In May I traveled to Buenos Aires for ArteBA. This important showcase for Latin American art was the focal point for a gathering of artists, curators, collectors, and museum professionals from around the globe. More than 110,000 people attended the art fair and its panels. For me it was an introduction to this cosmopolitan city, its public and private collections, and its artists. Part of my stay was spent in the company of ArtTable, a group of U.S. women arts professionals; part was spent on my own meeting with artists, curators, and gallerists.

I was especially impressed with the collection of Juan and Patricia Vergez of the Tantica Foundation. The four floors of a former factory were filled with bold examples of contemporary Latin American, European, and American art, including Guillermo Kuitca, Ana Mendieta, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Olafur Eliasson, Martin Creed, Ernesto Neto, Simon Starling, Jorge Pardo, and Rivane Neuenschwander, among many artists collected in depth.

An introduction to El Basilisco was also a highlight. This is a vital artist residency program, located in an old home in a suburb of the city, and founded by artists, for artists. Since 2004, artists Tamara Stuby and Esteban Alvarez have bought together practitioners from Argentina and abroad to participate in intensive ten-week periods of production and interaction with Buenos Aires peers, students, and the general public. I was fortunate to visit during the residencies of Agnieszka Casas Rodriguez from Mexico City, Pablo Adarme from Bogotá, and Breda Beban, a Serb artist based in London, whose projected art was a hit of last year’s Venice Biennale.

One reason for the timing of my travel to Buenos Aires was an invitation to a reception held in honor of Rio de Janeiro-based artists Dias & Riedweg. Held in the palatial residence of Brazil’s ambassador to Argentina, Mauro Vieira, this fete was an occasion to flex some Brazilian cultural muscle in a week focused on Argentine art. Guests, including dignitaries from Latin America, Europe, and Africa, were treated to a one-night-only presentation of Funk Staden, Dias & Riedweg’s multimedia installation commissioned especially for Documenta 12. The ambassador’s home office was cleared out to accommodate the artwork—the halls reverberated with its fabulous funk soundtrack—and, in the public rooms of the residence, important historical Brazilian paintings were replaced for the evening with Funk Staden stills. Funk Staden is a key work in the Frye fall exhibition Empire, marking the U.S. premiere of this important installation.

In the company of art historians, museum directors, curators, and collectors, I received a primer in the history of Argentine art through Buenos Aires’s finest public and private collections. I visited twenty artist studios, shared several meals with artists and curators from all over Latin America, viewed an international artist residency site, and left the city with many new friends and connections for the Frye. I returned with excitement and deep regard for this parallel art world, and for our position, and responsibility, on the global stage as we host significant U.S. premiers such as Funk Staden.

Robin Held
Chief Curator and Director of Exhibitions and Collections

This article originally appeared in the Fall 2008 edition of FRYE magazine.

Photo: Lab at Belmar Executive Director Adam Lerner with Robin Held in Buenos Aires.