This year’s edition – the second directed by Simone Menegoi, with Gloria Bartoli as vice director – has many new features. There will be 155 Italian and foreign galleries: 108 in the Main Section and 47 in the three curated and invitation-only sections, Photography and moving images (20 gal- leries) plus the debuts of Focus (8 galleries) and Pittura XXI (19 galleries), for a total of 345 artists at the fair.

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Focus is one of the main new features of Arte Fiera 2020: a section devoted to art from 1900 to 1950 and to post-war masters, with a different curator each year. Intentionally small, it is an in-depth study of a specific aspect of 20th century art. This first edition is curated by Laura Cherubini, an esteemed art critic and historian who has chosen to concentrate on renewal and innovations in Italian painting from the late 1950s to the late 1970s.

Galleries: A arte Invernizzi (artist: Mario Nigro), Cortesi Gallery (Giuseppe Santomaso), Galleria dello Scudo (Gastone Novelli), Michela Rizzo (Fabio Mauri, Saverio Rampin), Mazzoleni (Lucio Fontana, Gianfranco Zappettini), Richard Saltoun (Bice Lazzari), Ronchini (Franco Angeli), Torna- buoni Arte (Piero Dorazio).

Pittura XXI, curated by Davide Ferri, is the first section of any fair (Italian or foreign) devoted entirely to contemporary art, and offers a panorama of paintings by emerging and mid-career artists from Italy and abroad. This proposal is both daring and timely, presented at a moment in which painting has made a vigorous return to the art scene.

Galleries: 1/9unosunove (artists: Simon Callery, Jonathan Vandyke), A+B Gallery (Markus Saile), Arcade (John Finneran), Bernhard Knaus Fine Art (Giacomo Santiago Rogado, Karim Noureldin), Boccanera (Nebojša Despotović, Andrea Fontanari), CAR DRDE (Damien Meade), Cardelli & Fon- tana (Mirko Baricchi, Beatrice Meoni), Eduardo Secci Contemporary (Chris Hood, Pierre Knop), Ex Elettrofonica (Federico Pietrella, Pesce Khete), Francesca Antonini (Guglielmo Castelli), Galleria FuoriCampo (Eugenia Vanni, Michele Tocca), Luca Tommasi (Mark Francis, Phillip Allen), Monica De Cardenas (Gianluca Di Pasquale, Ivan Seal), Monitor (Peter Linde Busk, Matteo Fato), Norma Mangione Gallery (Michael Bauer), P420 (Adelaide Cioni), Pinksummer (Jorge Queiroz), RIBOT (Jonathan Lux), The Gallery Apart (Corinna Gosmaro, Alessandro Scarabello).

Now in its second edition, Photography and moving images, entrusted once again to the Fantom curatorial platform (Selva Barni, Ilaria Speri, Massimo Torrigiani, and Francesco Zanot), is a show- case of some of the most recent studies in photography and video as well as of some essential refer- ence points from the past.

Galleries: aA29 Project Room (artists: Kyle Thompson, Tiziana Pers), Dep Art Gallery (Tony Ours- ler), Galleria Marcolini (Aneta Bartos, Christian Thompson), Michela Rizzo (Antoni Muntadas, Kate- rina Šedá, Francesco Jodice), Galleria Poggiali (Goldschmied & Chiari), Gallleriapiù (Matteo Cre- monesi), Marcorossi (Rune Guneriussen), Martini & Ronchetti (Lisetta Carmi), MC2 Gallery (Lam- berto Teotino, Justine Tjallinks, Paolo Ciregia), Metronom (Christto & Andrew), MLZ Art Dep (The Cool Couple, Discipula, Källstrӧm+Fäldt), Otto Zoo (Paul Kooiker), Pinksummer (Luca Trevisani), Podbielski Contemporary (Giulio Di Sturco, Massimiliano Gatti, Yuval Yairi), Shazar (Giacomo Montanaro), Spazio Nuovo (Marco Maria Zanin, Edouard Taufenbach), Traffic Gallery (Mattia Zop- pellaro), Umberto Di Marino (Francesco Jodice, Pedro Neves Marques, Sergio Vega), Viasaterna (Alessandro Calabrese), z2o Sara Zanin (Mariella Bettineschi, Silvia Camporesi, Ekaterina Pani- kanova).

