The Amazon, Latin American art and new galleries

At ARCOmadrid 2025: The Amazon, Latin American art and new galleries
The Amazon, Latin American art and the discovery of new galleries will be the focus of the curated sections at ARCOmadrid 2025

ARCO, the International Contemporary Art Fair, organised by IFEMA MADRID, will celebrate its 44th edition from 5 to 9 March 2025. With an exceptional selection of national and international galleries, the fair opens a broad dialogue between innovative proposals from the international scene. A meeting that transcends the market to also encourage discovery, reflection and artistic research.

Maribel López Zambrana, director of ARCOmadrid, together with a team of expert art world experts, have prepared an interesting General Programme for this occasion, made up of 179 galleries, in addition to those that will participate in the curated sections: Wametisé: ideas for an Amazonian futurism, Opening. New galleries, and Profiles | Latin American art.

Wametisé: ideas for an Amazonian futurism

The Amazon will be the main theme of the 44th edition of the fair. Wametisé: ideas for an Amazonian futurism is the name with which the curatorial team defines a project that "presents new possibilities of seeing the world inspired by past and present ways of life in the Amazon, where identity is built from the connection between beings that propose a collective future with healing narratives (…). The idea of Wametisé is presented as an exercise in naming these practices to facilitate a creation that enables Worlds in Transformation."
Denilson Baniwa and María Wills will be the curators in charge of the section, accompanied by the Institute for Postnatural Studies in the creation of the architecture of the space, coordination of the Forum and the design of the special publication of the project.

Opening. New galleries

The Opening section. New Galleries, curated by Cristina Anglada and Anissa Touati, will bring us closer to a selection of young galleries shaped by the exploration of the concept of tangled legacies of a space, an analysis that encompasses the regions, but also the world in general. From this perspective, the proposal invites us to imagine new liberating narratives that intertwine territories, stories, myths, hopes and struggles, with the aim of recovering the future through plural solidarities, as expressed by the curators.

Profiles | Latin American Art

This section, dedicated to artistic creation in Latin America, will continue to consolidate the historical relationship between ARCOmadrid and the art of this territory. José Esparza Chong Cuy selects 10 galleries and 10 artists that "offer a unique opportunity for the visitor to understand the practices of these creators in a broader context, inviting them to reflect on the different ways of thinking and living identity, gender and community in an increasingly plural world."
ARCOmadrid 2025
The strength of the Spanish scene, as well as its richness and plurality, will be widely reflected in the General Programme with the participation of galleries such as Alarcón Criado, ATM, Elba Benítez, Elvira González, CarrerasMugica, Luis Adelantado Valencia, Nordés, Prats Nogueras Blanchard, ProjecteSD, Sabrina Amrani or T20, among the 71 projects from different parts of the country. These are joined by international galleries with recent headquarters in Spain such as carlier | gebauer or Mai 36.

Among the international galleries participating in the General Programme, ARCO celebrates the incorporation of Massimo Minini and Francesca Minini, Casas Riegner, depéndance, Gomide&Co, Plan B, Luciana Brito, Bernier/Eliades, Raquel Arnaud, Sylvia Kouvali or Waddington Custot. The loyalty of others such as Thaddaeus Ropac, Jocelyn Wolff, Chantal Crousel, Ruth Benzacar, Peter Kilchmann, Lelong, Meyer Riegger, Perrotin, neugerriemschneider, Esther Schipper and Thomas Schulte is also evident. Once again, Capitain Petzel, Max Hetzler and Mendes Wood Dm, Nicolai Wallner, Fortes d’Aloia & Gabriel and Kalfayan Galleries have placed their trust in the fair.

Curated Programmes
In parallel to the General Programme, ARCOmadrid will have three curated sections. It includes the Amazon as a central project for 2025, with the programme Wametisé: ideas for an Amazonian futurism, curated by Denilson Baniwa and María Wills, in collaboration with the Institute for Postnatural Studies, which will reflect on new modes of creation that represent hybrid existences between human, vegetal, physical and metaphysical bodies.

Twenty-four artists will participate, including Carlos Jacanamijoy, with Almine Rech, who has returned to the fair since 1999; Naine Terena and Coletivo Mahku, with Carmo Johnson Projects; Dhiani Pa’saro, Duhigó and Paulo Desana, with Manaus Amazônia; galleries for the first time at ARCOmadrid. Other creators will also be joining the exhibition, such as Claudia Andujar, with Vermelho; Carlos Motta, with Mor Charpentier; Chonon Bensho and Brus Rubio, with 80 m2 Livia Benavides; Mapa Teatro, with Rolf Art, and Juan Downey, with 1 Mira Madrid, galleries that will also have space in the General Programme.
Opening. New galleries will once again be the space for discovering innovative proposals at ARCOmadrid. The selection of Cristina Anglada and Anissa Touati will represent the commitment of young national and international galleries with the participation of galleries such as Artbeat, Blue Velvet, Fermay, Eins Gallery and Remota, which are repeating their participation in the programme, and other new ones such as Callirrhoë, El Chico, Brigitte Mulholland and Reservoir.

The section Profiles | Latin American Art will continue to strengthen the historical link between ARCOmadrid and art in Latin America. José Esparza Chong Cuy, curator of the section, is conducting research focused on presenting a single artist per gallery. The section will be made up of 10 artists such as Bárbara Sánchez Kane, with Kurimanzutto; Dan Lie with Barbara Wien; Chaveli Sifre with Embajada; Mariela Scafati with Isla Flotante, or Jota Mombaça with Martins&Montero, as well as Ofelia Rodríguez, with Instituto de Visión, and Rember Yahuarcani with Crisis, galleries that also participate in the section Wametisé: ideas for an amazofuturism.

ARCOmadrid 2025 will be held from March 5 to 9 in pavilions 7 and 9 of the IFEMA MADRID Exhibition Centre, dedicating the first three days exclusively to professionals, and from 3:00 p.m. on Friday 7, it will open its doors to the public.

ARCO, together with the exhibitions that will be shown by different institutions in the city of Madrid, will attract the attention of galleries, artists, collectors, curators and professionals in the sector, once again becoming an essential event in the international contemporary art calendar.
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