SETUP CONTEMPORARY ART FAIR SetUp Art Fair is a contemporary art fair which focuses attentionon emerging artists. The name SetUp indicates the intentions ofthe project, “organise processes for the subsequent start-up ofan establishment”; the challenge is to set up a new process torethink the art establishment. Every year there are talks, roundtables and editorial presentations organised to provide theopportunity to hear about the most interesting experiences onthe contemporary art scene.

by

Alice Zannoni

SETUPCONTEMPORARY ART FAIR

I am always intrigued by the process of productionof things, whether they are objects, food or ideas.This because I love to have various perspectives andbecause the lateral approach to knowledge allowsme to get beyond the surface of the visible. TriviallyI know the object "T-shirt" because everyday ittouches my skin but I do not know how to do a t-shirtand maybe at this point I can say I really don't knowthe object I wear. More than relativism, it would becorrect to speak of a relation with the sphere ofknowledge. A preamble, apparently a digression, toask a question: how many of those who attend artfairs know what an art fair is?I'll tell you through my experience, since along withmy colleague and associate Simona Gavioli in March2012 I decided to organize an art fair, SetUpContemporary Art Fair, which came into being inBologna in January 2013 and today it has arrivedsuccessfully to its fourth edition. The idea oforganizing an exhibition is born from objectively the

lack in the fairgrounds institutions of Italy of acommercial project aimed at young galleries, at thosewho do a detailed work of research on emergingartists and invest on creative talents. The startingpoint is that a young gallery is unable to meet thecosts of big fairs, therefore it is automatically excludedfrom an important market time both for economicgrowth and for relations with a devastating dominoeffect on artists, collectors and the entire system.The sense that we have given to SetUp and that is notchanged in the years is that if setup, in computerjargon, means to lay the foundations for changestarting from the name of the show you understandthe significance of this transaction; with theknowledge that we do not certainly change the worldbut contribute to this with a commitment to dosomething because this change will be activated.Both worked with young artists and young galleries,and there seemed really absurd that those who SETUP

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To "know-how" and to act in the right direction you need to understand the mechanismsthat underlie a project, to run a contemporary art fair is not just managing the operations of

a (still in progress) process. .. finally what counts and is the real secret is to believe, tocontinue to experience the passion that has moved us from the beginning, making it

contagious and exponential

www.setupcontemporaryart.com

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To "know-how" and to act in the right direction you need to understand the mechanismsthat underlie a project, to run a contemporary art fair is not just managing the operations of

a (still in progress) process. .. finally what counts and is the real secret is to believe, tocontinue to experience the passion that has moved us from the beginning, making it

contagious and exponential

www.setupcontemporaryart.com

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Simona Gavioli (Photo credit: Massimiliano Mamo Capo)

SIMONA GAVIOLI

Born in Mantua she is an indipendent art curator. After graduating in Phenomenology of ContemporaryArts from the Academy of Fine Arts in Bologna she travelled to Bilbao to specialize in "Arte del Siglo XX" atthe Universidad del Pais Basco UPV / EHU and later to Biarritz (France) to an advanced course of Frenchdeveloping researchs on Basque contemporary art on the border between these two states.Since 2007 she has been studying contemporary art new trends starting from working at Galleria Spazia inBologna and collaborating with Villa delle Rose as part of the event No so Private. She has been contributingwith the magazines Arte Navale, Segno Arte Contemporanea, MyWhere, Kairòs, I.Quality, Dispensa,HoonestCooking and Karpòs. Since 2009 she has being the director and founder of the Cultural SpazioBluebased in Bologna and since 2010 the Artistic Director and Curator of the Premio Internazionale di PitturaZingarelli-Rocca delle Macìe. Since 2012 she is Co-Founder of the online magazine MyWhere and Co-Founderalong with Alice Zannoni of the fair SetUp Contemporary Art Fair. She deals with contemporary visual artshighlighting emerging artists with a special attention to the synergy between different disciplines andfocusing on the close relationship between sex, art and kitchen. Her research moves between differentlanguages as painting, photography, video, sculpture and installation.