Photography and moving images is supported by Mercedes-Benz, automotive partner of the fair with Stefauto.

The Main Section repeats the innovative model launched last year, characterised by the quality and artistic consistency of the stands and endorsed by gallery owners and collectors. Therefore, this year as well, galleries have been requested to present a limited number of artists: a maximum of 3 for me- dium-size stands and a maximum of 6 for larger ones. The only exception – one of the new features for the 2020 edition – is that the limit of 6 artists may be exceeded in case of a curatorial project de- voted to a 20th century group, movement, or artistic trend.

In addition, as in the 2019 edition, a large percentage of galleries will present a single artist, as re- quested by the Fair. This strong presence of single-artist stands, with in-depth presentations of Italian or foreign works (by both young artists and celebrated masters), is one of the key elements of Simo- ne Menegoi’s direction.

This year, several important galleries will return as exhibitors, including Giorgio Persano (Turin), Galleria Fonti (Naples), Galleria d’Arte Maggiore g.a.m. (Bologna), FPAC – Francesco Pantaleo- ne (Palermo) in the Main Section, and A arte Invernizzi (Milan), Ex Elettrofonica (Rome), Otto Zoo (Milan), The Gallery Apart (Rome), and 1/9unosunove (Rome) in the curatorial sections.

The galleries participating in the Fair will compete for special awards offered by the Fair’s partners with the support of juries composed of curators, museum directors, collectors and professionals in the field. The awards for the 2020 edition – A Col- lection Award, Rotary Award, and  – will be assigned on Friday 24 January in the Talks area.

The Arte Fiera bookshop will once again be entrusted to Corraini Edizioni. The bookshop area will be enlarged by the presence of art book publishers and industry magazines, with specific stands and a new location in the Fair.

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The Public Program duplicates the formats launched in 2019, a great success with the public and professionals.

Arte Fiera 2020 includes the second edition of Courtesy Emilia-Romagna, the series of exhibits that presents public and private collections of modern and contemporary art in the Emilia-Romagna re- gion. The format calls for a temporary show as an opportunity to know and appreciate an artistic cor- nucopia, a sort of “widespread museum”, seen from the perspective of a different curator every year. This year’s curator is Eva Brioschi, art historian and critic, who will present L’opera aperta (The Open Work – inspired by Umberto Eco’s essay of the same name) in Hall 15. On this voyage of dis- covery of collections in Emilia-Romagna, visitors will encounter 20th century masters such as Giorgio Morandi, Carla Accardi, Gerhard Richter, Gianni Colombo, and Salvo, as well as artists who de- serve to be rediscovered, such as Mattia Moreni, Alberto Sughi, and Dino Pedriali, plus young art- ists such as Yang Fudong and Yuri Ancarani.

The Oplà. Performing Activities project is also returning, curated by Silvia Fanti (Xing), internation- ally known for her focus on avant-garde research in the visual arts, theatre, and performance. Arte Fiera will present performance activities by Alessandro Bosetti (L’ombra), Luca Vitone (Devla... Devla...) and ZAPRUDER filmmakersgroup (ANUBI IS NOT A DOG). Jimmie Durham, who re- ceived the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the 58th Venice Biennial, was to have presented THE BUREAU, a re-enactment of his iconic 2004 performance entitled Smashing, but unfortunately, last minute health problems have prevented him from coming to Bologna. As a homage to the artist, the space assigned to the performance will remain installed and a monitor will show images of the original performance.

