Artissima turns 25 and kicks off with an edition full of new features. Nov. 2 to 4 in Turin

From Nov. 2 to Nov. 4, the 25th edition of Artissima, the international contemporary art fair recognized worldwide for its focus on experimental practices and its role as a springboard for emerging artists and research galleries, is scheduled at theOval in Turin. The fil rouge of the twenty-fifth edition is “time” (Time is on our side) understood not as a static crystallization of memory and celebration, but proposed as a dynamic flow, capable of imprinting the rhythm of change, preserving the temporal suspension of the artwork’s emotion. Artissima’s “time” thus takes on a dual significance: an eloquent past and a future open to creative inquiry. The fair always starts from its own history and identity (marked by the consistency of a path aimed at constant renewal and experimentation but always able to keep its recognizability alive) to participate in the construction of the future history of art. The vitality of Artissima and its innovative force reverberate throughout the city, thanks to the active collaboration with numerous public institutions, museums, foundations, galleries and, as a reflection, with the cultural projects of the territory. A territory that benefits from Artissima’s presence: each year the induced revenue generated by Artissima on the city of Turin is 3.7 million euros.

For the quarter-century edition (Artissima is one of Europe’s longest-running fairs), as many as 195 galleries from 35 different countries are coming to Turin (60 percent of exhibitors come from outside Italy), on 20,000 square meters of exhibition space. Among the many new features of 2018 is a new section: it is Sound, a section dedicated to contemporary sound investigations and set up at OGR - Officine Grandi Riparazioni in Turin. It will present sixteen monographic projects dedicated to sound and will be curated by Yann Chateigné Tytelman and Nicola Ricciardi. Other new features include: the Art Edition & Multiples section opens up to project spaces and nonprofit spaces and from this year will be called Art Spaces & Editions; there is the birth of Artissima Experimental Academy, an educational project that presents meetings with art professionals, and that of the Artissima Junior project, which engages younger visitors youngsters in an immersive and participatory art experience (it will be a space-workshop inside the Oval in which hundreds of children, together with South American artist Alek O., will create a large environmental installation). Again, at Artissima 2018 we will see theTreccani Alphabet, an encyclopedic account in images of contemporary Italian art through multiples conceived ad hoc by Italian artists of different generations, and the Carol Rama_100 years of seduction project, which will tell the story of Carol Rama’s eclectic personality on the 100th anniversary of her birth. In addition, Drawing the Invisible will include traveling and performing drawing classes together with artist Marzia Migliora: they will involve passionate students in an experience suspended between creation and contemplation of contemporary art. Then there will be a new prize: The EDIT Dinner Prize, inspired by the relationship between food and art. Finally, alongside the prizes, Artissima presents the first edition of the New Entries Fair Fund powered by Professional Trust Company, a new three-year fund that will support galleries applying for the New Entries section.

Eight sections make up this year’s Artissima (directed for the second year in a row by Ilaria Bonacossa), four of which were selected by the fair’s gallery committee (composed of Isabella Bortolozzi of Galleria Bortolozzi - Berlin, Paolo Capata of Monitor - Rome, Guido Costa of Guido Costa Projects - Turin, Martin McGeown of Cabinet - London, Alessandro Pasotti of P420 - Bologna, Gregor Podnar of Gregor Podnar - Berlin and Jocelyn Wolff of Jocelyn Wolff - Paris): the Main section, which brings together the most representative galleries of the global art scene (94 of which 44 are foreign); New Entries, reserved for emerging galleries (14 of which 10 are foreign); Dialogue, dedicated to works by two or three artists placed in dialogue with each other (19 galleries of which 12 are foreign); and Art Spaces & Editions, which hosts galleries specializing in editions and multiples, as well as, as mentioned above, project spaces and nonprofit spaces (9 curators). Added to these are the four curated sections: Present future, dedicated to emerging talents (19 galleries including 14 foreign ones, curated by Cloé Perrone, Myriam Ben Salah and Juan Canela), Back to the future, aimed at rediscovering the pioneers of contemporary art, and for this year focused on the period 1980-1994, the 15-year period that preceded the birth of Artissima (17 galleries including 11 foreign, curated by Anna Daneri, Cristiano Raimondi, Gabriela Rangel and Pietro Rigolo), Drawings, all focused, as is easy to guess, on drawing (24 galleries of which 16 foreign, curated by Luís Silva and João Mourão), and the aforementioned Sound.

