The 2019 edition of Artissima will talk about desire and censorship. And there will be an "Abstract sex" project

The 2019 edition of Artissima, the major contemporary art fair that will reach its 26th edition this year, has been presented and will open its doors from Thursday, October 31, through Sunday, November 3, in the spaces of Turin’sOval. This year the central theme of Artissima will be the dialectic between desire and censorship: the aim is to initiate a reflection on contemporary ambitions and utopias, on the impulses that shape the times and the perspectives and narratives that run through them, as well as on the relationship between images and the control of images themselves in contemporary society. “Desire,” says Ilaria Bonacossa, confirmed director of Artissima for the third consecutive year, "arises from the relationship between the body and society, between lived reality and imagined and coveted reality. Works of art have historically carried images that can diemancipate what is conventionally considered taboo, thanks to the desire to subvert the rules, making the boundaries between normal and exceptional fluid. The boundary between permitted and forbidden content is at the center of a debate that is as current as ever, with art itself the subject of censorship. In the digital world and on major social networks, prior control, often algorithmic, actually makes the dissemination and promotion of our artistic-cultural heritage more and more difficult. In such a context, desire remains a moment of rupture, a ’lignede fuite,’ as Deleuze and Guattari say in A Thousand Plateaus: a disruptive energy that manages to infiltrate the cracks in the system to open up unexpected lateral visions capable of showing open spaces beyond the limits of convention. And contemporary art remains a real and physical meeting space between the person and his or her aspirations."

In keeping with the fair’s main theme, Artissima is launching a new exhibition project this year entitled Abstract sex. We don’t have any clothes, only equipments, which is also dedicated to the theme of desire, and is the brainchild of Ilaria Bonacossa (the curatorship was instead entrusted to Lucrezia Calabrò Visconti and Guido Costa): it will be hosted in the spaces of Jana, a historic Turin boutique; it will interrogate the relevance of desire in the most recent artistic and cultural research, and will do so with videos, sculptures, works on canvas or paper, as well as objects selected by the galleries participating in the 2019 edition of the fair. Among the additional novelties that Artissima has already unveiled is the Artissima Telephone exhibition project, which will be hosted in the spaces of OGR - Officine Grandi Riparazioni: curated by Vittoria Martini, it will be a reconnaissance of the telephone as a medium of artistic expression. Among the new projects that strictly concern the fair will be Hub Middle East, a geographical focus on galleries, institutions and artists from the Middle East, and a reconnaissance of the artists who have taken part in the editions of Back to the future, the section of Artissima dedicated to the rediscovery of contemporary pioneers, which will celebrate its first ten years this year.

As for the fair, this year there will be 208 participating galleries from 43 different countries around the world, showcasing their works on an exhibition area of 20,000 square meters. Sixty-two percent of the exhibitors will come from abroad, and curators and museum directors who will serve on juries and special initiatives will also come from around the world. The fair will award six prizes this year, the three historical prizes and the three launched in 2017 (on the one hand the Ettore and Ines Fico Prize for the best young Italian artist, the illy Present Future Prize for the most interesting new talent, and the Sardi Prize for Art Back to the Future for the gallery with the best project in the Back to the future section; on the other hand, the Refresh Prize for the artist who proposes the most interesting drawings, the OGR Award for the best video, and the Campari Art Prize for the best artist under 35). Finally, seven of the eight 2018 sections have been confirmed (only the Sound section is missing, but it will find continuity in Artissima Telephone): are the main section that will host this year a selection of 97 galleries of which 50 are foreign, New Entries reserved for emerging galleries, Dialogue with specific projects that compare the works of two artists, Art Spaces & Editions for multiples and editions, Present Future for emerging artists, Back to the future for a reconnaissance of the last years of contemporary art, and Drawings to explore the potential of the graphic medium.

For all information about Artissima, the website for the new edition is already available and active.

Pictured is a moment from Artissima 2018. Ph. Credit Perottino-Piva-Bottallo

The 2019 edition of Artissima will talk about desire and censorship. And there will be an "Abstract sex" project

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