Source: Andrea Galvani, Study on Volcanic Eruption [Red Magma], 2022, neon, hand-blown glass, paint and electricity, 80 × 33 × 5 cm. (Courtesy: the artist and The RYDER Projects, Madrid)

Every art fair everywhere and anywhere becomes known for, if not characterized by, certain works, performances oractions indelibly linked to that particular event. ARCOmadrid 2022 40(+1) is not the exception to that rule.
 
Gaining momentum to become the best-known work on show in Madrid this weekend is Close to Open by non-binaryPeruvian artist Wynnie Minerva (1993, Lima). The shocking work has already received an impressive total of columninches, page visits and attention since the fair opened just yesterday, Wednesday 23 February.
 
Discussing, in the most direct way imaginable, the issue of gender and gender politics, Minerva’s video work shows thesurgical procedure she underwent to have three-quarters of her vagina sown up. She explains the work as representing heraffirmation to not identify as a biological woman; it is also a response to twenty-one centuries of masculine control of thehistory of art and a protest against the multi-layered violence suffered in her native Peru.
 
Close to Open by Wynnie Minerva can be found at the Ginsberg Gallery booth, within the Opening by Allianz sectionthat promotes new curatorial and gallery proposals from around the world.

Source: Ifema – ARCO Madrid

Sticking with the Opening by Allianz section, as this is quite literally where the newest and most innovative work isdestined to be found, the winner of the Opening by Allianz Prize—awarded to best stand within this section—has beenannounced as the East Contemporary gallery based in Milan.
 
The East Contemporary stand is showing works by Nour Jaouda (1997, Libya) and Anna Bak (1985, Denmark), it wonthe Prize based on the strength of its curatorial approach that the jury deemed timely and potent in terms of aesthetics andpolitics. The meticulous exhibition delivers a conversation between the traditions and mediums that complicate ourunderstanding of how artists currently move around, focusing on the geographies through which the Eastern Europeanscene meets the Black Mediterranean.
 
The Opening by Allianz section has been curated for 2022 by Övül Ö. Durmusoglu, from Turkey, and JuliaMorandeira, from Spain.

Of the Spanish artists with booming international credentials, for ARCO Madrid 2022 40(+1) Juan Garaizabal (1971,Madrid) is showing with the Álvaro Alcázar Madrid gallery in the General Programme section. Living a whirlwindmoment, coming straight from having shown at the Louvre, as well as in Shanghai and also at the Prince Albert II ofMonaco Foundation, the sculptor is showing a 17-metre metal sculpture titled Submerged City of Shi Cheng” and tensmaller works that all discuss rising water levels due to the climate crisis we and our planet now irreversibly face.

To branch out from the main fair itself, as it is always necessary to do when visiting a city during its art week, thehighlights available at the surrounding galleries and institutions include: an exciting conceptually if not visually sombreindividual show by Lucía Bayon—a recent winner of the ‘Generación’ award that the Fundación Montemadrid’s givesto young artists working in Spain—at the Intersticio gallery found at 31 Calle de Alcántara; Andrea Galván at The Ryder Projects, located at 13 Miguel Servet; and now is a good time to see the redistribution of the permanent collectionat the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, their Communicating Vessels: Collection 1881–2021 was undertakenlast november and comprises almost 2,000 works, of which 70 percent had not previously been exhibited.

Source: Ciudad sumergida de Shi Cheng. 17 metros lineales de mural de acero inoxidable con sombras suspendido del techo. Galería Álvaro Alcázar. ARCO 2022. (Courtesy: Estudio Garaizabal)