SP-Arte Rotas Brasileiras bets on diversity and on artists outside the Rio-São Paulo axis

Fernanda Feitosa, creator of SP-Arte, the largest art and design fair in Latin America and responsible for inserting Brazil into the international artistic circuit, spoke to the magazine Poder Online about the second edition of SP-Arte Rotas Brasileiras, which starts this Wednesday -Friday (30th) and runs until next Sunday, September 3rd, in São Paulo.

What are the highlights of this year?
Are many. One of them is the increase in representatives from the North, Northeast and Midwest. In this second edition, we have the participation of galleries from eight Brazilian states and 40% of the artists are non-white. That is, we are attentive to the issue of diversity, which is crucial in the contemporary world.

Compared to last year, we were able to engage more galleries and they calibrated the curatorship of their projects to delve into the works of the chosen artists, as well as the artistic movement they represent.

SP-Arte Rotas Brasileiras has been consolidating itself as a unique event, which rescues big names and opens space for new talents, reflecting the many cultures that make up the country. It is an opportunity to see works and artists that are unpublished and little known to the public.

What do you expect in terms of public and business volume?
Last year, 100 to 150 million reais were moved, numbers that should be repeated, or even increase. In terms of audience, 25,000 people attended the event in 2022 – that is, we are not expecting less than that.

What place does Brazil currently occupy in the global art market?
We have a very high quality artistic production – and this is not new. There is still a long way to go for us to gain more relevance, it is true, but we are moving forward. If I think, for example, at the time of the first SP-Arte, in 2005, we made a lot of progress.

We cannot forget that, after Venice, our Biennial is the oldest in the world, and that the curator of the next exhibition in the Italian city will be a Brazilian [Adriano Pedrosa, director of the São Paulo Museum of Art, MASP]. It is quite an achievement, since Pedrosa is the first curator from the Southern Hemisphere in the history of this Biennial.