The only major art fair for now confirmed in Covid period: here's Flashback in Turin

For the time being, it is the only major Italian art fair confirmed in the Covid period: it is Flashback, the ancient and contemporary art fair that this year reaches its eighth edition and is held at the Pala Alpitour in Turin from November 5 to 8, still under the direction of Ginevra Pucci and Stefania Poddighe. The eighth installment of the fair is titled Ludens and takes its cue from chess, and in particular from an interplanetary game, the one that Roger Zelazny enacts in the humorous science fiction novel The Unicorn Variant between Man and the fantastic creature, in a battle to the last move for survival. Play is thus seen as a sacred action and inspiration for art of all times, from Nefertari’s Mortuary toconceptual art, via Dadaism and Surrealism.

Ludens, in particular, are the individuals fully aware that they can affect the world, that they can reshape it through creativity and free play, just as does Daniele Caluri, vernacular author, penciler of the Vernacoliere, irreverent cartoonist of successful comics such as Don Zauker and Dylan Dog, who signs the strong-toned cover of a new Flashback putting us in front of a nameless character, who seems to have just emerged from a hallucinated dream to question us, provoke us, maybe even make fun of us. Neither man nor woman, neither young nor old, the message of this sneering, ambiguous creature is a kind of sarcastic laughter, a hushed reassurance, a question without a question mark: “WE ARE NOT ALONE.” A cry, this one, that remains suspended and propagates in a sky tinged with lime, a pungent, hybrid color (another leitmotif of this edition), which enlightens and at the same time disconcerts.

“This year’s theme and image,” explains Ginevra Pucci, “lash out at our souls and embody at the same time our disturbances and the spirit of Flashback, which was born as a ’unifier of differences,’ where space and time collapse and the work lives in its relationship with its audience. Neither young nor old, no specific genre, the work lives by continually asking us questions, no answers, only the certainty that in this quest ’we are not alone.’”

“This is why Flashback’s quest is renewed every year,” Stefania Poddighe adds, “in 2020 it does so with a preview that for the first time spans two days, November 3 and 4, during which selected journalists and collectors will be able to move exclusively in the futuristic environments of the Pala Alpitour and discover all the surprises of this edition, in an exhibition space designed like a chessboard, made of ordered geometries, in which everyone, just like on a chessboard, will know perfectly which place to occupy in respect of the rules, but at the same time wide enough for them to lose themselves freely, in pursuit of their curiosity.”

Among this year’s galleries there will be several confirmations, such as Longari, who once again chooses Flashback as a “fair on a human scale,” and then again Cattai, Aleandri and all the Turin galleries that have been enthusiastically supporting the event since 2013. There will then be even more new entries: from Alessandra Di Castro, a leading figure in the world panorama of ancient art and president of the Associazione Antiquari d’Italia, to Paolo Antonacci, who counts among his clientele institutions such as the Vatican Museums and the Accademia dei Lincei; from Callisto Fine Arts, which has unearthed sculptures now housed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, to excellencies such asMaurizio Nobile, Claudio Poleschi, Carlo Virgilio, Bottegantica and Matteo Lampertico, whose activity ranges from ancient painting to modern art , with particular attention to ancient paintings, selected according to museum criteria for historical importance and state of preservation.

The experience of these names is complemented by the passion and know-how of a growing group of young gallery owners. For the first time at the Pala Alpitour, the Italian 800/900 Artstudio and White Lands, and the London-based FG Fine Art, which for its debut in Italy has chosen precisely the spaces of Flashback, while the Piacenti gallery returns, and again Il Mercante delle Venezie, with its wunderkammer of selected wonders, and Galleria Umberto Benappi. At a time, then, when it is still difficult for collectors with international taste to travel and discover foreign masterpieces, the stand of the very young Caretto & Occhinegro opens a valuable window on the art of Northern Europe; among their works this year is a masterpieceby a Flemish master that will transport the audience to a primeval forest, The Earthly Paradise, where the progenitors are still animals among animals, and the most human face is that of a unicorn, smiling with amused detachment at the fate that awaits us all.

Each gallery will field winning works, such as Medardo Rosso ’sEcce Puer (presented by Galleria Russo), whereby the face of a child playing hide-and-seek behind a curtain is forever fixed in a portrait of childhood. A trick of the eye (a piece of chipboard mistaken for a carpet in the Tangier souk) for Aldo Mondino turns into a lucky encounter with art, and gives life to the work presented by Umberto Benappi.Antonacci Lapiccirella Fine Art exhibits an unprecedented large-scale landscape by Francesco Gamba, which shows us the city of Turin from a point of view we would not expect, while Galleria dello Scudo presents the works of Tito Scialoja, a painter and poet, who plays as much on the canvas as on the page, between abstractionism and nonsense. Here is the full list of participating galleries below: 800 / 900 Artstudio, Livorno, Lucca (Italy); Aleandri Arte Moderna, Rome (Italy); Paolo Antonacci, Rome (Italy); Antonacci Lapiccirella Fine Art, Rome (Italy); Arcuti Fine Art, Rome, Turin (Italy); Galleria Arte Cesaro, Padua (Italy); Galleria Umberto Benappi, Turin (Italy); Biasutti & Biasutti, Turin (Italy); Bottegantica, Milan, Bologna (Italy); Callisto Fine Arts, London (UK); Galleria Luigi Caretto, Turin (Italy), Madrid (Spain); Caretto & Occhinegro, Turin (Italy); Mirco Cattai Fine Art & Antique Rugs, Milan (Italy); Cecchetto and Prior Alto Antiquariato, Asolo TV, Castelfranco Veneto TV (Italy); Glenda Cinquegrana Art Consulting, Milan (Italy); Copetti Antiquari, Udine (Italy); Galleria Del Ponte, Turin (Italy); Galleria dello Scudo, Verona (Italy); Alessandra Di Castro Antichità, Rome (Italy); FG Fine Art, London (UK); Galleria Giamblanco, Turin (Italy); Gilistra Japanese Art, Turin (Italy); Il Castello, Milan (Italy); ML Fine Art - Matteo Lampertico, Milan (Italy), London (UK); Longari Arte Milano, Milan (Italy); Mazzoleni, London (UK), Turin (Italy); MB Arte Libri, Milan (Italy); Il Mercante delle Venezie, Vicenza (Italy); Lorenzo and Paola Monticone Gioielli d’epoca, Turin (Italy); Maurizio Nobile, Bologna (Italy), Paris (France); Piacenti, London (UK); Claudio Poleschi Arte Contemporanea, Dogana(San Marino), Lucca (Italy); Flavio Pozzallo, Oulx (Italy); Galleria d’Arte Roccatre, Turin (Italy); Galleria Russo, Rome (Italy); Schreiber Collezioni, Turin (Italy); Secol-Art di Masoero, Turin (Italy); Studio d’Arte Campaiola, Rome (Italy); Tornabuoni Arte, Florence, Milan, Forte dei Marmi (Italy), Paris (France), London (UK); Galleria Carlo Virgilio & C., Rome (Italy), London (United Kingdom); White Lands, Turin (Italy).

For all information, you can visit the Flashback website.

The only major art fair for now confirmed in Covid period: here's Flashback in Turin

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