The Art Newspaper‘s Art Basel daily edition checks in with ARCO and its new director:

Carlos Urroz, the new director of Arco—Spain’s main contemporary art fair—has inherited a toxic situation. The once mighty fair was plagued with in-fighting in the run-up to the most recent edition last February when the selection committee—and a number of key galleries—threatened a boycott after accusing Ifema, the organisers, of “creating back-door access” for blacklisted galleries. […]

Urroz, who worked as the fair’s deputy director between 1994 and 1998, and as director of the Helga de Alvear gallery for seven years, acknowledges the challenges ahead, but is not deterred. “There are problems everywhere, but the fair is so important for Spain,” he said. […] “The most important thing right now is to build up trust—I will go wherever I have to in order to encourage people to come to Arco,” said Urroz.

“We have to select the best—but we need the applications to make the selection.” He wants to make the next edition, scheduled for February 2011, a smaller affair, following criticism that organisers were filling the fair with so-so galleries. “We need focus,” he said.

Saving ARCO: Fair Director Sets Out Rescue Plan (The Art Newspaper)