On Sunday 10 March, the 43rd ARCOmadrid, Southern Europe’s most traditional contemporary art fair, shut its doors. For an edition honouring the Caribbean – after having devoted itself to the Mediterranean in 2023 – 205 galleries travelled from 36 countries to the Spanish capital, the five-day epicentre of sales and artistic findings for the general and professional public. Over 95.000 people and around 400 invited international collectors visited IFEMA Madrid’s two pavilions, the organisation behind ARCO in the city. Umbigo was there as an exhibitor in the art magazines and publications sector for the seventh time in a row.

The turnover appears to be positive, with new institutional and corporate purchases by Fundación ARCO – expanding its collection with 8 works, including one by the Portuguese Ana Jotta, by ProjecteSD, and another by the Spanish Belén Uriel, by the Lisbon gallery Madragoa -, the Museo Reina Sofía, the Museo Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo, Madrid City Hall, Fundación María Cristina Masaveu Peterson, Fundación Helga de Alvear, Fundación María José Jove, among others. As a place for revealing trends and aesthetic pathways of the present, the balance seems particularly focused on painting and Argentinian art, recognised in the Lexus awards for Best Stand, awarded to W – Gallery; ARCOmadrid Acquisition, distinguishing Argentinian Tomás Saraceno alongside Mexican Abraham González Pacheco; and Opening, which, as part of the young gallerist sector, recognised the Remota and Piedras venues. The latter, by the way, is worthy of distinction for the work of two young artists on show, Clara Esborraz and Carla Grunauer, whose pieces – in drawing and sculpture, respectively – live together in perfect tension, encouraging us to feel a foreign atmosphere, between the dark and the vibrant, through the warped and twisted forms they present.

Indeed, Latin American productions and institutions have taken an increasingly central place at ARCOmadrid in recent years. This time around, almost 30 percent of the non-Spanish galleries at the fair are Latin American, some of which are featured in the ever-present special section dedicated to the continent, entitled Never the same. Latin American Art. In a corridor highlighted by the colour red, the showcase curated by José Esparza Chong Cuy and Manuela Moscoso picked out institutions and artists at the forefront of global aesthetic-political discussion and experimentation. Such is the case with Denilson Baniwa (Brazil, A Gentil Carioca), one of the three indigenous curators responsible for running the Brazilian Pavilion, claimed as Hãhãwpuá, at this year’s Venice Biennale, and author of sustainable works challenging the condition of being indigenous in Brazil and the world today; or Luis Enrique Zela-Koort (Peru, N. A.S.A.L.), winner of the 2022 MAC Lima Art and Innovation Award, with a thought-provoking work combining the techniques and knowledge of ceramics, digitalisation, bio-art and cyberculture. The list goes on with Nohemí Pérez (Colombia, Instituto de Visión), Rosario Zorraquín (Argentina, Isla Flotante), Daiara Tukano (Brazil, Millan and Richard Saltoun Gallery in joint representation), Moisés Barrios (Guatemala, EXTRA), Amalia Pica (Argentina, Proyectos Ultravioleta), Juraci Dórea (Brazil, Jaqueline Martins), Abraham González Pacheco (Mexico, Campeche), Andres Piña (Argentina, Sendros) and Violeta Quispe Yupari (Peru, Vigil Gonzales) – all prominent names on the heterogeneous and challenging landscape of contemporary arts from the territory, who, as well as providing a critical outlook on what is expected of discourses produced in the Global South, have encouraged original and localised interpretations of identity, absence and struggle.

Within the programme The Shore, the Tide, the Current: An Oceanic Caribbean, curated by Carla Acevedo-Yates and Sara Hermann Morera, a piecemeal view of Caribbean America includes works by artists such as Puerto Rican Gabriella Torres-Ferrer, Dominican Freddy Rodríguez, Cuban Quisqueya Henríquez and Haitian Didier William. The exhibition design mimics the island experience and geography, without centres, rhizomatic and offering multiple entryways. The fair’s main section offers pieces from different origins, styles and supports, converging in a patchwork of ideas about living and creating on and from the margins, the waters and the tremors. The theme flows through many other Madrid institutions, such as La Casa Encendida or Fundación Juan March, which have also been bringing issues relating to the colonial and post-colonial conflicts between Spain and the Americas into their programme centres.

Across the Atlantic, but right next to the hospitable country, Portugal is strongly represented by the galleries 3+1 Arte Contemporânea, Balcony, Bruno Múrias, Carlos Carvalho, Cristina Guerra Contemporary Art, Filomena Soares, Foco, Francisco Fino, Jahn und Jahn, Kubikgallery, Lehmann + Silva, Madragoa, Miguel Nabinho, Monitor, Pedro Cera and Vera Cortês, making up almost a quarter of the international exhibitors. Of these, the careful curation and presentation of Lisbon’s 3+1 Arte Contemporânea is worth noting, with a stand in pastel colours and works by Adriana Proganó, Carlos Noronha Feio, Inês Brites, Juan Tessi and Tiago Baptista; Monitor, with Maja Escher’s telluric constellation occupying the main wall, as well as works by Lucia Cantò, Elisa Montessori and Eugénia Mussa; and Vera Cortês, with an in-depth tour of abstractions by Carlos Bunga, Ignasi Aballí, Joana Escoval, João Louro, João Pimenta Gomes and Susanne S. D. Themlitz. D. Themlitz. Portugal was also in evidence at ARCO’s “A” Awards for Collection, honouring Fundação PLMJ’s essential contribution to enhancing contemporary art by awarding it the 2024 International Corporate Collection prize.

ARCOmadrid was also filled with a series of parallel conferences, debates and performances, as well as a programme of openings and guided tours of several of the city’s galleries and museums. Now back in the Portuguese capital, expectations are running high for ARCOlisboa, from May 23 to 26.