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Madrid's ARCO art fair expands to Lisbon

Xinhua, May 27, 2016 Adjust font size:

The fact that the Portuguese capital is still emerging from a deep economic crisis hasn't stopped one of the world's biggest art fairs making Portugal its new outpost.

Thousands of people queued up at midday on Thursday at the Portuguese capital's 18th century Heritage-listed rope factory, eager to attend Madrid's world famous ARCO (International Contemporary Art Fair) event, staged here for the first time.

Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa arrived shortly after midday and was followed by an army of photographers and camera people as he appreciated some of the works -- including Joana Vasconecelos' "El Chorro," made of stainless steel shower heads with woollen crochet, and Kudzanai Chiurai's "Slowtrack", while talking with several artists and collectors.

The event, which was first held in Madrid 35 years ago, takes place in Lisbon this year from May 26 to 29 and features works from around 45 national and international galleries.

While memories of a deep recession still linger, Lisbon was the next obvious place to start the fair's internationalisation, the director of ARCO tells Xinhua.

"Lisbon is a fantastic city, with interesting art spaces and it's an adequate time to start the fair here as Portugal starts a new economic cycle," says Carlos Urroz.

There are works by artists from the 20th century to the present day, including Joaquim Torres Garcia, Mario Merz, Dan Graham, Robert Barry, Lawrence Weiner, Julian Opie, Juliao Sarmento, Felipe Arturo and Daniel Steegmann Mangrane.

Urroz highlights the variety on offer at the event, citing artists like 20th century Spanish artist Joan Miro and Colombian artist Nicolas Paris.

The inauguration took place on Wednesday evening, with Lisbon Mayor Fernando Medina pointing out that the fair was a "unique opportunity" for the city and artists. He also said he looked forward to Lisbon being a cosmopolitan city and pointed out that the city would be the capital of Ibero-American culture in 2017.

ARCOmadrid is one of the world's most attended art fairs, with around 120,000 visitors a year. Lisbon is expected to receive at least 10,000 visitors this year.

The Portuguese outpost of ARCOlisboa, with a budget of around 1 million euros, is backed by the Portuguese ministry of culture, the Portuguese council and Tourism of Portugal. Enditem