vergrössern

The 38th edition of Arco Madrid, reiterates the wish to be a meeting point and exchange between the peoples of Iberia-America and Europe. This is reaffirmed by the decision that Peru is the guest country of honor - this had already happened with Argentina and Colombia - and that more than twenty Peruvian creators living in different parts of the world are represented by more than fifteen galleries. In fact, the Peru Forum will propose conversations about the peculiarities of Peruvian contemporary art; and Madrid will have an important display of different Peruvian exhibitions.
The Spanish capital "will provide an exceptional moment in February to celebrate collecting in Latin America," says the official press release, "with the coincidence of different projects in the main art centers and museums." And of course, very much linked to the project is the #Mecomprounaobra initiative: until almost the end of the year, works can be purchased on Internet at the price of about two thousand euros. Meanwhile, the free advisory service of the Fundación Banco Santander has been activated. Once again the digital scenario will offer the possibility of exploring the site and the works, while the already classic program of international buyers will bring three hundred collectors and two hundred professionals from more than forty countries.
As the Mexicans say "yes, sir" and the Venezuelans "at your service," the first word pronounced by he who is attending to you is a vocation of service. The Arte por Excelencias team and the Grupo Excelencias in full are put at the disposal of these formidable opportunities. Once again we will be accredited as active participants in each of these contemporary art fairs, just as again our magazine has been selected for the stand of cultural magazines of Art Basel Miami Beach. And we will be there with a credential as exhibitors together with Cuban critic Toni Piñera, rightly earned with our prestige, and with (very soon) a decade of fruitful existence.
Those of us who attended as special guests at the 14th International Fair of Bogotá can confirm that we also felt, through the stands and corridors of this event, the wish to position it as a mandatory reference in international circuits. That Colombia has maintained this art fair as a program of the Chamber of Commerce, close to turning fifteen, is more than illustrative. The visit of President Iván Duque to the exhibitors - including the Cuban stand of Galería Servando, where he took pictures and was interested in the works - the words of welcome from the mayor of Bogotá, and the speech by director María Paz Gaviria prove it.
As already felt in the corridors of the Wifredo Lam Center - that exciting hotbed that Arte por Excelencias knows well - we are here also to support the Consejo Nacional de las Artes Escénicas (CNAP, National Council of Plastic Arts) of Cuba for whatever it needs. And we welcome the appointment of Jorge Alfonso as the new executive director of the Havana Biennial, because we were born in that event, in 2008. There is, as the best testimony possible, the text by Corina Matamoros announcing then the release of the first issue, "250 grams of weight to carry in your portfolio...” Today it is even lighter, because we are very well positioned in the digital scenario, as a sign that we have never been wrong in our commitment to the art and culture of our peoples.
Our enthusiastic and tireless friend Thimo Pimentel, Premio Nacional de Artes Plásticas (National Award of Plastic Arts) in his beloved Quisqueya, reiterates that to us with love and an invitation, next fifteenth of December, to his Trayecto Cultural Furtivo Rally Este (Cultural Poaching Rally.) He has not stopped for seven years when, as a ceramicist, doctor and researcher of aboriginal culture (he had been one of the most enterprising ministers of Tourism,) distributed some original pieces, signed by him, throughout the colonial city to see how the people reacted. Since then, more than five hundred and fifty works of art have been placed and found throughout the country, and another three dozen in other countries. Now you have to decipher written and encrypted clues that are placed on his social networks, as well as move forward in teams by three routes that can be followed in Google Maps, while a string of WhatsApp instructions are given (they say that there is still one hidden near Fuster's headquarters on the Cuban beach of Jaimanitas.)
In all the passion to promote this cultural route, we find, whether in ArcoMadrid (which so needs a real institutional shake), in the illustrative growth of the satellite fairs of Art Basel, in the friendly Mexican trade fair Zona Maco, and in the promising and rigorous 13th Biennial of Havana some verses of the great Mark Twain that summon us for these new times to come: «Set sails /Sail away from the safe harbor/Catch favorable winds in your sails/Explore, dream, discover."