The International Contemporary Art Fair of Spain, ARCOmadrid, is taking place at IFEMA, Madrid, through February 26, 2023. As one of the main platforms for the contemporary art market, the 42nd edition of the fair features the program "The Mediterranean: A Round Sea," which involves the art scenes of the countries surrounding this sea. It is curated by Marina Fokidis and features advisory support from Bouchra Khalili, Hila Peleg, and Pedro G. Romero.
Pedro Pitarch - Architectures & Urbanisms, a Madrid-based architecture firm, is responsible for the architectural design of the common areas and public programs of the fair, also considering its urban spatial organization and the general strategies developed by ARCOmadrid. For this edition, Pedro Pitarch conceives the fair as a “City of Galleries,” where an ephemeral urbanism is housed within Halls 7 and 9 of IFEMA. The architectural design seeks to highlight the galleries as the main protagonists of the fair, while the circulation—modeled after an urban space—allows visitors to wander through streets and avenues, discovering various artworks, spaces, and events along their journey.
Project description provided by the authors. Through its spatial design, the project seeks to reclaim ARCO's historical role as “something more” than just an art fair. For many years, ARCO performed the role that art biennials or museums played in other countries, creating a place that accommodated the avant-garde, the disparate, and the different, as there was no other framework to host them. The spatial design of ARCO 2023 pays tribute to this legacy of the fair.
Unlike the conventional layout of a contemporary art fair—where cultural and public spaces are typically isolated from the galleries—ARCO 2023 actively uses them to articulate the exhibition space, acting as the “Public Squares” of the ARCO 2023 city.
Continuing with the “City of Galleries” scheme, the fair's main public programs have been distributed heterogeneously and with unique urban designs. The lunch corner, the forum, the terrace, the guest lounge, and the presentation rooms act as the fair's social catalysts. Rather than being concentrated and secluded, these cultural and event condensers are scattered and interrelated.
The ArcoLunch, the Guest Lounge, and the dining areas have been strategically positioned to facilitate quick loading and unloading logistics and to prevent acoustic interference with other programs. Consequently, the special programs are distributed throughout the fair to create nodes of programmatic intensity that maintain the mixed-use character of the proposal.
It is precisely this layout that embodies ARCO's unique character as “Something More” than an art fair. ARCO serves as an annual meeting point for the contemporary art scene, providing a space for exchange, dialogue, and cultural production. Much like in classical cities, these spaces become the agoras of the ARCO 2023 city.
Ultimately, this heterogeneous spatial strategy for program distribution aims to achieve a homogeneous level of intensity throughout the fair, revitalizing the rear areas of ARCO and intensifying their activity.
To achieve this, the programs requiring greater control form a spine running north to south through Hall 9, positioning meeting and cultural spaces along a lateral public avenue. Publications and magazines are relocated to the end of Hall 7, highlighting another form of collecting that complements the artworks in the galleries. The “Mediterranean” spatial section occupies a central position around which the cultural programs of Hall 7 orbit.
ARCO 2023 presents itself as an indoor city that gathers the architectures of all participating galleries, proposing an interior urbanism where galleries, artists, exhibitors, and buyers are the main protagonists.
Project Title: ARCO 2023
Subtitle: Spatial Design and Common Area Architectures
Date: February 2023
Location: IFEMA, Madrid
Architecture: Pedro Pitarch - Architectures & Urbanisms
Architect: Pedro Pitarch
Architecture Team: Pedro Pitarch, Guillermo Martín-Peñasco, Mario Azorín, Jaime Menéndez, Javier Morán, Alberto Santos
Photographs: Imagen Subliminal (Miguel de Guzán + Rocío Romero)
This article was written by Agustina Iñiguez. The translation is powered by AI.
