After only a few months of preparation, last weekend saw the idea of the MDW Fair come to pass: an excellent art fair, full of flaws and promise. MDW is the brainchild of Edward Marszewski, Director and Executive Curator of the Public Media Institute (PMI), and Aron Gent, artist and PMI Exhibition Associate, two individuals best known for their longtime collaboration within the alternative culture network headquartered at Bridgeport’s Co-Prosperity Sphere. The list of the various productions coming out of the Public Media Institute is too long to name in full, but perhaps most notably it includes the print publications Lumpen and Proximity, a crowded schedule of art and performance spaces at the Co-Prosperity Sphere itself, and the annual artist-run culture spree, Version Festival, of which MDW is now an extension.

In past years, Version Fest has included in its programming an experimental art fair titled NFO XPO, where alternative spaces, educational projects, and artist collectives shared their work at venues such as the Benton House, the Viaduct Theater, and the Zhou B Art Center.

However, despite the time and effort of the fair’s organizers and a small army of volunteers, the NFO XPO failed to have significant impact outside of the communities most closely involved. When Version’s organizers set to plan this year’s festival, they chose to scrap NFO XPO and go big by teaming with non-profit organizations threewalls and Roots & Culture and connecting with Bridgeport’s Geolofts building to craft the MDW (pronounced Midway) Fair, an event to showcase as full a view of Chicago’s contemporary art scene as possible, and poised to catch the spaces unable to participate in this year’s shrinking NEXT and Art Chicago fairs.

MDW felt very informed by the realities of Chicago’s art community, and its organizers played it smart to ensure successful participation. I should say that part of MDW's appeal was the wide participation of artists, curators, and other creative workers, of which I was one; I presented a project by Philip von Zweck in a booth for my critical side-project Chicago Art Review. Like the rest, I agreed to participate sight-unseen, aware only of the cultural track record of the organizers, and perhaps looking for a positive alternative in a reconstructed art fair.

Importantly, the organizers knew the importance of low overhead costs. Booth prices were an affordable $300, inviting the attention of the same spaces and organizations that have grown accustomed to running at a loss in exchange for the freedom to experiment. Most exhibitors brought their own lights, signage, and alcohol. Volunteers staffed the door and passed out water; later these same volunteers headed to the Co-Prosperity Sphere to work a second door at the after-party. Labor and tools were shared, volunteers were created when new problems arose, and many conflicts were settled within a liquor economy.

Publishers at MDW. 2011.

Critical to its success, MDW was not at all an ugly affair, even with the low overheard and costs. It would be hard to guess that last year’s NFO XPO (housed in the Benton House’s repurposed school gym) shared any blood with the comparably ritzy MDW Fair. The Geolofts building provided ample and beautiful space for the fair’s exhibitors, with hardwood floors and booth walls framed between thick wooden pillars. Natural light flooded the space in many areas, and ceilings bristled with track lights and spots throughout.

MDW demonstrated the artist-run high aesthetic strategy of publications like Jettison Quarterly or Proximity magazine, or spaces like Wicker Park’s Johalla Projects or LVL3 Gallery: spare every expense except the ones that matter.

Sabina Ott. beautiful beautiful beautiful beautiful. Shown in What It Is at MDW.

The fair’s booths were arranged according to a well-thought out jumble. Commercial galleries, one-off project spaces, experimental collectives, residency programs, and institutional exhibitions mixed together in a blend familiar to the high-low oscillations of a weekend gallery hop. This arrangement was primarily the work of Aron Gent, who actively worked against grouping spaces according to their interests or type. Instead, his plan generated great moments of juxtaposition, such as that between West Loop’s Packer Schopf Gallery and The Hills Esthetic Center, a studio project space complete with tiki bar and gallery signage carved out of a re-purposed Aldi Foods banner. These moments felt frictionless and rewarding, giving viewers an instant representative look at the breadth of approaches co-existing in the city.

This isn’t to say that the fair was as good as it should or could have been. With only two months of notice before the opening night, many exhibitors were forced to recycle old artworks or assemble shows in relative haste. With a few notable exceptions, MDW was short on complex and site-specific productions. The fair’s reliance on volunteer staff meant that the fair was short on technicians and flimsy on the less attractive positions, such as handling trash and cleaning bathrooms.

While well-attended, the Fair's limited promotional efforts did not attract mainstream media attention that many expected.  Many participants viewed the fair’s date, set just one week before Artropolis/Art Chicago fairs, as an apparent refusal of that event’s surge of out-of-town collectors and curators.

Dutes Miller and Stan Shellabarger with their actions around the Geolofts. 2011.

Being located in an industrial district, the Geoloft’s lack of surrounding businesses or contracted vendors meant limited options for food and drink. The area provided plenty of free parking, but it was not marked well, and at least one towing company did business during the fair.

Most of these are superficial problems, however, and they sound refreshingly simple when compared to the entrenched issues surrounding other fairs. Parking is easy. We can solve parking.

MDW provided a rare opportunity to see a huge portion of the city’s artists, curators, and directors in one space, while preserving and celebrating their unique relationship to their work. The opportunity for excitement was more than appreciated; the region’s art community is not without its problems, and the art fair season has been an annual mirror to the persistent rift between what it is and what we think it should be.

MDW’s significance is not that it was a better art fair than the others, but rather that the organizers of MDW successfully designed a fair where Chicago’s art community could come together on its own terms. This is something we can build on.

-Steve Ruiz, Contributing ArtSlant Writer