Spark Vienna returned this year for its 3rd edition (save the date – next one: 2025, March 20-23) after a hiatus in 2023, and what a comeback!
Staying true to its unique format of a truly curated fair, with fair-booths of identical size for all 91 galleries and solo presentations of one artist each, they brought truly their A-Game to the historic Marxhalle.
With over 50% female artists ranging from established to up-and-coming, and global participation with galleries from of course Austria, mainland Europe but also Cape Town, South Africa; Kampala, Uganda; Denver, USA or Sao Paolo, Brasil the line-up of exhibitors mimics, as explained by the curatorial team of Marina Fokidis, Walter Seidl, Christoph Doswald and Jan Gustav Fiedler this year’s theme: “The City in Dialogue”.
“The City in Dialogue”, served as a key point for the team which worked for about a year in selecting the positions, and inviting the presentations. The city of Vienna is created in circles that fan out from the city-centre and the fair, the Artistic Director Jan Gustav Fiedler explained, aims to do the same. Starting from Vienna, formerly the capital of the Austro-Hungarian empire and therefore the connection point between Eastern Europe and Western Europe the fair also fans out into positions by local, European, and global participants.
Particularly enticing and amazing for the visitor is the fact that due to the solo booth presentation, one can immerse oneself in an artist’s oeuvre. Also, the positioning in the hall, the booths facing each other, the visual axis in either direction always were a curatorial choice. “The juxtapositions are never arbitrary.” Marina Fokidis points out, and while some positions span from rather different cultural and geopolitical realms and are from different generations, very often the underlying human issues are the same. There was a strong emphasis on intercultural communication, the importance in times of global uncertainty of art as unifier.
Save the date for the 2025 edition: March 20-23.
And follow their insta for updates around the year: @sparkartfair
