Belgian Galleries in ARCO 2007



With a balance of 200,000 visitors, 3,000 accredited journalists, and over 4,000 press clippings the International Contemporary Art Fair of Madrid (ARCO) closed its doors last 19th February after five days. Between the 271 galleries from all over the world that took part in the event we found and followed the four Belgian displays: Les Filles du Calvaire (Brussels-Paris), André Simoens (Knokke), Tim Van Laere (Antwerp) and Micheline Szwajcer (Antwerp), who showed works together with the Spanish gallery Estrany de la Mota from Barcelona.

Under the command of the new director Lourdes Fernández the Fair was more focused than never on the collectors, due to the extra day they had exclusively to visit the stands and make sales transactions. Thanks to this new time schedule total sales increased up to 15% and there were around 20% more professional visitors. 

  

The galleries agree about the improvements in organisation, not easy anyway keeping on mind this year 49 new galleries exhibited for the first time and that the extension of the Fair made 23,000 m2.

Over half the galleries sold 100% of their selected works, but foreigner ones think it is still hard for Spanish collectors getting to know international galleries although “they are now more open”. Anyway, the proportion of foreign galleries (60% against 40% of Spanish centres) confirms the international character of the Fair and its consolidation in the world artistic scene.

For more info visit ARCO official website