The One Project program brings in this edition a risky bet: investigate and question the forms and concepts that dominate the art market. Fashions, trends, the imposition of globalization, the mainstream... All of them are elements that make up the flows, institutions and legitimizing actions of professional artistic development.

One Project has evolved since its creation. This is a transversal proposal that in last years step up its position as one of the fundamental pillars of the fair. Art Madrid wanted to go one step further to celebrate its 15th edition and expand and transform it into a space for dialogue and confrontation that includes a greater number of participating artists working from a different perspective to understand contemporary creation.

Julio Anaya

Edouard Vuillard - Jarrón de flores, 2019

Acrílico sobre cartón

56 x 57cm

Virginia Rivas

Sentir, 2018

Acrylic and graphite on canvas

162 x 130cm

One of the great innovations of One Project is the incorporation of the critic and curator Fernando Gómez de la Cuesta that under the enigmatic title of "Salvajes. La cage aux fauves" presents a selection of 9 artists who will exhibit their work in a differentiated space of symbiosis, stimulation, contact and friction.

Fernando Gómez de la Cuesta makes his proposal classic starting dichotomy that existed between the great official salons and those creators who subverted the state of the question, either from their convoluted participation in them or by generating new alternative devices such as independent or des refusés salons.

Alona Harpaz

Art in America, 2019

Acrilico, spray y colores industriales sobre lienzo

70 x 100cm

In spite of dynamics of the art market to which a contemporary art fair is subject, Art Madrid is committed to have a space for research and reflection to give visibility to artists who are on the way of creation autonomously and personally without responding directly to the majority guidelines. Artists who travel through their own, unusual spaces and who resist being part of the globalisation.

From the visible questioning made by Julio Anaya of classical painting to the investigation of colour and his perception according to the emotional, social and political state that Virginia Rivas performs. Also through the collection and reconstruction that Roberto López creates to make us visible the consumerism and mega-production to which we are exposed without pause for digestion.

Roberto López Martín

Avatar Cowboy, 2017

Tela sobre fibra de vidrio y resina

150 x 30cm

Roberto López Martín

Avatar El Elegido, 2016

Tela sobre fibra de vidrio y resina

150 x 30cm

The artists of One Project generate this analogy with the classic halls that now travel from academics and stand on trends that create apparent success guidelines without depth discursive.

Itineraries that run out of the usual and conventional without leaving indifferent as to the work of Andrés Planas where converges primitive art, especially Africans, with sex, with excesses, with taboos, with violence and with death, with religion and against the church, against repressive teaching.

Andrés Planas

Los 12 Apóstoles, 2019

Mixed media

35 x 15cm

The audience can observe a creation-destruction dialogue, with respect but without fear, with irreverence, without formality to give space to resistance. Transgress beauty as the artist Alona Harpaz or transit in magical spaces between nature and the human through the sculpture of Nicolás Laiz Placeres.

Alona Harpaz

Betty Blue, 2019

Acrílico y spray sobre lienzo

100 x 80cm

Nicolás Laiz

Política Natural I, 2018

Resina, fibra de vidrio, aridos y pintura doble componente

80 x 30cm

Art is a place of meeting and life, the magic of creation is deposited in a calm look of the environment as Santiago Palenzuela do with his spatula or by focusing on the current way of life between superficiality and imposture, between the psychic and the genuine as Juan Carlos Batista does with his images.

Juan Carlos Batista

Psicopaisaje II, 2015

Impresión digital en papel de algodón

60 x 77cm

Santiago Palenzuela

Ola, 2019

Oil on canvas

200 x 200cm

One Project is a program where there is also space for the fusion between classical art and urban art like the duo PichiAvo creating a new conceptual language handy for a heterogeneous audience.

PichiAvo

Orphical Hymn III to Nike, 2019

Mixed media on canvas

120 x 90cm

Buying the first work of art always instils respect. A difficult feeling to define that mixes vertigo with adrenaline. But over uncertainty and caution, a pleasurable sense of connection, understanding, and desire prevails. That work that, once seen, stays in the mind, reappears in the memory several times a day and seems to tell you that it is willing to be part of your home, is the perfect candidate to make the decision.

