ITALY Review of art fair, Artissima

Art News / Art Fair / Italy

November - December 2021

ITALY

JOANNA DELIA is a medical doctor who specialises in cosmetic medicine. She is also a cultural consumer and art collector who tirelessly supports local contemporary art and culture.

JOANNA DELIA

ARTISSIMA 2022

Artissima, which was held this year on the first weekend of November in Turin, is Italy’s first Contemporary art fair, now in its 28th edition and possibly one of the top art fairs in Europe. Attracting over 30,000 visitors, including international collectors, to visit booths by both historic galleries and more cutting edge outfits, such as Venice’s first contemporary art galleries Michela Rizzo – which is showing none other than Maltese artist Matthew Attard and his most recent works – to spaces on the activist edge. The offering was anything from stills from Marina Abramovic’s The Kiss, to new work by Yemeni artist Sara Abud – Now that I have lost you in my Dreams, where do we meet? (2021).

Gallery Apart in Rome was showing, among others, works by Gea Casolaro – an artist and activist particularly interested in issues surrounding asylum

Carpet # 52 There Is No Change Without Risk, Loredana Longo, Carpet, 2020 … But My Love Does Not Die, Marcello Maloberti, Inkjet printing, 2019. Photo by Lorenzo Palmieri

seekers. Her work Chi Utilizza piu letters Vince with scrabble tiles spelling ‘Ostilita/Ospitalita’ truly struck a chord. Casolaro was also part of a programme of events, giving an interview where she also described her project Mare Magnum – a platform inviting people to post both historic as well as contemporary photos of our lives at sea, connecting time and space and highlighting the uniting factor that it is and how easy it is to forget the people desperately seeking to cross it. The fair also contains a curated section, headed by a board of international curators and museum directors, devoted to emerging artists (Present Future), drawings (Disegni) and rediscovering the great pioneers of contemporary art (Back to the Future).

The fair itself is curated by Artissima Srl, a company connected with the Fondazione Torino Musei. Saturday 6 November was also the Notte Delle Arte Contemporanee a Torino, with the GAM (Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea) and the Castello di Rivoli and its incredible collections open until late.

Check out the online catalogue and only show on the Artissima XYZ digital platform on artissima.art.

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