Viennafair
The Viennafair (spelling: VIENNAFAIR) was a commercial fair for contemporary art in Austria. It has taken place annually in Vienna since 2005 until the art fair “ viennacontemporary ” established itself as a competitor in 2015 .
history
In 2005 the art fair was founded by the event company "Reed Messe Wien GmbH". Its purpose was to open up sales opportunities for local art galleries. In addition, Vienna should be established as an art location. The focus of the fair was on art from Central, Central and Southeastern Europe. In the initial phase, it was mainly gallery owners from Austria who decided on admission to the fair, later the commission became more international. The first artistic director was the curator Gabriela Gantenbein. From 2006 to 2010 the cultural manager Edek Bartz headed the fair, which he expanded with a supporting program that also took place in the Viennese galleries. In this framework program, directors of museums and institutions were invited to take part in discussions with artists such as Pawel Althamer , Julien Bismuth , or Shirin Neshat . In 2011 the curators Hedwig Saxenhuber and Georg Schöllhammer, who specialize in Eastern and Southeastern European art, took over the management with a focus on contemporary Turkish art. The aim was to find new collectors for this art. In order to also present galleries from the Caucasus region, Central Asia and the Middle East, non-commercial exhibition areas were created. In 2012 the company "Reed Exhibition" withdrew from the project, and from 2012 the Viennafair was organized by a "VF Betriebsgesellschaft mbH". From April 2012 Christina Steinbrecher-Pfandt and Vita Zaman headed the Viennafair, the focus was now on Russia. But in 2014, during the Ukraine conflict , Vita Zaman, a native of Lithuania, resigned from the artistic direction of the fair. Christina Steinbrecher-Pfandt also left the Viennafair after the 2014 fair and instead organized the new art fair “viennacontemporary” from 2015, which she would like to continue in 2017. In October 2015 the last Viennafair for the time being took place under the direction of Wolfgang Pelz.