[The following information is taken from leading art news outlet Artishock]
'We hope that the revitalisation of SÍSMICA will mean the development of new strategic alliances that will allow us to position Chilean contemporary art on a world stage, strengthen ties with agents abroad that will allow us to maintain a permanent presence in other markets, and reinforce the creative industries around Chilean visual arts in Latin America and the world in a concrete and powerful way.'
Isabel Croxatto, gallery director.
SÍSMICA, the sector brand stemming from the public-private alliance between ProChile, agency of Chile's Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the promotion of Chilean industries abroad, and AGAC, Association of Contemporary Art Galleries of Chile, are set to present sismica.art, the first virtual multiplatform in Latin America to integrate editorial contents and commercial strategies in order to promote the activities of the Chilean visual arts industry and provide visibility to all of its agents as a whole.
The online launching event will be held through YouTube on 21 January, at 12.00h Chilean time.
The new SISMICA website has been built upon an innovative joint model for the visual arts, based on two fundamental and complementary pillars for its sustained development in the long term: multimedia content (news, interviews, reviews, events agenda and the most extensive National Guide to the Visual Arts), and a marketplace, resulting from the strategic alliance with ARTSY, which will connect different stakeholders in the Chilean art market with potential international clients.
'In SÍSMICA we seek to project a unified and agile environment, capable of innovating and transforming our visual arts and their tremendous social, cultural and economic potential. AGAC has been working for more than four years to build and strengthen the collective work reflected in this great project called Sísmica, which has managed to export and position the image of visual arts abroad', SISMICA director Pedro Comparini says.
The new online platform will inform, showcase, highlight and promote the collaboration and intercommunication of the different agents that make up Chile's art ecosystem: artists, galleries, curators, fairs, museums, foundations, collectors, universities, publishing houses and art specialised media, as well as public and private institutions.
This work has been undertaken and has matured over time since the creation of the sector brand in 2016, through active and collective participation in international fairs and the organisation of exhibitions in countries such as Argentina and Peru by AGAC's associated galleries: AFA, Animal, Aninat, Artespacio, Die Ecke, Espacio O, Espora, Isabel Croxatto Galería, La Sala, NAC and XS.
On the basis of these achievements, Mr Comparini is committed to a new, more inclusive and integrated model of association which, in the future, may become the basis for the creation of a Chilean Visual Arts Agency. In addition, drawing from his background in business and work methodologies based on people-centred 'management-experience', Comparini sees the visual arts as another industrial sector which would be strengthened by a connection with the financial, economic, technological, entertainment and tourism industries.
'Chile has a great "Art Mine". The time has come for the visual arts in Chile to have their Codelco. Chile has changed, and collaboration in the visual arts is here to stay. It is everybody's task to build this plan for the future', Mr Comparini says.
2021, with the indefinite persistence of social distancing and economic uncertainty, will continue to be a year of adaptation and readjustment, of challenges, and significant changes for the visual arts sector. In Chile, art galleries have been adapting to the double crisis stemming from the overlapping of the October 2019 social outburst and the global health crisis of 2020.
'We hope that the revitalisation of SÍSMICA will mean the development of new strategic alliances that will allow us to position Chilean contemporary art on a world stage, strengthen ties with agents abroad that will allow us to maintain a permanent presence in other markets, and reinforce the creative industries around Chilean visual arts in Latin America and the world in a concrete and powerful way', gallery director Isabel Croxatto says.
Watch the online launching event below (in Spanish)