ARTISSIMA 2021

Artissima, the International Fair of Contemporary Art in Torino, announces the upcoming 28th edition of the fair, the only one in Italy with an exclusive focus on contemporary art, directed for the fifth consecutive year by Ilaria Bonacossa.

In 2020, Artissima reacted to the pandemic with exceptional energy and speed, producing a hybrid event that responded to the needs of the exhibiting galleries while at the same time conserving the experimental character of the programme as well as its commercial and cultural quality. Using this experience and all the know-how developed throughout this complex situation, Artissima 2021 will be organized as a sophisticated combination of physical and digital experiences.

From Friday 5 to Sunday 7 November 2021, the large, luminous spaces of the Oval in Torino will welcome the four historic sections of the fair – Main Section, New Entries, Dialogue/Monologue and Art Spaces & Editions.

Artissima XYZ – the cross-media platform that since 2020 has hosted the three curated sections, Present Future, Back to the Future and Disegni – will be online from 4 to 9 November and will also present three physical group exhibitions at the Oval.

THE CURATED SECTIONS ARTISSIMA XYZ

Present Future
Present Future, the section on rising talents, preferably under 40 years of age, returns with the same curatorial team, composed of the independent curators and writers Ilaria Gianni and Fernanda Brenner.

In their words: “Mystery stretches the limits of the visible and apprehensible through the discursive function of language. Modernity does not stand superstition and often ignores what falls out from palpable scientific proof. Drawing from the mystery and the mystical idea, the section aims to stage a counterargument for reducing the world to facts, descriptions, and projects. Mystery sits beyond the inquiry space, being it unreachable, unsayable, unpredictable, and often fearful. It questions the same idea of knowledge or surpasses the notion of human knowledge as a tool for the dominance of different species and the planet and the human five senses as the sole mediators of the body and its surroundings. How do we tell our story in an “I don’t know – I’m not sure – there is no truth” society? What is the art of uncertainty, of uncanniness? Present Future 2021 will look into the mystery underscoring our subjectivity and investigate what lays between the expressible and the inexpressible. Art provides another model for augmenting our senses, and the section will bring together artists that reinstate that the whole is always more than the sum of its parts”.

An international jury will evaluate the proposals of the online Present Future section and will assign the illy Present Future Prize, the award supported by illycaffè, now at its 21st edition, to the most interesting submitted project. Thanks to the contemporary approach of illycaffè, the illy Present Future Prize makes an important contribution to the growth of emerging talents, confirming the innovative role of the fair in support to international artists.

Back to the Future
The curatorial team of Back to the Future has also been confirmed, composed of the Director of the GAMeC – Galleria d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea of Bergamo Lorenzo Giusti and the independent art critic and curator Mouna Mekouar. The section covers solo projects by outstanding pioneers of contemporary art, this year featuring works made during the last century, starting in 1960, in dialogue with recent production.

In their words: “20/20: a year like a century. Perhaps the true end of the 1900s, twenty years late. A year like a loose leaf, marking a pause. A stopping point. In Torino as in New York, Berlin as in Johannesburg. An elastic time. A mutable time. A time that can be modified. A binding time. A time of freedom. In this context, the section Back to the Future 2021 will explore the historic creations of various artists with different backgrounds, produced in the 20th century, juxtaposed with others made in recent years, until 2020. Artists who define a dilated dimension of the present with their personal approaches. A presumed present, predicated on a past world. A present that opens onto a new millennium”.

Disegni
The curatorial team of Disegni sees the entry this year of Lilou Vidal, an independent curator and editor based in Brussels and Torino, together with Bettina Steinbrügge, director of the Kunstverein of Hamburg and managing director of Kunstmeile Hamburg. Disegni is the section of Artissima that presents monographic projects on the most contemporary experimentation with the practice of drawing, originally associated with paper but now in a phase of transformation.

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 manymcultural 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.

THE THEME OF THE 28TH EDITION
Artissima 2021 takes place at an anomalous moment in time, often perceived and defined as one of “suspension” and “standstill”, although it inexorably continues to produce new visions, ideas, ways of acting and reacting. The impact of this critical moment activates a change of pace that is manifested in the need to transform fragility into force through creative imagination. Hence the desire to dedicate the 28th edition of the fair to the concept of Controtempo. The idea of “countertime” comes from the world of music and is applied here as a metaphor of art’s ability to shift rhythmical accents, transforming weak beats into strong points and creating a contrast between voices. A dynamic impulse that generates new visual rhythms with the necessary timing and pauses, triggering syncopation and interstitial movement.

The fair is managed by Artissima srl, a company affiliated with Fondazione Torino Musei.

Image caption: Ozer Toraman, Joy of Summer 2, 2021, Oil on Canvas, 80 x 80 cm

Courtesy of Artissima 2021