Artissima prepares for 28th edition, Nov. 5-7, 2021 in Turin, Italy

Artissima, the international contemporary art fair in Turin, is back in attendance and preparing for its 28th edition, which will be held, still under the direction of Ilaria Bonacossa, from November 5-7, 2021. In 2020 the fair had been held only in digital form, and this year it will offer its audience a combination of physical and virtual. The venue is still theOval in Turin, where the four historical sections of the fair, namely theMainSection, New Entries, Dialogue/Monologue and Art Spaces & Editions, will be set up again for this 2021. In addition, Artissima XYZ, the digital platform hosting the three curated sections from 2020, namely Present Future, Back to the Future and Drawings, will instead be visible online from Nov. 4 to 9, 2021, and physically in three group exhibitions set up in the fair pavilion. In keeping with tradition, moreover, Artissima reverberates on the city through active collaboration with numerous public institutions, museums, foundations, galleries, and by catalyzing cultural projects in the Piedmont region. The fair is managed by Artissima srl, a company that belongs to the Fondazione Torino Musei.

The four “physical” sections are selected by the fair’s gallery committee. The Main Section brings together a selection of the most representative galleries on the world art scene (this year 89 were chosen, of which 41 are foreign). The New Entrie section, reserved for emerging galleries on the international scene, will have 25 galleries this year, 18 of which are foreign. Dialogue/Monologue is reserved for emerging galleries and/or those with an experimental approach who intend to present a monographic stand or a dialogue between the works of two artists, with 37 galleries of which 20 are foreign. Art Spaces & Editions hosts galleries specializing in artists’ editions and multiples, project spaces and nonprofit spaces, with 7 exhibitors. The selection committee of participating galleries in Main Section, New Entries, Dialogue/Monologue and Art Spaces & Editions sees the team of international gallerists composed of Isabella Bortolozzi (Isabella Bortolozzi gallery in Berlin), Paola Capata (Monitor gallery in Rome, Lisbon and Pereto), Raffaella Cortese (Raffaella Cortese gallery in Milan), Nikolaus Oberhuber (KOW gallery in Berlin) and Alessandro Pasotti (P420 gallery in Bologna) enriched by a new member: Philippe Charpentier of the mor charpentier gallery in Paris. Caterina Avataneo, an independent curator based in London and Turin, on the other hand, is the new curatorial consultant for the New Entries section, reserved for young galleries that have been open for less than five years and are present at Artissima for the first time.

The three curated sections, namely Present Future curated by Ilaria Gianni and Fernanda Brenner, Back to the Future curated by Lorenzo Giusti and Mouna Mekouar, and Drawings curated by Bettina Steinbrügge and Lilou Vidal, a new member of the section’s curatorial team, will live, for the second year, on the cross-media platform Artissima XYZ. For the 2021 edition, Artissima XYZ will also present three physical exhibitions at the Oval, one for each section, with selected works from each of the participating galleries. Artissima XYZ, supported by the Compagnia di San Paolo Foundation, was created in continuity with Artissima Digital, the fair’s digital ecosystem since 2017.

Among the new features of this edition, Artissima 2021 presents Hub India - Maximum Minimum, a new geographical focus curated by Myna Mukherjee and Davide Quadrio, in collaboration with Emami Art, which aims to offer a survey of galleries, institutions and artists active in India, an area of great importance for contemporary art. Also new is the 6 chairs project, born from the partnership with UNA Group: it is a large installation by Lithuanian artist Augustas Serapinas (Vilnius, 1990) set up in the Salone delle Feste of the 5-star hotel Principi di Piemonte | UNA Esperienze. Another novelty is Combo, a new-generation hostel and partner of Artissima since 2018, which is transformed for this edition into a creative lounge of the fair to welcome guests and the public to the city center during daytime and evening hours. In addition to the enjoyment of the kitchen and bar, it will be possible to experience exceptional artistic content each evening. Again, a new dialogue is born between Artissima and Fondazione per l’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea CRT, which, in addition to confirming the historic Acquisitions Fund for the benefit of the collections of GAM - Galleria Civica di Arte Moderna di Torino and Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, chooses to launch, together with Artissima, Beyond Production, a new project adventure, which in 2021 will enter into synergy with the OGR Award.

There are five awards supported by partners: the illy Present Future Award, the FPT for Sustainable Art Award, the Tosetti Value Award for photography, the Carol Rama by Fondazione Sardi per l’Arte Award, and the VANNI occhiali #artistroom Award. Three awards supported by institutions in the area: the OGR Award, the Ettore and Ines Fico Award, the “ad occhi chiusi...” award by Fondazione Merz. Then a new support for galleries is born, in collaboration with a private collection: the Marval Collection New Entries Support. Then returns JaguArt, the journey in search of 10 young visual arts talents across Italy, born in 2019 from the dialogue between Artissima and Jaguar, which culminates with the announcement of the overall winner during the 28th edition of Artissima. A group exhibition involving the 10 talent finalists will be set up in the pavilion, and the public will have the opportunity to vote for their favorite artist. The works of the winners of the two editions of the Torino Social Impact Art Award, a project that confirms the commitment of the fair and Torino Social Impact to young artists, with the support of the Compagnia di San Paolo Foundation, will also be presented during Artissima. The residency program at Combo, the project’s hospitality partner, saw the winners of the second edition of the Torino Social Impact Art Award, Monia Ben Hamouda (Milan, 1991) and the MRZB collective, working on the creation of two new video works in 2021.

In terms of encounters, Artissima presents during the days of the fair, through a cycle of dedicated talks, ArtVenture, a new project that investigates the relationship between art and business and that, during 2022, will map the Italian territory to tell in an immediate and effective way the most significant dialogues activated by companies that have chosen to welcome works and artists inside their corporate spaces.

“The cognition of time has changed,” declares director Ilaria Boancossa. “We have been living for almost two years alternating delays with accelerations, openings with restrictions, expectations with reworkings. The time of creation and the fruition of art have chased each other, sometimes meeting, finding new dimensions of sharing. Artissima never stopped and continued to support galleries and artists through both physical and digital projects constantly renewing itself in a world where all paradigms were being redefined. Today, therefore, inaugurating the fair takes on another value. Welcoming the art public together with our galleries and partners means transforming the fair experience into one of the first steps toward a return to a new normal in which creativity has become even more important in reinventing public and private life. Artissima 2021 starts from these premises and from the belief that contemporary art has the capacity to imagine a multiplicity of future scenarios. We look forward to sharing the artists’ ideas and experiences and bringing art lovers to an unexpected space, suspended outside the everyday, where works know how to transform our view of the world.”

Artissima prepares for 28th edition, Nov. 5-7, 2021 in Turin, Italy

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