BAF: THE FAIR DEDICATED TO ANCIENT AND MODERN ART
Last 10th January Bergamo inaugurated the calendar 2025 of art fairs in Italy: with BAF Bergamo Arte Fiera, dedicated to modern and contemporary art, and IFA Italian Fine Art, focused on the ancient art and antiques.
The two events found their own ideal location at the 16.000 square metres of Bergamo Fair pavilions A and B, and related foyers. Fiera di Bergamo (Bergamo Fair) is situated in the centre of one of the most important macro-regions worldwide and linked strategically on the mobility arena, a few kilometres from the motorway A4, the train stations FS and the international airport BGY.
There were totally 167 exhibitors, 86 for BAF and 81 for IFA, who presented – each one with his own view and by hundreds of works – about 600 years of art history, from the fifteenth century until today.
Collectors, authorised personnel, families, enthusiasts and curious people were invited to move closer to the artworks. These artworks were often of museum relevance. All that occurred more directly than a museum, because all of the people had the opportunity to interact with art gallery owners and experts there at the stands and, in some cases, with artists as well.
This was also the characteristic style of this exhibition event: in addition to authorised personnel, the event was opened to welcome a mixed audience by the offer of a full calendar of occasions for enriching their own cultural knowledge and satisfying their own curiosities in subject of art. For easing their own presence, the promoters of Promoberg confirmed this year the single entry ticket again with which it was possible to visit both events. Additionally, the attention to the young generations was great: indeed, for boys and girls under 12 years old the entry was free.
THE NEWS OF THIS YEAR
The significant news of this year were essentially two: a greater selectivity for BAF in choosing the parterre of the galleries and the guarantees of a more efficient control on the authenticity of the artworks proposed to IFA, thanks to the insertion of a Vetting Committee in collaboration with FIMA (Federazione Italiana Mercanti d’Arte). FIMA is a committee of experts that during the previous days of the inauguration, performed an accurate examination on each piece, about its authenticity, condition and awarding, to ensure that the object could be exhibited.
Stricter criteria of selection ensured BAF the confirmation of important galleries, such as Tornabuoni Art (Florence, Milan, Forte dei Marmi, Rome, Crans Montana, Paris, London), Ca’ di Fra’ (Milan), Deodato Arte (Milan, Pietrasanta, Courmayeur, Rome, St. Moritz, Chia, Padua), Galleria de’ Bonis (Reggio Emilia), Galleria L’Incontro (Chiari BS), Galleria Accademia (Turin), Open Art (Prato). and the entrance of other twenty new galleries (in 86) including Galleria Giovanni Bonelli (Milan, Pietrasanta, Canneto sull’Oglio), Candy Snake (Milan), Caputo Colossi Incontro d’Arte (Brescia), DL Arte (Milan), Art Gallery Ferrero (Ivrea), Madeinart Gallery (Milan), Salamon Fine Art (Milan), Spirale di Idee (Milan), Stefano Malinverno Arte Moderna e Contemporanea (Milan).
In addition, there were news about the front of partners: if Banco Bpm and Intesa San Paolo confirmed their role as main sponsor, this year Promoberg also welcomed positively the interest of Mediobanca that chose BAF and IFA as extraordinary moment to offer its more important customers.
“We are always very proud to inaugurate our new exhibition year dedicated to art at 360 degrees – Luciano Patelli, president of Promoberg, said – , with two important cultural events which have the value to recall thousands of people who are always more competent and interested. Also during the most difficult years for the general contest and especially in art, Promoberg has always thought and brought new resources. The excellent results, obtained until here, confirm the goodness of the project and prove our ongoing strong commitment also in the promotion of art and culture, always involving a wider audience of galleries and collectors: a commitment that we reinforce year by year”.
If authorised personnel found in the art exhibitions of Bergamo the most significant realities of Italian view for a comparison relating the latest market trends, enthusiasts and beginners could enjoy unique artworks and a rich programme of meetings, exhibitions and environmental placements.
«We have always tried to stand out from other events of the sector, creating collateral ventures linked to art history and its protagonists – Sergio Radici, public program creator, declared – to become a moment of growth for the city. Every year we work for making sure that IFA and BAF are not only very beautiful exhibitions-market, where collectors and experts can meet works and artists thanks to many galleries that believe in this project, but also a shared place where to know, explore and “shape” the own culture concerning the art world».
PUBLIC PROGRAM – HIGHLIGHTS
The Area Talk is the space set up inside the Central Gallery and situated between the two pavilions. In this space the meeting between IFA and BAF, between past, present and future of art occurred physically and conceptually where antiquity, modernity and contemporaneity were connected each other by the events dedicated now to one now to another, offering contemporary interpretation of ancient artworks and contextualising contemporary works in the ever-changing flow of the art history.
The event with Giovanni Valagussa, former Executive Director of Accademia Carrara of Bergamo, was addressed to the enthusiasts of ancient art, and analysed the profile of Giovanni Carnovali called Il Piccio – painter of the nineteenth century – through the masterpieces of an important private collection.
Cesare Benaglia, artist of Valbrembo and born in 1932, was the protagonist of another moment of the programme: precursor of the land art and a bearable approach to the art, the docufilm “Abbecedario naturale”(“Natural spelling book”) was dedicated to him where he was presented in all his man and artist’s sensitivity.
The talk “Imprenditoria e arte” (“The business community and art”), with Simona Leggeri and the two businessmen Gabriele Rampinelli and Giuseppe Taramelli, was instead destined to the world of collecting.
Inside Sala Caravaggio, Sergio Curtacci, teacher of University of Bergamo, independent curator and author of the online project Google Arts & Culture, offered a look towards the future of Cultural Heritage with a meeting about “Smart Museums”, in other words, on those museum spaces which use the new technologies – as the virtual reality, the increased reality and the artificial intelligence – to ease the fruition of their own collections.
ART INSTALLATIONS AND EXHIBITION
This event was distinguished by the alternation between art installations and exhibitions. On one side, it was possible to enjoy the art installations of environmental aspects by Helidon Xhixha, with his monumental steel artworks “Elliptical Reflection” and “Lancio di luce” (“Light launch”), by Elvino Motti – with his methacrylate sculpture “Angeli e demoni” (“Angels and Devils”) – and by Max Marra, who celebrated the element of water with “Alchimie di acqua, luce, colori, trasparenze” (“Alchemies of water, light, colours, transparencies”). On the other side, people could admire the exhibitions of Gaetano De Faveri, a photographer who mixed the digital elaboration with the photographic process by his work “Algoritmia”(“Algoritms”).
Informazioni
IFA – Italian Fine Art 2025
Headquarters: Fiera di Bergamo, PAD. A, via Lunga – 24125 Bergamo
Dates: from Friday 10th to Sunday 19th January 2025
Press preview: on Thursday 9th January 2025, at 10.30am
Opening times: Mon-Fri, at 3pm-7pm. Sat-Sun, at 10am-7pm
Entry tickets: single ticket for BAF and IFA – full price ticket 10 euros; reduced ticket (over 65 years old) 8 euros: online ticket 9 euros. Free ticket up to the age of 12 years (directly available at the checkout counter of the Fair.
Info www.italianfineart.eu/
BAF – Bergamo Arte Fiera 2025
Headquarters: Fiera di Bergamo, PAD. B, via Lunga – 24125 Bergamo
Dates: from Friday 10th to Sunday 12th January 2025
Press preview: on Thursday 9th January 2025, at 10.30am
Opening on invitation: on Thursday 9th 2025, from 6.30pm to 8pm
Opening Times: at 10am-7pm