Turin. Surrounded by art
Elena Givone
A review of Artissima 2022
Every year during the first weekend of November, Turin, the capital city of the region of Piedmont, becomes more than just the beautiful historical capital of the Duchy of Savoy – it becomes the capital of contemporary art.
The City of Turin
Gently resting on hills and transected by the Po River, Turin is a lively, splendid city at the foot of the western Alpine region. Described by Le Corbusier as “the city with the most beautiful natural position”, the splendor of the House of Savoy has left an indelible mark from once being the first capital of Italy; this can be admired fully and simply by walking through its squares, elegant Royal Residences and religious buildings, and allowing yourself the small pleasures of life in the city’s historic cafes. Yet do not forget the prestigious museums that have made it modern and a city of art and culture thanks to new neighbourhoods and innovative buildings.
Artissima Art Fair
Artissima, the International Fair of Contemporary Art in Turin, is the only fair in Italy with an exclusive focus on contemporary art. The 29th edition was led for the first time by Luigi Fassi, Artissima’s new Director.
Artissima 2022 offered initiatives that confirmed its unique position on the European cultural scene and its ability to attract the most interesting galleries, artists, collectors and curators on an international level, with the promise – always kept – of an experimental, cutting-edge event. From Friday to Sunday, November 4–6, 2022, the large, luminous spaces of the Oval in Turin had the privilege to welcome the four flagship sections of the fair: Main Section, New Entries, Monologue/Dialogue, and Art Spaces & Editions; and three curated sections: Disegni, Present Future, and Back to the Future – with the participation of 174 Italian and international galleries, including 35 monographic projects. The galleries of Artissima 2022 came from 28 countries and 4 continents, with 42 exhibitors having participated in the fair for the first time.
Gilardi @ Artissima 2022. Photo: Andrea Alessandri
Arissima 2022. Photo: Elena Givone
Internationally renowned for its focus on pioneering practices, and its role as a launch pad for up-and-coming artists and galleries, Artissima attracts a large audience of collectors, sector professionals and art lovers every year. With each edition, the fair welcomes curators, directors of art institutions and foundations, as well as the patrons of museums from all over the world who are involved in various ways in its programme.
The vitality of Artissima resonates throughout the city thanks to the many cultural projects produced in collaboration with public institutions, museums, foundations and galleries across the region. Artissima contributes to the growth of the Italian contemporary art market, stimulating and supporting collectors with an eye for innovation, and a continuously evolving critical and curatorial vision.
Arissima 2022. Photo:Andrea Alessandri
Arissima 2022. Photo: Elena Givone
The theme of this edition
The theme selected for this year is Transformative Experience, a concept developed by the American philosopher L. A. Paul (professor of Philosophy and Cognitive Science at Yale University) in an essay of the same title published in 2014 by Oxford University Press. According to the author, a transformative experience is able to radically modify the person who lives it, triggering a crisis of rationally envisioned expectations and opening a perspective on the unknown.
Arissima 2022. Photo: Elena Givone
Luigi Fassi (director of Artissima 2022) writes: In recent years, the art world as a whole has witnessed changes in its rules, modes of exchange and informative interactions between sector professionals and art lovers, navigating towards multiple horizons of transformation. Nevertheless, the urgency of interpersonal encounter and relational immediacy remains vivid, dictated by the desire to know and to experience art in real time, and to continue to be in touch with all the new developments that are emerging on the present scene. Precisely the theme of how all of us will go through the outbreak of transformative experiences in our lives provides the central inspiration for Artissima 2022. A transformative experience opens up new horizons to our senses, our thoughts and emotions, to the point of being able to profoundly change us as people. The American contemporary philosopher Laurie Anne Paul, in her book Transformative Experience, asserts that personally transformative experiences are the ones we cannot rationally predict or anticipate in any way, because nothing can take the place of the living revelation of a territory as yet unknown to us.
Arcade. Dapper Bruce Lafitte. Photo: Elena Givone
Our favourite
It’s easy to fall in love with many pieces of art, and in visiting Artissima, we had some “coup de coeur”, notably, the gallery “eastcontemporary” in the Main Section.
Arcade. Dapper Bruce Lafitte. Photo: Andrea Alessandri
Their exhibition for Artissima 2022 featured a series of textile-based works, sculptures and installations by Eliška Konená (b. 1992, Czech Republic), Selma Selman (b. 1991, Bosnia and Herzegovina) and Anastasia Sosunova (b. 1993, Lithuania). Employing humour, coincidence, storytelling and scenographic means of expression, the artists reflect upon the extent to which humans thrive on touch and, consequently, approach the material environment. Through the use of craft techniques such as embroidery, woodcarving, etching and painting on scrap metal, the artists investigate the phenomenon of the veneration of relics – objects from the past embodying the memory of bygone events and civilizations. They are attracted to objects believed to transmit energy or power through proximity. Indeed, possessing an intrinsic fetishist potential, relics are evidence of the human endeavor for transcendence. Through the processes of distortion and the interweaving of different elements, Sosunova, Konená and Selman created a multi-layered narration about the power of touch and the objects themselves – about their creative potential to invent new protagonists and myths – as they construct alternative forms of “contemporary folklore” which, as in the past, might bind communities together.
