Troubles at ArtRio Reflects Current Crisis in Brazil's Art Market

09/28/2016 - 12h24

There is no getting around the obstacles ahead for ArtRio, Rio de Janeiro's annual art fair. It's all stations go in the trendy warehouses that fringe the bay of Guanabara, the headquarters of the most important art event in Rio's calendar.

Gallery-owners, curators, artists and festival organisers are working overtime to make sure things run smoothly for the opening of the festival, which is due to commence on Thursday (29th).

Many of those intimately involved with ArtRio are feeling the adverse effects of Brazil's suffering art market.

"When we started this movement, the statue of Christ the Redeemer was rocketing triumphantly upwards on the cover of "The Economist". The economy was soaring. Brazil was on the up," said Brenda Valansi, director of the fair.

"But people are beginning to feel the pinch, a drop in sales. I'm not going to go around the world, to foreign galleries, saying that we've got it all to give."

Because there isn't a lot to give. The sixth edition of ArtRio is about to begin, and behind the curtain there are less and less galleries putting up their stalls and hanging their paintings. The sorry scene is a symptom of the acute crisis that is flattening the art market in Brazil today.

All the global giants, like American companies Gagosian and Pace, Swiss enterprise Hauser & Wirthe and UK-based White Cube, have jumped ship. Left to pick up the pieces is David Zwirner, admittedly, one of the most influential art houses in the world. But, nevertheless, Rio's art scene is beginning to look more and more like a desert island.

There are other factors that have added to this turnaround of fate. Some Olympics events, which had taken residence in the warehouses that lined the Mauá Pier, where the fair is held, did not vacate the premises until a week ago, meaning that the organisers had little time to put together the displays.

What's more, because of the disruption caused by the Olympics, ArtRio no longer coincides with the Sao Paulo Biennial, which began at the beginning of the month.

Translated by GILLIAN SOPHIE HARRIS

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