Born in the Seventies among the first international art fairs of modern and contemporary art in the world, the event, stage-managed by Silvia Evangelisti, proposes a wide range of works of art from the beginning of the Twentieth century until the most recent trends; 15000 s-m of exhibition, 200 Italian and international galleries, are only a few of the numbers of this new edition.

A unique occasion to discover popular masters like Carlo Carrà, Felice Casorati, Giorgio de Chirico, Gino Severini, together with the conceptual art of Enrico Castellani, Agostino Bonalumi and Vincenzo Agnetti, or the movements of informal art of Giuseppe Capogrossi, Alberto Burri and Emilio Vedova; the Spatialism of Lucio Fontana and the Poor art of Giovanni Anselmo, Alighiero Boetti, Pier Paolo Calzolari, Giuseppe Penone, Michelangelo Pistoletto and Gilberto Zorio – to whom the Museum of Modern Art of Bologna dedicates an important exhibition until 17th February 2010 – and the representative of the Italian Transvanguard.

Many of the works of art at the fair also offer a wider view on the international stage, with works by Antony Gormley, Wym Delvore, Per Barclay, Tony Ousler, Hans Peter Feldmann, Alfredo Jaar together with the most popular representatives of the English artistic movement like David Ockney, Gilbert&George and Tony Cragg, or the masters of photography like Thomas Russ, Anton Corbijn or Luigi Ghirri. There will also be a collection of works of artists coming from different geographical areas and investigating the state of being contemporary through the use of the most diverse artistic tools like those of the American performer Nick Cave, the installations of the Russian Peter Belvi or the material compositions of the Chinese Zhang Huan.

To the new trends, presented by the emerging Italian and international artists, is dedicated the section Young Galleries, where research galleries with under five years of experience exhibit their works with prices ranging from 500 to 10,000 euros, for collectors just getting close to art or for those who want to discover new talents.

Of course there will also be book launches, meetings and competitions.

For the second consecutive year the International Art Fair Art First dedicates the daily schedule to the theme of collecting: collectors and museum directors will debate on the interaction between private collections and museums and how they enter the Italian and international artistic stage. The goal is to stimulate a dialogue, by inviting also representatives and collectors of the Asia-pacific area due to the synergy with ShContemporary, the first contemporary art fair dedicated to the Asia-Pacific Area organized in Shanghai by the Group BolognaFiere.

The entire city of Bologna will be involved with exhibitions in museums, courts, buildings and streets of the old town. Bologna Art First, an exclusive town itinerary, is at its fifth edition and for the first time it is a project made in collaboration with Julia Draganovic. The project is conceived of as a single big collective town exhibition through a path among images of art and history and it presents from 29th January through the end of February 2010 a series of installations by artists working for the galleries taking part in the exhibition, in order to create a dialogue between contemporary art and unusual locations of the old town and surroundings.

For the third year Arte Fiera OFF will be the frame of several events like exhibitions, concerts, festivals that will take place in Bologna and Emilia Romagna during the Fair.

Saturday 30th January Art White Night turns the old town of Bologna in a big window of contemporary art with the extraordinary opening of museums, galleries, buildings, concerts and exhibitions.

www.artefiera.bolognafiere.it

Italian version