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Simona Gavioli (Photo credit: Massimiliano Mamo Capo)

ALICE ZANNONI

Born in Arzignano she lives in Bologna where she works as an independent art critic. She graduated in 2007with marks and honors from DAMS-Arts in Bologna and in 2009 she attended the Master's Degree "Cultureof Innovation, Markets and Business creation" at the same University. In the same period she worked as anexternal collaborator at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bologna following the artistic direction of editorialpublications of the Design Center with Franco Angeli Editore. Since 2007 she has been writing for magazinesdisegnar(t)e, Espoarte, Exibart, Parol, Zeta - Rivista internazionale di poesia e ricerche. Since the academicyear 2010/2011 and up to 2013 she taught "History of Design" at the Laba - University of Fine Arts in Rimini.In 2011 she founded the event brand Foodhap'. In the 2011/12 season she has been artistic director of BT'FGallery in Bologna. In 2013 she has been invited as a speaker at TEDx Bologna and later became artisticdirector of TedMedLive in Bologna; in the same year she has been called to be part of the selection committeeof the X edition of Premio Celeste - Concorso per l’Arte contemporanea italiana and of Premio Farbencommittee. In 2014 she was appointed Managing Director of the Foundation Campori (Soliera - MO). In 2012she founded with Simona Gavioli SETUP ART s.r.l. company and since then she has being the Director ofSetUp Contemporary Art Fair..

Alice Zannoni (Photo credit: Massimiliano Mamo Capo)

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basically betting on the future were excluded frominstitutional exhibition circuits. SetUp engine is thedesire to bet on tomorrow artists and galleries, onthose who, we hope, will eventually join the "famousfairs" because the transition to SetUp allowed themto grow, to be known, to answer "present" by actorsand not spectators.To bridge the gap, Simona and I have studied a format,unique in the international scene, which focuses onthe relationship between art dealer, artist, art critic:to participate in SetUp, in fact, exhibitors mustpropose a curatorial project with at least the presenceof an artist under 35 yo by a curator under 35 yo. Inthis way we ask the galleries to "risk" exposingtogether with leading artists also a young artist who

would not otherwise has the opportunity to enter themarket and to promote also the professionalism ofthe critic /curator that normally has an important rolein the art world but is not present in the fairs.At first we did not know how to organize a fair; we leftwith unconsciousness and enthusiasm.Unconsciousness disappeared giving way toawareness and responsibility with those whobelieved in us. Enthusiasm remained and togetherwith the passion does not make us give up and neverbrings the quality voltage at most of what are ourchances. That the direction is the right one weunderstand by the numbers: exhibitors have grownfrom year to year. We started in 2013 with 23 galleriesand now, in the fourth year, we will present more than

and now, in the fourth year, we will present more than40... that is the 73.91% more. The first year we had threeforeign galleries, in 2016 we shall have 8 galleries that ismore than 160% higher. These are not irrelevant data.These numbers (but they are not the only) are equivalentto the credibility gained in the art scene and are the resultof work done in just three years. They are the result of awinning format, of a human attitude that rewardsbecause for us exhibitors are not filled stands but peoplewith projects. Even in terms of the market there are plentyof awards: in three years + 175% of works sold (in 2013 70works, in 2015 193 works) for a total value in the last edition(2015) of € 206.710.SetUp is not only a fair but an exchange of views betweenworkers in the art field and an opportunity to join a non-expert audience to a not always understandablelanguage; to make this possible, since the first year wecreated a cultural program with talks, panel discussions,speeches, book presentations and a performativeprogram that complements the strictly commercialaspect generating an interest and an attraction dedicatedto the transmission of knowledge. We are convinced thatwe must think in terms of a ''cultural economy" where itbecomes the driving force for re-establishing,implementing, creating, putting in line a number of forcesessential to produce (even social) change.To organize an art fair means first to cultivate relationships.Behind creating a three-day event there is the work of ayear, not only an organizational and logisticsmanagement but above all a year we consolidate ourrelationship with exhibitors (from the point of view ofmanagement they are SetUp customers) and build anetwork of short and long-term opportunities for artists,art dealers and curators. What the audience lives is theresult of continuous but rhizomatic efforts, meaning thatwe do not see it, like, for example, to grow a newgeneration of collectors and caring for those who havealready demonstrated their confidence in SetUp.To "know-how" and to act in the right direction you needto understand the mechanisms that underlie a project, torun a contemporary art fair is not just managing theoperations of a (still in progress) process. .. finally whatcounts and is the real secret is to believe, to continue toexperience the passion that has moved us from thebeginning, making it contagious and exponential. Sothen, how we created setup!

29-31 January 2016Autostazione di BolognaPiazza XX Settembre, 6

Bologna (Italy)

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