In the first steps, many collectors do point out that one does not start from an established plan, but rather that one acquires pieces based on taste and the connection one feels with them until, after time, they realise that the volume of works that accumulates can be labelled as a "collection". For example, this is how Alicia Aza explains it:

“I was not aware that I was collecting until many years later when a third party named me as a collector and talked about my collection. In 2005, I became aware of what collecting means and decided to articulate a collection with an identity of criteria and formats”.

Marcos Martín Blanco, co-founder, with his wife Elena Rueda, of the MER Collection, shares this same opinion:

“Collecting has been a passion, driven by a visceral state that encourages you to do so. The collection, in terms of acquisitions, has not been particularly complicated because, let's face it: it is easy to buy because they are all beautiful things and you have some clear idea of where you want to go, but at first those preferences were not so clear. It is with the time that a criterion is being formed”.

It is not always this way, of course, but for the buyer who starts out on this path, the personal connection that entails the first piece is essential. There it is the germ of a lasting relationship that is not limited to a simple aesthetic question but is an open window to knowledge, to exploration, to a world that is often unknown to us and awakens our fascination. The seed of that connection is purely sentimental, and it is precisely this impulse that determines the first acquisitions. The first piece is never forgotten.

Art Madrid'20, photo by Ana Maqueda

Exceeding the usual recommendations made by advisers and agents, rare is the occasion when the art lover decides to buy by pure investment. These paths usually open later, when the volume of pieces is large enough. In addition, there are those who are a bit against this classic concept of the traditional collector, approached from an eccentric, elitist and little accessible vision. On the contrary, art buyers are, above all, art lovers, sentient beings and permeable to creative stimulus who, at a given moment, decide to deepen the relationship they already have with art to take a piece home.

It is not that hard to overcome that small psychological barrier that turns the visitor into a buyer if one approaches the matter from a more personal and intimate perspective than from social consideration. Small-format works, graphic work or serial photography are of great help for this, whose price range, generally more affordable, allows a closer comparison to the daily basis expenses. In this way, the purchase of art falls within the range of feasible activities and becomes something close and possible.

Art Madrid'20, photo by Marc Cisneros

At that moment, a different relationship with art begins, based on pure experience and coexistence with the acquired piece. Perhaps it can be seen as an act of daring, but on many occasions, it is more a matter of necessity and transformation. Collectors also agree that the acquisition of an artwork is an exercise on personal analysis and opening up to a new field of knowledge that was previously alien to us. Alicia Aza explains that the reason she acquired her first piece of video art, by Sergio Prego, is because she did not understand it and because she saw it as a challenge and an opportunity to self-improve. This open window to knowledge creates new connections and bonds with creators, as one of the most fascinating parts of the process. Candela Álvarez Soldevilla explains that

"I think the most interesting thing in the art world is talking to artists. They are people with a special sensitivity to listen and understand.”

And Alicia Aza also says:

"I can share the satisfaction of being able to count on many artists in my circle of close friends today, and that is a long way to go."

Thus, with works that seem acceptable within the horizon of expenses that each one considers affordable, it is easy to find a piece that catches us. Since then, our home also evolves into a space in which art has a permanent place and presence, and there is no doubt that this transforms us inside.

Art Madrid'20, photo by Henar Herguera

Jaime Sordo, owner of Los Bragales collection and founder of the 9915 Contemporary Art Collectors Association, has always defined his relationship with art as a true passion and a vital necessity. For buyers who start on this path, he has the following recommendation:

“It is an essential condition that they feel the need to live with their passion to enjoy the works. Another very important aspect is that before making decisions for purchases, they are informed, so it is necessary to read specialised newspapers and books, visit exhibitions and museums and a lot of contact with galleries, which is an important and very specific source of information of the artists they represent. Finally, the presence in national and international art fairs. All this generates information and training.”

Indeed, fairs have become a good place for discovery because they condense a wide offer and allow diverse and global contact in a concentrated way. For this reason, many new generation buyers start in the context of an event such as Art Madrid, whose closeness and quality constitute a unique opportunity to meet, soak up and feed the passion for art.

(*) quotes taken from various interviews published in public media between 2013 and 2019.