Installation by Eliška Konená (detail). Photo: Andrea Alessandri
Gallery “eastcontemporary”. Photo: Andrea Alessandri
In the part of the fair dedicated to contemporary drawings, at London’s “Arcade” gallery we had the privilege to experience Dapper Bruce Lafitte’s work recording a singular personal trajectory in a grand, historically significant moment. He is a self-trained artist who began making and showing work in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina to commemorate the then decimated street culture of parades and marching bands of the city. With joyful colours and a "childish" trait, Lafitte's drawings shed light on the impacting consequences that Hurricane Katrina, and then the pandemic, have had on black communities.
Sylvie Fleury - Yes to all - opening. Photo: Andrea Guermani. Installation view Pinacoteca Agnelli Torino
In Town
If you wish to come to Turin during your next holidays, you will be surrounded by art!
Turin has a soul of design that can be discovered by walking through some of its more peripheral neighbourhoods: The Intesa San Paolo skyscraper, whose 35th floor houses the highest restaurant and cocktail bar in Italy; the Officine Grandi Riparazioni (OGR), which has become a museum and food hub; Nuvola – the new headquarters of Lavazza with a museum dedicated to their coffee; and the Ettore Fico Museum, created inside former industrial spaces. These are just some examples of a city in movement, one that is looking towards the future so intensively that UNESCO has designated Turin as a “Creative City”. A city that must be unveiled step by step as you allow yourself to be conquered by its fascinating charm that harmoniously combines with its ability to keep up with the times!
Walking along Via Po, you will find the symbol of the city, the Mole Antonelliana, which houses the National Museum of Cinema, a real amusement park dedicated to the seventh art. But this is only one of the four national museums (together with those devoted to the Automobile, to the Mountains, and to the Risorgimento), all of which deserve a visit. And don’t forget the Egyptian Museum (the oldest museum in the world dedicated to this topic), nor the multiple spaces dedicated to contemporary art, including the GAM, the Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, the Merz Foundation, and Castello di Rivoli.
VALIE EXPORT - Die Dopplegangerin. Installation view Pinacoteca Agnelli Torino. Photo: Andrea Guermani
Walking trough Piazza San Carlo, you will find the recently opened and amazing Gallerie D’Italia. Together with Intesa Sanpaolo, the Main Partner of the fair for the third year in a row, Artissima presented a film and video project produced in dialogue with Gallerie d’Italia, which also hosted the exhibition. Titled “Collective Individuals”, the project featured a selection of video works – many of which were shown for the first time in Italy – by artists represented by the galleries participating in Artissima.
Through January 22, 2023, at Gallerie d’Italia – Torino you can visit the great exhibition "Gregory Crewdson. Eveningside”, with the world premiere of a brand new eponymously-titled series of photographs, Eveningside (2021-2022), as the exhibition’s centerpiece. Crewdson’s Eveningside pictures, produced in part as a commission by Intesa Sanpaolo, were envisioned by the internationally-acclaimed American photographer as the final movement of a trilogy spanning ten years of work. Curated by Jean-Charles Vergne, the exhibition is a review of this trilogy, beginning with Cathedral of the Pines (2012-2014) and An Eclipse of Moths (2018-2019), alongside Crewdson's previous minimalist shots titled Fireflies (1996).
SUPERFLEX_Ph. Sebastiano Pellion di Persano; Installation view Pinacoteca Agnelli Torino
Another spot not to miss is Pinacoteca Agnelli. Located in the Lingotto complex, the first headquarters of FIAT located on Via Nizza 230/103, it always has great exhibitions on view. A very amazing experience that can only be had here is to visit the just opened La Pista 500 – a unique hanging garden and a test-drive track dedicated to the electric Fiat New 500; the art space has recently been enriched with new site-specific installations by Liam Gillick, Marco Giordano, Nan Goldin, and SUPERFLEX. These projects deepen Pinacoteca's relationship with the historical test-track and its use in movement. With the idea of continuing a confrontation with the architecture of the former FIAT factory, the spectacular installations on the roof of the Lingotto accompany visitors on a poetic journey around the circularity of the track, which is transformed from closed circuit to open road.
NAN GOLDIN - Installation view Pinacoteca Agnelli Torino. Photo: Sebastiano Pellion di Persano
Visiting the Artissima art fair in Turin is an experience that brings together collectors, curators and art lovers. Those who wager on Artissima will be rewarded by the fact that they have been enabled to intercept the works and artists that will be the protagonists of the near future – in addition to discovering a sparkling city with a unique energy that stems from a truly successful combination of history and modernity.
Title image: Leto gallery (Warsaw) at Artssima. Photo by Andrea Alessandri
