Eastern Europe’s most significant contemporary art fair exhibiting the works of almost 500 artists from around 20 countries in Millenáris has opened its gates. Art Market Budapest, organized from November 28 to December 1, 2013, under the patronage of János Martonyi, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Nancy Brinker, former U.S. Ambassador of Budapest, was opened by Judit Hammerstein, Deputy Secretary of State for Culture of the Ministry of Human Resources (EMMI).

Art Market Budapest is an artistic, social and community event that makes fine arts easily accessible in a spectacular and enjoyable manner. It aims at mobilizing large audiences, providing high-quality international artistic content as well as introducing and promoting the fine arts repertoire of the region in an international environment.

In her opening speech, Judit Hammerstein highlighted: “Art Market has been doing its best to place Budapest on the international map of contemporary fine arts. This effort complements well the increasingly rich selection of historical exhibitions of large state-owned museums, and now I would like to raise your attention to three, currently open exhibitions: one is the twin exhibition of Marc Chagall and Imre Ámos in the National Gallery; the second one, entitled From Caravaggio to Canaletto, exhibiting Italian Baroque masters, can be visited in the Museum of Fine Arts and the third one is the large-scale centenary exhibition of Robert Capa, a prominent figure of the 20th century photography, organized in the Hungarian National Museum.“

In the first two years of Art Market Budapest, a total of 14 countries were presented. This year their number has increased above 20, as galleries and arts projects from Ukraine, Switzerland, Spain, Croatia, Slovakia, Poland, Georgia and Latvia have joined.

This year statuary is featured prominently as a spectacular but for many a less-known and -collected genre. An impressive cultural diplomatic component of the present Hungarian Presidency of V4 is the Visegrad4 – The region of creativity exhibition section, which introduces the artistic life of Visegrad countries through works of Czech, Hungarian, Polish and Slovak galleries. The world-class professional event entitled La grande migration is related to the main topic of the fair. Its most remarkable component is the international exhibition of about 20 international artists. In addition, the ART+ project expands the fair into a genuine arts festival by involving related arts: performances and arts campaigns are also presented in its framework.

(Ministry of Human Resources)