ARCO´s Turning Point under Carlos Urroz
ARCO’s new director, Carlos Urroz Arancibia, acknowledged that he assumed his new job during some of the fair’s most difficult times, and that in order to restructure it no exterior models could be followed. Nonetheless, it is clear that the current tendency of creating more intimate surroundings by narrowing the number of galleries present at fairs will be part of the new ARCO planned by Urroz Arancibia.
In interviews with the Spanish press, Urroz emphasized that “ARCO’s next edition will be smaller than what we are accustomed to, it won’t have hundreds of galleries, and it will be almost exclusively focused in the gallery world”
Born in Madrid in 1966, Arancibia is the CEO of Urroz Proyectos, a company that specializes in communication and has relevant experience which has not only familiarized him with ARCO –he was co-director of the fair under Rosina-Gomez Baeza- but also with the galleries, since he worked with the famous Spanish gallerist Helga de Alvear for a decade. Urroz was unanimously elected by IFEMA, the society which owns the fair, as the ideal person to help mend the conflictive relationship between gallerists and the fair. He accepted his nomination under the condition that he be allowed to complete the project “just as I envision it”.
Knowing that he is working against the clock and that he can’t reveal all the changes he has planned, he stated that the number of exhibited galleries, which is currently more than two hundred, will be reduced just one hundred. At the same time, there will be less attention given to the parallel activities that have increased in the last years, so that the main focus will shift towards the galleries’ stands. By September, when he will once again make public statements, Urroz will have finished restructuring ARCO according to his vision. This reorganization will define the future of one of the most important art fairs in Madrid.
