THE ARTS+ launched to great success
The digital cultural and creative industry has found its marketplace
Frankfurt, 23 October 2016 – The first trade fair for digital cultural content, THE ARTS+, took place for the first time at the Frankfurter Buchmesse, closing today after having achieved great success. The premiere comprised five days of a “fair within a fair” as well as an international conference featuring many prominent personalities. Already in its first year, the cooperation between the Frankfurter Buchmesse and media entrepreneur Christiane zu Salm managed to attract 51 exhibitors and partners. These included well-known names such as the Google Cultural Institute, TASCHEN Verlag, SKY ARTS, the van Gogh Museum, Kodak PixPro, Steinway and Europeana. But diverse young entrepreneurs, such as Refrakt from Berlin and Culture Tech of Montreal, also used the specially designed area to present their ideas for digital business with creative content.
“With THE ARTS+ we have succeeded in giving the many curious visitors their first insights into tomorrow’s digital world of art and culture,” said Christiane zu Salm, co-founder of THE ARTS+.
“From virtual and augmented reality in museums, to copyright in the digital art market, the diversity of the past five days clearly illustrates the coming opportunities and challenges of digital cultural content,” added Holger Volland, co-founder of THE ARTS+ and Vice President of the Frankfurter Buchmesse. “We’re very pleased with this first outing, and we’ll get moving at once to keep developing the fair.”
“We have had five very successful days at THE ARTS+. To meet colleagues, to show our app and what the museum is: for books and digital publications. Our director Axel Rüger joined on the weekend for a broader presentation and to talk to the public about van Gogh, about books, about the digital way of informing people, about the research in our museum. It was a great experience.”
In all, 150 international speakers appeared on the three stages. The kick-off conference on the Wednesday of the fair was sold out, with 240 participants. Figures including the famous choreographer Sasha Waltz, Edward Budd (Deutsche Bank), Giorgia Abeltino (Google Cultural Institute), art collector Julia Stoschek, Dieter Gorny, Jeff Jarvis and Jens Nymand Christensen (European Commission) spent the day discussing topics such as blockchain, virtual reality and copyright.
The legendary artist David Hockney presented his digital painting techniques to an enthusiastic audience, as well as his life’s work in a large-format SUMO edition by TASCHEN.
Bas Korsten from Amsterdam showed us “The Next Rembrandt”, a 3-D printed portrait produced by an artificial intelligence, which had learnt from the digitised versions of 300 original works by Rembrandt.
Not only do such digital tools throw up new questions about originality and authorship, but the technologies they draw on also enable new forms of restoration and of publishing, as well as new ways of presenting art.
About THE ARTS+
THE ARTS+ is a trade fair, conference and meeting place for the cultural and creative industry, which was held for the first time from 19 to 23 October 2016, during the Frankfurter Buchmesse. Its purpose is to exploit the potential of digitisation for the creative economy, and to develop new business ideas. Alongside an impressive range of exhibitors, an array of international artists, opinion leaders and industry experts showcased activities in such areas as museums and galleries, architecture and design and brands and agencies.
More informationen unter www.theartsplus.com(opens in a new window)
Press contact
Markus Gogolin
Head of Marketing & Communications Germany
t +49 (0) 69 21 02-187
m +49 (0) 172 3169 685
e markus@theartsplus.com(opens in a new window)
Press photos available from: www.theartsplus.com/press(opens in a new window)
About the Frankfurt Book Fair
The Frankfurt Book Fair is the international publishing industry’s biggest trade fair – with 7,100 exhibitors from more than 100 countries, around 275,000 visitors, over 4,000 events and approximately 10,000 accredited journalists – including 2,000 bloggers - in attendance. It also gathers key players from other media, including the film and games industries. Since 1976, the Book Fair has featured an annual Guest of Honour country, which showcases its book market, literature and culture to attendees in a variety of ways. The Frankfurt Book Fair organises the participation of German publishers at around 20 international book fairs and hosts trade events throughout the year in major international markets. With its Business Club, the Frankfurt Book Fair offers essential services and an ideal setting for the activities of publishers, entrepreneurs, pioneers, experts and visionaries. The Frankfurt Book Fair is a subsidiary of the German Publishers & Booksellers Association. www.book-fair.com(opens in a new window)
Contact for the media:
Press & Corporate Communications, Frankfurt Book Fair
Katja Böhne, Vice President Marketing & Communications, tel.: +49 (0) 69 2102-138, press@book-fair.com(opens in a new window)
Kathrin Grün, PR manager, Tel.: +49 (0) 69 2102-170, gruen@book-fair.com(opens in a new window)
> Press information online >www.buchmesse.de/en/press/press-releases(opens in a new window)
> Photos in print quality >www.buchmesse.de/en/press/press-material(opens in a new window)