The organisers of the SP-Arte fair in São Paulo faced an interesting dilemma this year: how do you stage what is Latin America’s largest art fair during the depths of one of the region’s worst recessions?
The answer, it seems, is to double down. The fair’s 12th edition will feature 140 exhibitors from 17 countries, up from 120 last year, as well as the launch of a design section aimed at drawing in new crowds.
SP-Arte’s director Fernanda Feitosa, who co-founded the fair in 2005, says she has long wanted to introduce a dedicated design section. Brazilian Modernism is probably second only to Italian, and Feitosa hopes that new visitors will come to see classic pieces by Oscar Niemeyer—who co-designed the fair’s futuristic 30,000 sq. m Ciccillo Matarazzo Pavilion in 1957—at Legado Arte and Artemobilia galleries, alongside the latest creations of the Campana Brothers at Firma Casa. Gallery DPOT is filling its booth with the furniture and photographs of Geraldo Debarros, whose work is in the collections of the Tate in London and the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
For Feitosa, now is as good a time as any to expand the fair. “People say this is a crisis, so is this a good time to be launching something new? Imagine if you just stayed at home thinking, ‘when is the crisis going to go away?’ No, you have to fight.”
Art fairs are not all about making quick sales and this year marks the return of the Open Plan section dedicated to large installations, in the same vein as Art Basel’s Unlimited.
The section is organised for the second time by the Cuenca Biennial curator Jacopo Crivelli Visconti, who has commissioned works by Francesco Arena, Christodoulos Panayiotou and the rising Brazilian star Daniel de Paula (born 1987).
Meanwhile, expanded performance and publication sections will offer a rich cultural experience to those who are browsing rather than buying.
There may even be some creative potential in the recession. “If we are living in shitty times, maybe we’ll see that related in the works of art,” Feitosa says. The 1960s art in her own collection emerged from the censorship and violence of Brazil’s military regime. “It’s a period that we’re proud of artistically,” she says.
• SP-Arte, Pavilhão Ciccillo Matarazzo, Parque Ibirapuera, Portão 3, São Paulo, 7-10 April