Over 37,000 visitors to the Fair, almost 50,000 to the city’s museums, and over 100,000 to White Night.

Arte Fiera 2012 concluded last Monday, and BolognaFiere has totalled all the numbers of the 36th edition of Italy’s largest exhibition devoted to modern and contemporary art, confirming the excellent results of the event which (after Marca) successfully opened this difficult year, awarding BolognaFiere’s investment and the extraordinary efforts of the Arte Fiera team.

There were 37,844 visitors to Arte Fiera 2012: over 10% more than last year. 150 exhibiting galleries selected by the Organizing Committee (including 27 major foreign galleries from Austria, France, the UK, Germany, China, Japan, Spain, and the United States) brought over a century of art to the Fair.

In addition to the galleries, there were 40 publishers of art books and Italian and foreign art publications, for a total of 190 exhibitors. The number of exhibited artists exceeded 1100, with almost 2000 works on display.

Among these were the first 9 of the 10 top-selling artists in Italy in 2011 (according to the Nomisma report on the modern art market), offered by numerous exhibiting galleries. Famous artists whose works represent safe investments for collectors and are again on the top ten list. In order of sales in 2011: GIORGIO DE CHIRICO, LUCIO FONTANA, ENRICO CASTELLANI, ALIGHIERO BOETTI, GIACOMO BALLA, GIORGIO MORANDI, MARC CHAGALL, IGOR MITORAJ, and FAUSTO MELOTTI.

AN ENTIRE CITY FOR ART

The success of the 2011 edition was repeated and, in some cases, greatly exceeded thanks to the exhibitions and events that this year made Bologna not only a city of art during Arte Fiera, but also a city committed to art according to the invitation launched by BolognaFiere.

There was also a record number of visitors to Bologna’s museums: over 50,000 during the three days of Arte Fiera and, especially, during White Night (Saturday, 28 January), thanks to close cooperation with Arte Fiera (the ticket to the 2012 edition offered free entrance to all of the city’s museums during the Exhibition), with over 10,000 visitors to both Mambo (Museo d’arte Moderna di Bologna), which celebrated the success of the Marcel Broodthaers exhibit and tripled its visitors compared to 2011, and to the Genius Bononiae itinerary, which benefited from the inauguration of Palazzo Pepoli and from the wonderful and highly popular Art and Science Exhibit presented by the Golinelli Foundation at Palazzo re Enzo.

In all, more than150,000 people visited Arte Fiera, the city’s museums, and the over 100 events of Arte Fiera Off.

This is a sign that systematising cooperation and devoting an entire city to contemporary art can bring enormous added value to both the city of Bologna and to its exhibition centre, and confirms BolognaFiere’s investment in Arte Fiera (which, as opposed to other exhibitions, receives no public funding) as one of its priorities for the future, which will naturally require the renewed commitment of all of the city’s institutions and of its professionals in the culture sector.