Artexchange

Rich cultural and historic heritage of Istria combined with rich tradition of visual art in Rovinj marked by Grisia, Rovinj's Art Colony for over half a century, publications of the Heritage Museum, and numerous private galleries have all produced yet another cultural manifestation – ARTEXCHANGE – the first Istrian Art Fair.

The spirit of the town at the foot of St. Euphemia, past and present meeting place of artists of all generations, styles, ideologies, genres, and media has generated tolerance of different opinions and respect of pluralism, while a lively theoretical and practical activity has confirmed and it now witnesses the fact that there is no single artistic truth or trend.

Dialogue is the virtue and creator of artistic life of Rovinj, art in general, and of things that form the offer and the demand of works of art – the market itself.

Contemporary Croatian art grew, like all other art forms, under the auspices of socialist regime of the former country, where artists were sponsored by state money, enjoying certain security and protection. Art markets as such de facto did not exist. In its stead, numerous awards and state funds were the only sources of demand and purchase of works of a majority of authors. Admittedly, some private citizens also bought art, but they were only a few, and their collections mostly featured the same little group of artists, the so-called mainstream contemporary artists.

The establishment of the new state slowly extinguished systems of the former society, and artists had to face new challenges, the greatest challenge being existential. Such circumstances resulted in the formation of art market in Croatia, following the long-standing example of other western countries. Naturally, Croatian art market is still in its infancy, but nevertheless it does exist. The last few years witnessed the emergence of several collectors buying art of those authors who could not sell absolutely anything outside museum institutions until very recently. Curiously, these very artists discovered and evoked new artistic vocations, but remained incomprehensible to the artistic public because of their avant-garde opinions.

Like with all other aspect where the still young Croatian state slowly keeps approaching laws and rules governing world economy, time has come for a coherent organization of our art market, providing us with an opportunity of being competitive in the European Union with this particular export item as well.

It is our wish to fit Artexchange into those programmes at the level of the Istrian Region and the Republic of Croatia that validate this particular field in economy, tourism, culture, and every other aspect.

For this reason, in designing the concept of the entire project, we paid particular attention to two aspects: first of all, the promotion of true values of contemporary art and secondly, the incentive to professional development of art market in Croatia.

The geographic position of Rovinj is a huge advantage, because the vicinity of Slovenia, Italy, and Austria in a certain way guarantees the future of Artexchange as a strong international art fair. In order to make it happen, we need a true and selfless collaboration of all protagonists of artistic production. We hope such collaboration will prove to be a strong basis for the international breakthrough and organized market future of our contemporary art already at the first fair.

Organization Board