Eva Marisaldi will be the featured artist of Arte Fiera 2020’s special project with a new 2-part work entitled Welcome: a large installation that greets visitors at the entrance to the Fair, and another part at various points of the Halls and in the city of Bologna. The project was made possible thanks to the support of BPER Banca and to the technical sponsorship of Italia Zuccheri and Space World Air. Eva Marisaldi will also be at Bologna’s Teatro Comunale with an installation composed of four sound works, to seal the collaboration between the Fair and this important institution. Coordinated by a spe- cial software, the works generate a constantly changing score. The works were created in collabora- tion with the musician Enrico Serotti and will be on view starting from the performance of Richard Wagner’s “Tristan und Isolde”, which opens the theatre’s 2020 season.

Flash Art is once again the Fair’s content partner and will organise an extensive programme of talks, essential for stimulating thought on topics in contemporary art. Highlights include: Michelangelo Pistoletto, talking about art as social innovation and “cure”; the history of Italian painting from 1959 to 1979, traced in an original and transverse way by Laura Cherubini, Andrea Viliani, and Ni- cola De Maria; Gianni Emilio Simonetti, one of the foremost proponents of Fluxus in Italy, speaking with Luigi Bonotto and Patrizio Peterlini; Paolo Icaro, speaking about the concepts of “resistance” and “limit” with Cecilia Canziani; Raffaella Perna will discuss the painting of Franco Angeli with Maria Angeli; and artists Paola Mattioli and Silvia Giambrone will discuss links between curating and feminism.

With new laboratories curated by Fondazione Golinelli, Arte Fiera’s Public Program once again em- phasises the importance of art education and attention to all audiences – from young children to adults – having their first contact with contemporary art. This year, the laboratory is an experiment on the possibilities of distributing and sharing art in our everyday digital life. Starting from the exhibition space at the centre of the U.MANO show at the Centro Arti e Scienze Golinelli, you can plunge into its installations in an ideal small room decorated with works created by vertical plotters, mixing reality with a combination of Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) techniques.

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Arte Fiera has renewed its close co-operation with the Municipality of Bologna, which during the Fair will promote the 8th edition of ART CITY Bologna, the programme of events and exhibits coordinated by Lorenzo Balbi, artistic director of MAMbo - Museo d’Arte Moderna di Bologna.

Special attention is paid to welcoming Italian and foreign collectors, coordinated for the first time by Costanza Mazzonis di Pralafera. The VIP programme, scheduled outside Fair hours, will provide opportunities to discover private collections, to see cultural treasures (not only of contemporary art) in the region, and to take guided tours of museums and institutions in Bologna and the local area, such as the Certosa Monumental Cemetery in Bologna, Collezione Maramotti, and MUT – Mutina for Art. Guided tours for the 2020 edition of Arte Fiera have been made possible thanks to the support of an esteemed partner: UBS.

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Arte Fiera also demonstrates its dynamism with digital communication, on its website, and on social media channels. Its Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram pages gather and stimulate interaction by thousands of art lovers; specifically, #ArteFiera_Spotlight reports openings and news of the current Italian and foreign art scene in real time. Every Wednesday, the online column Osservatorio Arte Fiera (Arte Fiera Observatory, readable on social media channels) presents an art world personality linked with Arte Fiera, Bologna and its territory, and invited to talk about a show, a work, or an institu- tion in Emilia-Romagna.

With regard to collaborations, Arte Fiera is very happy to present the partners who provide quality food and drink: the alliance between Arte Fiera and FICO Eataly World Bologna has been renewed, with a catering point and the sale of excellent local products at the Fair; an Emilia-Romagna Bistrot focusses on the most typical and popular local dishes; the VIP lounge, devoted to collectors, exhibitor, guests, and journalists, will welcome them with two proposals: the menu of Dettagli, spe- cialised in high-quality catering, and special guest Giuseppe Palmieri, restaurant manager of Os- teria Francescana, who will bring the gourmet dishes of Da Panino to Arte Fiera.