the National Gallery (2005), la Bienal de Lanzarote (2008) and Toronto’s Nuit Blanche (2016). Barragán was also the International Communications Director of the Bienal de Valencia (2003). He was the artistic director of the Castellón International Expanded Painting Prize (2004-07) and of the first edition of the International Festival SOS 4.8 in Murcia (2009). A prolific curator, Barragán has conceived 91 international exhibitions among which “Don’t Call it Performance” at the Centro de Arte Reina Sofia (2003), “¡Patria o Libertad! On Patriotism, Nationalism and Populism” at COBRA Museum (2010), “Erwin Olaf: The Empire of Illusion” at MACRO-Castagnino (2015), and “Juan Dávila: Social Contract (Chilean Trilogy)” at Matucana 100 (2020). Barragán is a PhD candidate at the Universidad de Salamanca (USAL) in Spain and Contributing Editor of ARTPULSE.
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