Vienna–Curatorial & Advisory Board include both national and international experts, for a diverse and high-quality art fair in March 2024

The two curators Walter Seidland Jan Gustav Fiedlerare takingover the artistic direction of SPARK Art Fair Vienna 2024. Together they will lead the newly createdCuratorial & Advisory Board, which also includes curator Marina Fokidis, from Athens,and Zurich curator Christoph Doswald. The team of fourwill be drawing on theirnational and international expertise to create a diverse and high-quality contemporary art fair from March 15 to 17, 2024 in Vienna's MARX HALLE. The fairwill feature only solo works –an aspect whichmakes SPARKunique.

"SPARK Art Fair Viennahas been focused on consistently developingits concept, which was first implemented in 2021, to become a fully curated fair with exhibition character," says Walter Seidl. "The solo workson display offera unique situation for artists to show their work in solo exhibitions at an international fairfor contemporary art."

"The proven, unique exhibition architecture with the exclusive exhibitingof solo workshas generated enthusiasm among artists as well as exhibitors and art enthusiasts at the first twoSPARKArt Fairs. We are pleased to be able to implement this concept in a refinedform in 2024," explains Jan Gustav Fiedler.

Vienna–Curatorial & Advisory Board include both national and international experts, for a diverse and high-quality art fair in March 2024

The two curators Walter Seidland Jan Gustav Fiedlerare takingover the artistic direction of SPARK Art Fair Vienna 2024. Together they will lead the newly createdCuratorial & Advisory Board, which also includes curator Marina Fokidis, from Athens,and Zurich curator Christoph Doswald. The team of fourwill be drawing on theirnational and international expertise to create a diverse and high-quality contemporary art fair from March 15 to 17, 2024 in Vienna's MARX HALLE. The fairwill feature only solo works –an aspect whichmakes SPARKunique.

"SPARK Art Fair Viennahas been focused on consistently developingits concept, which was first implemented in 2021, to become a fully curated fair with exhibition character," says Walter Seidl. "The solo workson display offera unique situation for artists to show their work in solo exhibitions at an international fairfor contemporary art."

"The proven, unique exhibition architecture with the exclusive exhibitingof solo workshas generated enthusiasm among artists as well as exhibitors and art enthusiasts at the first twoSPARKArt Fairs. We are pleased to be able to implement this concept in a refinedform in 2024," explains Jan Gustav Fiedler.v GREAT CINEMA IN THE THEATRESPARK2024will be complemented for the first time by a special programmeon the GLOBETheatrestage in Vienna's MARX HALLE. A curated film programmewith works by selected gallery artists will be shown on a cinema screen. The theatre will also serve as a stagefor an accompanying performance and discourse program me.

In order to supportartists and gallerieswho participate inSPARK2024, prizes will be awarded for outstanding works, stands,and exhibitionsin collaboration with partner organizations.

The participation of galleries will be by invitation through the Curatorial & Advisory Board. The board is supported in an advisory capacity by a national and international Gallery Advisory Board, which includes the Viennese gallery owner Robby Greif of Christine König Galerie, Victoria Dejaco of the Viennese gallery Wonnerth Dejaco, Sabine Schmidt of the Berlin gallery PSM and Róna Kopeczky of acb Galéria in Budapest. During the planning stagesof the fair, the team will work together to create and develop specific themes,which are representative ofcurrent trends in contemporary art.

THECURATORIAL & ADVISORY BOARDWALTER SEIDLworks as a curator, author and artist and lives in Vienna. He received his PhD in contemporary history with a dissertation on Austrian cultural representation in the USA (published in 2001). His curatorial projects focus on conceptual artistic tendencies with a focus on the medium of photography as well as different forms of image politics and identity constructions. Seidl has curated numerous exhibitions in Europe, North America, and Japan, written catalog essays for artist monographs, and written for several international art magazines. From 2011-2013 he was a visiting professor at Webster University Vienna.

JAN GUSTAV FIEDLERworks as a curator with international galleries, interim spaces and institutions. His curatorial practice follows the approach of offering young and emerging artists* in particular a platform for contemporary narratives. Often, historical spaces form the architectural framework of these projects, whose contents connote the original function of these places in a new way. Fiedler has realized such exhibitions in Austria, Germany, Italy, Serbia, and the USA, among others.

MARINA FOKIDISis a freelance curator, writer and art educator based in Athens, Greece. She was the founder of the art centre Kunsthalle Athena (2010-2015) and the journal South as a State of Mind. Fokidis was a member of the core team of documenta 14, co-curator of the 3rd Thessaloniki Biennale and curator of the Greek Pavilion for the 51st Biennale di Venezia. As an independent curator, she has curated several international exhibitions, including the most recent entitled "The Mediterranean: A Round Sea", the central thematic exhibition of Arco Madrid 2023.Fokidis has been teaching at the Salzburg International Summer Academy of Fine Arts since 2019, where she has already acted ascurator of the public programmes for 2021 and 2022. In 2020, she was curator of Vanderbilt University's year-longEADJ (Engine of Art Democracy and Justice) programme, Living in Common in the Precarious Souths, for which she received a Curatorial Award of Excellence from the Association of Art Museum Curators in the USA.

CHRISTOPH DOSWALDis a freelance curator, lecturer and publicist living in Zurich. Between 2009 and 2020, he headed up the working group for art in public space inthe city of Zurich, where he initiated more than 400 art projects which explored the issue ofurban development. In particular, the exhibitions "ART AND THE CITY" (2012, 2015 and 2018), which were conceived as a triennial, influenced the discourse on Zurich's dynamic transformation and firmly planted new issuesin the public consciousness. Together with Paolo Bianchi, Christoph Doswald curated the 4th Industrial Art Biennial in Labin (Croatia) and the "SPARK Expanded" section at the SPARK Art Fair Vienna in 2022.