Art Guides
10 Things to See in Turin During Artissima
Satellite fairs and trendy exhibitions compliment this year's fair.
Alyssa Buffenstein
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Turin comes alive for Artissima, when satellite fairs populate historic buildings, foundations collaborate to stage citywide exhibitions, and galleries stay open late for Contemporary Arts Night on Saturday, November 5. Turin Art Week which has sprung up as a compliment to the success of the fair is an exciting opportunity for collectors and spectators interested in trendy young artists and established powerhouses alike.
Artissima draws around 52,000 visitors to Turin to view works brought by 192 galleries from 34 countries around the world.  The 22-year-old fair brings together nearly 200 galleries from 34 countries. In turn, Turin’s galleries and institutions are continuing to work together to build the small Piedmont city into an international art destination. Naturally, there’s much to see around the city in November, so we have put together our top ten exhibitions and events.
Josh Kline, Unemployment (installation view) (2015). Photo courtesy 47 Canal.
1. Josh Kline, “Unemployment“ at the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, November 4, 2016-February 12, 2017
While “Unemployment” is a restaging of the show of the same name installed earlier this year at 47 Canal in New York, it’s the first solo exhibition dedicated to Kline in Europe. The American artist imagines, in the year 2030-something, a middle class whose jobs have become obsolete because of mass automation, and whose bodies turn to waste. The speculative, dystopian narrative is 3-D printed, video projected, audiovisual, and immersive—in other words, a must-see.
2. D-A-M-A at Paluzzo Saluzzo Paesana, November 3-6
Many fairs tout that they’re “curated,” but DAMA, a newcomer, is even more selective than the rest. Just ten galleries make up this alternative fair, a reaction against overcrowded auditoriums filled with white-walled booths. It takes place in the Palazzo Saluzzo Paesana, an 18th-century palace in the city center that the organizers chose in order to revive interest in Turin’s historical spaces. The invited galleries—which come from places as diverse as Warsaw, Mexico City, Shanghai, Berlin, and Rotterdam—will install their wares among grand architecture, in a setup that sounds not unfamiliar to Paris Internationale.
Carol Rama, Dorina (1940). Photo Nick Ash courtesy the artist, private collection, Cologne and Galerie Isabella Bortolozzi, Berlin.
3. “The Passion According to Carol Rama” at GAM Torino, October 12, 2016 to February 5, 2017
The retrospective of the controversial Torinese artist lands in Turin after touring from the MACBA in Barcelona, to the Musée d”Art moderne de la Ville de Paris, the Espoo Museum of Modern Art in Finland, and the Irish Museum of Modern Art in Dublin. The work of the self-taught Rama, born in 1918, was censored by the Fascist Italian government in 1945 for its “obscenity.” She wasn’t recognized by art institutions until the 1990s. “The Passion According to Carol Rama” covers her 60-year-career, from carnal watercolors to sculptures of rubber bicycle tire.
4. Paratissima, November 2-6
Paratissima is a dynamic event dedicated to emerging artists, designers, street artists, and galleries, launched eleven years ago as an Artissima alternative. This year, the theme is “To the Stars,” realized in the form of curated exhibition on the topics of astronomy and space exploration. The “hub” and “network for emerging creativity” aims to raise up emerging artists and promote new ways of presenting art, while also engaging visitors with workshops and laboratories. A section called G@P—Galleries at Paratissima—targets young collectors with reasonably-priced artworks. This translates as nothing on sale for less than €5,000.
A still from Ed Atkins Hisser (2015). Photo courtesy Castelo di Rivoli.
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5. “Ed Atkins“ at Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, September 27, 2016 – January 29, 2017
Just outside the city, the historic Castello di Rivoli is a juxtapositional setting for Ed Atkins’ large-scale video installations. The sprawling show occupies five galleries on the castle’s top floor, where the works Even Pricks (2013), Warm, Warm, Warm Spring Mouths (2013), Ribbons (2014), Hisser (2015), and Happy Birthday (2015) will be displayed among new artistic interventions by the British artist. If the 30-minute drive outside Turin isn’t in the cards, at least there’s one part of the exhibition installed inside the city proper: the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo houses Safe Conduct (2016).
6. “Reflections/Riflessioni. Rosemarie Trockel and Works from Torino Collections” at the Pinacoteca Giovanni e Marella Agnelli, November 4, 2016 to February 26, 2017
Rosemarie Trockel worked with curator Paolo Colombo on “Reflections” an exhibition located in the Renzo Piano-designed, repurposed Fiat factory building housing works from the private collection of Giovanni and Marella Agnelli. The German sculptor’s work is paired with pieces from the permanent collections of Turin museums, under the two themes of “portraiture” and “ceramics.” Paintings and drawings from the collections pair with Trockel’s photo-collage, while her rough, organic, and glazed objects contrast historic works depicting vanity and mirrors.
Reccomended: Tour the Top Ten Booths at Artissima 2015
Wael Shawky, Al Araba Al Madfuna (still). Photo courtesy Fondazione Merz.
7. Wael Shawky at Castello di Rivoli and Fondazione Merz, November 3 2016 to February 5 2017
While Castello di Rivoli hosts a retrospective of the Egyptian artist, the Fondazione Merz presents a new commission by the winner of the Fondazione’s first Mario Merz Prize for contemporary art and music. The retrospective includes film, sculpture, and wooden relief works that imagine a historical narrative of the Crusades from the point of view of Arabs, rather than Europeans. The new work, “Al Araba Al Madfuna,” is a site-specific installation for a film trilogy that the artist has been developing since 2012, based on visits to an Egyptian archaeological site of the same name. The films blend lived experience with mystical fictions, and the exhibition sets them among environments built by the artist.
8. The Others Art Fair, November 4-6
The Others is an art fair dedicated to emerging artists, which this year moves from a former prison facility to the former Hospital Regina Maria Adelaide at Lungo Dora Firenze 87. The fair embraces the theme of “Cultural Nomadism,” an idea that should resonate with the globetrotting art world. A special projects platform will feature performances, video screenings in three projection rooms, an exhibition, and roundtable talks.
9. “MAZZOLENI 1986-2016: 30 Years of Art. 30 Italian Artists.” at Mazzoleni Gallery, October 27 to February 4, 2017
The Turin- and London-based Mazzoleni Gallery is celebrating 30 years with an exhibition of 30 Italian artists with which the gallery has a history. It focuses on the history of the 20th century through an Italian lens, from Futurism and Metaphysical Art, to the Zero Group, Kinetic Art, Arte Povera, and Conceptual art. Among others, artists exhibited include such key Italian artists as Georgio di Chirico, Giacomo Balla, Lucio Fontana, and Piero Manzoni.
Ai Weiwei, Lesvos, 27 January 2016. Photo courtesy the artist and Camera Centro Italiano per la Fotografia.
10. “Around Ai Weiwei Photographs 1983-2016” at Camera Centro Italiano per la Fotografia, October 28, 2016 to February 12, 2017
This exhibition presents photographic and video work from the past three decades of Ai Weiwei’s career. Focused on behind-the-scenes, documentary glimpses of the artist’s life, the show contrasts the monumental scale that Ai’s work tends to demand. Among the snapshots are moments from the artist’s life in New York in the 80s and 90s, a visit to the Forbidden City in Beijing during the SARS epidemic, to his recent trips the Greek Island of Lesbos. It coincides with “Libero,” a retrospective in Florence at Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi.
