VERONA.- The fifth fair of modern and contemporary art will be held in Verona from Thursday 17 September to Monday 21 September.

Taking place at the same time as Abitare il Tempo, this year ArtVerona has more proposals to make, as well as having new partnerships for introducing further innovations.

The fair will be amplified by other events, shows, and performances both in the fair itself and in the city.

With this, its fifth edition, ArtVerona aims at presenting modern and contemporary art-lovers with new cultural and mercantile proposals by subtly changing its successful formula.

Having demonstrated its validity in comparison with older and longer established national events, ArtVerona is now the fair that best represents the whole panorama of high quality Italian galleries.

The advisory committee – which includes Andrea Bruciati, Beatrice Buscaroli, Giorgio Fasol, Manuela Magliano Pellegrini, Gabi Scardi, and Maria Rosa Sossai – has been renewed; from the very start ArtVerona has been sponsored by the Veneto regional government, which since last year has helped with various projects, as well as by the Verona city council and its arts and cultural affairs’ councillor. It is due to them – together with the Verona and Rovigo office for art and cultural affairs as well as with Veronafiere and, from this edition onwards, the 24 ORE group – that we have been able to launch various events.

From the very start ArtVerona has been able to count on its collaboration with the Banca Aletti, and the Private & Investment Bank of the Banco Popolare group. This year they are also flanked by various individual initiatives, for events both in the fair and in the city; these include such institutions, curators, and artists accredited by the international art scene as Alinari 24ORE for the PhotoArtVerona section; the Claudio Buziol foundation for the SoundArtVerona section; and the Italian Foreign Affairs Ministry and the Srpska Republic for the D’EST section.

For some years now the fair has been limited to 170 exhibitors showing a select group of internationally established artists together with new talent. ArtVerona has now decided to open in September: in part so as not to overlap with other important art fairs, but mainly because, by taking place at the same time as the internationally famous Abitare il Tempo fair - a fair mainly aimed at those concerned with interior design - it might be part of a unique event: one that attracts a wide yet handpicked public concerned with similar cultural- and life-styles.

All this has influenced the traditional opening forum devoted to finance which, with the backup of IULM and Nomisma, will give advanced data about the modern and contemporary art market for 2009-2010. This forum will also be concerned with the ever-closer relationship between original contemporary art and design, as well as with the collaboration between ArtVerona and Abitare il Tempo for the exhibition by Sawaya & Moroni, an internationally recognised firm in the field of architecture and interior design.

Starting Collection, the guide on the web and in the fair to works costing no more than 6,000 euros, has been a great success. As a result ArtVerona is continuing with this initiative and will be presenting it in an updated version on Artfaironline.it, the first virtual fair wedded to a real live fair. It will remain active until late autumn with the aim of giving dealers, art operators, and active and potential collectors an up-to-date channel for communication as well as a greater possibility for making new contacts.

Keeping in mind the example of such past successes as ICONA and the two Aletti prize awards, this year ArtVerona is once again presenting various events from past editions. Thanks to the help of famous curators, these are aimed at investigating the whole field of art, though giving particular attention to promoting young talent.

This last aim has led to ON STAGE, a new section curated by Andrea Bruciati who has invited ten promising galleries to bring the work of a single artist to the fair – almost like a series of solo shows – from each of whom a pool of collectors will buy a work which will then be lent to some of the main Italian contemporary art galleries, amongst which the Pecci museum, Prato; MAMbo, Bologna; GC.AC, Monfalcone; MAN, Nuoro; MART, Trento and Rovereto; and the Palazzo Forti modern art gallery, Verona.

Furthermore, during the fair ArtVerona will be displaying, as an offshoot of the show curated by Danilo Eccher, Il Mito-Marc Quinn – which will be closing in Verona on 27 September – a work by the artist, one of the most original exponents of Young British Art. This is a collateral event to the 53rd Venice Biennale.