The latest edition of Artissima in Turin highlights the fair as a staple of both the Italian and international art scenes, as it balances appealing to collectors’ tastes with generating unexpected encounters.
At the foot of the Alps, in the traditional industrial heartland of Italy, the 32nd edition of Artissima is taking place at the Oval Lingotto Fiori in Turin under the theme of Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth. Directed for the fourth year running by Luigi Fassi, the first contemporary art fair in Italy has long been a staple of the international art scene and rounds out the October ‘art month’ as the last fair of the season in Europe after the London and Paris circuits.
With many of the fair’s visitors and participants having already done the rounds in the British and French capitals, I was curious to discover what Artissima has to offer in comparison. Luigi Fassi explained in a conversation with me what he views as Artissima’s mission: “The fair serves two roles, one of connecting the Italian art circuit to the global art scene, the other of linking overseas galleries to the collectors and institutions over here”.
While Fassi emphasises the international nature of the fair, citing that this is a “DNA feature of Artissima”, its Italian roots are undeniable, with more than a third of the galleries hailing from the home country. This includes the likes of MONITOR Rome, which introduces a set of orange and blue-hued oil paintings by Matteo Fatto, and an oversized still-life of a wilting rose drooping out of its vase by fellow Italian painter, Thomas Braida. When it comes to artists from abroad, there are some rising stars present who have links to Italy, such as Tunisian-Italian artist Monia Ben Hamouda, presented by Chertlüdde Berlin, and the Libyan-Italian Adelita Husni Bey, whose work is showcased by Laveronica of Modica.
Image courtesy of the artist and Rose Easton
Overseas galleries range from established names such as CONTINUA, which has galleries in San Gimignano, Beijing, Les Moulins, Havana, Rome, São Paulo and Paris, and Zilberman from Istanbul and Berlin, to smaller spaces such as Rose Easton. The East London gallery displays a difficult-to-miss site-specific installation of an oversized inflatable safety cushion by Louis Morlæ, entitled SFB2 (Sidefall Bag) (2025), which is designed as a fantastical safety device capable of cushioning a body’s fall in the event of a gravitational shift, such as that seen aboard spaceships in science fiction films. Morlæ’s showcase is part of the Present Future section, curated by Léon Kruijswijk and Joel Valabrega, one of three curated sections that also include Back to the Future and Disegni, in addition to the four ‘flagship sections’ of Main Section, Monologue/Dialogue, New Entries and Art Spaces. With Morlæ’s work receiving the illy Present Future Prize, Fassi’s vision of the “institutional role of Artissima” is bonding disparate parts of the art scene together, allowing space for new visions from both emerging artists and smaller gallery spaces to shine.
The geographical scope of the galleries at this year’s fair extends to a wide range of other European countries as well as South, Central and North America, Southeast Asia, Africa, Oceania and the Middle East (through the inclusion of three Turkish galleries, Öktem Aykut, Pilevneli and Zilberman). Although five continents are represented, the bulk of the non-Italian booths are from Europe, with Oceania and Africa only present in the shape of one or two galleries apiece: WHATIFTHEWORLD from Cape Town, First Floor Gallery Harare and the Australian gallery Ames Yavuz.
That said, several galleries speak to the overall global outlook of Artissima through their artists. In one such instance, I was delighted to stumble upon a monumental piece of indigo fabric embroidered by Bouchra Khalili at Mor Charpentier and Samuel Nnorom’s boldly colourful and distinctively sculptural wax African fabrics a little further on at Primo Marella Gallery.
Household names including Wael Shawky, Anna Boghiguian and Shirin Neshat crop up, with my most pleasing discovery being a couple of small-scale portraits by Boghiguian at Galleria Franco Noero. Both rough in texture and hued red and pink, respectively, they depict contorted and almost demonic faces. Despite their small size, both portraits were transfixing passersby. In the same gallery presentation, two pieces by Hassan Sharif – particularly a set of palm fronds on a wooden platform at ground level – were drawing equal recognition and attention.
Other familiar names include emerging artist Mehdi-Georges Lahlou at 193 Gallery, whose work I first encountered at Riyadh Art Week. His series of glossy enamel prints, entitled Casablanca, March 26 (2016–23), is recognisable for a distinctive monochromatic visual language evoking emotional landscapes. Another artist whose sparse pencil drawings of absurd situations are difficult to overlook, even amidst the tumult of an art fair, is at Umberto di Marino, where Massinissa Selmani’s intentionally white paper backgrounds provide breathing room in contrast with the often busier works on paper dotted around the premises.
Other spaces made a point to display works more suited to public art collections or institutions than private homes. As Fassi tells Canvas, it is a fine art “balancing between all these different things, without alienating the Italian collectors at a time when the art market is shrinking”. Among the more experimental offerings is an arresting nighttime scene by Hicham Berrada at Wentrup, simply called Les Oiseaux (2014). It depicts the haunting motion of birds circling a white light projected into the grounds of an old garden near the Villa Medici, set against the deep blue backdrop of the night. Elsewhere, at Sylvia Kouvali, Palestinian artist Shadi Habib Allah’s M1 (2022) portrays a stirring combination of found footage with music and narration exploring the intersection of nature and technology. Visitors are invited to interact with the work by sitting in a set of red chairs and donning headphones, one of several participative opportunities that made the fair feel more welcoming overall.
Despite the solid international presence in gallery presentations, I would be intrigued to see how the fair might handle an even more geographically diverse gallery cohort in future editions. The delicate balance Fassi evokes holds steady in this year’s Artissima, and as initial sales reports indicate, institutional tastes have already moved in a new direction. The acquisition for Castello di Rivoli by Fondazione Arte CRT of three works by Palestinian artist Majd Abdel Hamid, along with pieces by Filipino artist Cian Dayrit and Zimbabwean artist Felix Shumba, among others, highlights just how Artissima can position itself as the forger of welcome new artistic links.
Artissima 2025 runs until 2 November