Considerable space will be reserved for digital with the Artissima Digital project. In fact, Artissima wants to combine new technologies and digital to optimize processes and enhance areas of personal use. Within the Artissima Digital project, created in 2017 thanks to the support of Compagnia di San Paolo, the fair activates tools to deepen and learn about its experience and ecosystem, creating a more effective, immediate and tailored relationship model with its audience. The fair’s 25th anniversary celebrations will be an important element of interpretation of the event, spanning the entire digital narrative of 2018. The digital actions undertaken since the last edition, included in a strategic and broader communication plan, are now an integral part of the Artissima Digital platform, hosted on the website www.artissima.art. This offers visitors to the fair the virtual catalog, thanks to which everyone will be able to explore galleries, artists and works interactively and save their favorite content, even if they are far from Turin, and the online agenda that will allow them to enjoy the events scheduled quickly and immediately. Interacting with the wishlist, the agenda will allow registered visitors to save in their personal area their favorite events: talks, guided tours and meetings at the meeting point, but also events in the city organized by the fair’s partners. A preview of the catalog with the profiles of the participating galleries is online from September, while from mid-October every visitor will be able to discover the full version of the platform, with artists, works, and appointments in the agenda, to better prepare their visit to the fair.

As for the prizes, the three historical prizes, the three prizes inaugurated in 2017, and the new The Edit Dinner Prize are confirmed. The historical prizes are the Ettore and Ines Fico Prize, aimed at the enhancement of a young person, the Illy Present Future Prize, dedicated to the most interesting artist in the Present future section, and the Sardi per l’Arte Back to the Future Prize, dedicated to the best gallery in the Back to the Future section. The three prizes now in their second edition are the Campari Art Prize for the best under-35 artist presented at the fair, theOGR Award aimed at the acquisition by the Fondazione per l’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea CRT of a work exhibited at the fair, and the Refresh Irinox Prize, for the artist who best enhances the immediacy of drawing in a contemporary key.

“In 2018 Artissima is celebrating an important anniversary,” says Ilaria Bonacossa: "25 years of a fair that has been able to distinguish itself for its focus on experimentation and the search for new languages, for the coexistence of multiple and often contradictory approaches, for the critical vision of gallerists who are writing the future history of art, and for the courage of curators ready to bet on talent and not on the marketability of an artist. I love Artissima because each year it offers a global glimpse into the contemporary by taking art lovers into an unexpected space/time, suspended outside the everyday, where works know how to transform our view of the world. Time is on our side - Time is on our side, on the side of those in the art world who want to discover and be excited, savor and reflect, be open to the different and to change. The time devoted by galleries to discover and rediscover artists, to produce their work and to support creative research. The time of images capable of activating thoughts and emotions and not being passively consumed. The time of listening to the new Sound section, a surprising journey through 16 sound installations. The accelerated time of deepening the opportunities that digital and offers us. The time of drawing that is both project and finished work, classical matter transformed by contemporary interpretation and innovative form of thinking. The creative time of Artissima Junior in which young visitors to the fair, together with an artist, will produce a large environmental installation. The time of coexistence and sonic and visual co-design of our ’Experimental Academy’ to transform the fair into a space for the creation and training of giova ni artists. The time of sharing and enjoying an artist’s dinner to experiment with new ways of sharing. The time of commemoration of great artists. The time of Turin, a city suspended between past and future, between Egyptian treasures and contemporary insta lations, between royal glories and working-class memories, between engineering rationalism and magic."

Hours to visit Artissima: Nov. 2 to 4 from 12 p.m. to 8 p.m. Full-price ticket 18 euros, reduced 13 euros (for children 12 to 18 years old, over 65, university students with booklet, military personnel in uniform). Free for disabled with accompanying person. All information (as well as the online catalog) can be found at www.artissima.art.

Artissima turns 25 and kicks off with an edition full of new features. Nov. 2 to 4 in Turin

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