Establishing an international profile for Irish art is a big task, but the strong contingent at Madrid's ARCO fair will help to build bridges, IMMA director Enrique Juncosa tells Aidan Dunne, Art Critic.

Yesterday's ETA car bomb in Madrid targeted ARCO, Spain's major annual contemporary art fair, at the city's Juan Carlos I Exhibition Centre, just before King Juan Carlos and Mexican President Vicente Fox were to open it. ARCO, which in recent years has attracted more than 100,000 visitors, is in the news because of the bomb, but the business of the fair continues, including work by a dozen Irish artists represented by four Irish galleries - the Green on Red, the Kerlin, the Kevin Kavanagh and the Rubicon - as part of its commercial section.

It's not an Irish exhibition as such, but it does amount to a significant level of Irish representation, a showcase of Irish art for the Madrid audience. It came about because the director of the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Enrique Juncosa, moved to Ireland from Spain. He is a former deputy director of Spain's National Museum of Modern Art, the Reina Sofia. A move to Ireland from the Reina Sofia was not an obvious one to make and it was noticed in the Spanish art world.

"Because I was in Dublin, they had this idea of asking me to bring some Irish galleries to show work in ARCO," Juncosa says. There are several strands to ARCO, he explains. "There's the straightforward exhibition. Then each year there's a focus on one guest country - this year it's Mexico. As well as that, there are project spaces and a section called New Territories. For this, they ask curators to bring cutting-edge galleries; that is, galleries who would be unlikely to be included otherwise, galleries who show up-and-coming artists."

The guidelines stipulate that these galleries must show work by younger artists, so the age of 40 has become an informal cut-off point. "I eventually came up with a list of four galleries," says Juncosa. "I approached them and suggested to them that they might each show work by one, two or three artists. In the event they were very enthusiastic, and they all opted to show three artists."

Jerome O'Driscoll, of Green on Red, is showing work by Niamh O'Malley, Paul Doran and Gerard Byrne; the Kerlin Gallery is bringing work by Jaki Irvine, Andrew Vickery and Phil Collins; the Kevin Kavanagh Gallery has Paul Nugent, Gary Coyle and Stephen Loughman; and Josephine Kelliher, of the Rubicon, has Blaise Drummond, Tom Molloy and Patrick Michael Fitzgerald.

It is, in all, a strong list. The best-known artist internationally is Phil Collins, whose video and photographic projects, usually dependent on significant personal interaction, have a strong international flavour, encompassing locations as far afield as the Balkans and Jerusalem. Gerard Byrne, who works on ambitious projects in photography and film, is becoming an established presence internationally. Patrick Michael Fitzgerald is based in Bilbao and clearly sees himself in a European context, exhibiting in Spain and elsewhere. All of the artists included, though, work to what might be described as an international standard.

"Besides these artists, I know that Orla Barry is involved in one of the curated project spaces, which means there is another Irish artist included as well," says Juncosa. Barry, who is based in Belgium, makes accomplished film, video and installation work and will feature at IMMA next year in a co-curated show.

"In fact, at the moment, the Orla Barry is one of three IMMA exhibitions showing abroad, which I think is very good," Juncosa says.

It's a trend he is determined to develop. "The Howard Hodgkin show we're doing will travel on to the Reina Sofia, and the Dorothy Cross will go to Malaga. The White Stag Group show will go to Manchester. I'm trying to push that a lot, for shows to travel."

As for the Irish galleries at ARCO, Juncosa says: "I know that there is, relatively speaking, a lot of painting." This is a bit untypical of cutting-edge galleries generally, "but that is what they show, and that's fine".

He acknowledges that it is difficult to establish a national profile in the international art world. "I know this is something that aroused a lot of comment in Spain last week," he says. "But I didn't see it mentioned here at all. A German magazine published a list of the 100 most influential artists in the world who are active at the moment. Something like 30 were German, about another 30 were American, with maybe four French, two British, or something like that. Then one from here, one from there. But no Spanish artists, and no Irish artists, for example."

Is that surprising? "Well, not really. But it's ridiculous, of course. I think that it has to do with the market. It reflects the dominance of the American and German markets. That's really what they are talking about. If you're dealing with work from outside of these markets it's very difficult to promote. You need a dealer structure, and that has to be built up."

He is particularly gratified that the Department of Foreign Affairs has supported the ARCO project. "I understand that is something of a departure, and it's an area in which quite a lot could be done to help the development of the infrastructure here. I know that some Spanish collectors are already familiar with the Kerlin. The Kerlin has also been to the Basle art fair, and Green and Red and the Rubicon have been to Cologne. That all helps, and I think what we are doing in ARCO will help, if just a little bit. It's an introduction, and things may grow out of it."

Part of the process is to build a national profile. "Depending on the circumstances, people can see Irish art abroad in the context of other galleries and simply presume it's British. So it's important to get the point across that all these artists are Irish."

To encourage this, IMMA curators Rachel Andrews and Catherine Marshall are both giving talks during ARCO, and Juncosa is hosting a symposium.

As with any art-world event, artists, curators and collectors from around the world will attend. "It's good that so many people from here are going to Madrid," Juncosa says. "It means they will build more bridges."

He is realistic as well though. "The fact is, people tend to buy along national lines. It is difficult to get beyond that, but I hope that the galleries will make sales. That is what it is about for them, and obviously I will do what I can to encourage that. I don't know what will happen, but it's good to do what we are doing."