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How MEGA Art Fair Became Milan Art Week’s Social Club

Three years in, the fair has created a uniquely hybrid experience in which presentations and public programming converge in a single curatorial framework.

As a new generation of professionals questions how art is and should be experienced, circulated and collected, agile alternative formats—from salon-style fairs to exhibition-social club hybrids—are proliferating during art weeks. They are an obvious response to one of the most pressing challenges the art world faces today: how to expand its reach and then convert new audiences into loyal buyers. In Milan last week, we saw the city’s art week expand beyond the historic miart fair to encompass a growing ecosystem of satellite fairs, including the Milan debut of Paris Internationale and the boundary-pushing MEGA art fair, whose third edition served as the art week’s after-hours social hub.

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Inspired by Basel Social Club, MEGA has made social connection and community engagement central to its model, with expansive public programming at the heart of the entire fair. Here, the exhibition and public programming are combined fluidly into a single curatorial experience; MEGA is not so much a commercial platform as a cultural one that invites visitors to do more than just see art.

The fair’s extended hours (midday to midnight) and extended programming (April 15-25) situated it not only in Milan Art Week but also in Milan Design Week, when the city truly becomes a global magnet. “We wanted to create a platform where people could meet, and where art could be exhibited outside traditional formats—something more than just a fair,” curator Marta Sironi, who is working with MEGA founder and art advisor Mattia Pozzoni, told Observer. “At the same time, we’ve tried to build a platform that is rigorously curated but still feels informal. It’s about maintaining quality while creating a relaxed, approachable atmosphere,” Pozzoni echoed.

Too often, Sironi said, the art fair system can feel intimidating—one needs an invitation, one needs to be a VIP, otherwise one doesn’t feel like part of what’s happening. “That can discourage people who might otherwise be interested in art, making it feel closed off rather than accessible. We need to expand the boundaries of the contemporary art system, because we need more people investing in art and supporting galleries and artists, not just emerging ones.”

Originating as a nomadic yet context-specific curatorial project aimed at revitalizing often-abandoned sites of industrial or architectural heritage through direct dialogue with their historical and social context, MEGA this year found a particularly fitting location: SPAZIO PROFUMO, a former perfume factory on Via Binda 29 in the lively........

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