MADE IN is a residency programme created by Artissima with the support of Camera di commercio di Torino, based on the desire to activate a dialogue between contemporary art and the flourishing entrepreneurial context of Torino.
Starting with the idea that corporate know-how and specialized production processes can become a precious resource for the creation of works of art on the part of artists, like an academy MADE IN allowed four young artists to live inside four companies in the territory, absorbing and incorporating the technological and operative expertise with which they come into contact into their own practice. During the residency the artists were flanked by four prestigious Torino-based galleries from the Artissima circuit, which monitored the progress of the work, providing an opportunity for interaction with entrepreneurial figures in the world of art as well. The objective was to enhance the territory in which the fair began and has grown, constantly weaving synergic relationships with the aim of underscoring characteristic values, giving Torino greater visibility in the world.
The project was launched in 2022, in a first edition involving interaction with the partner companies Carioca, Mattioli, Pattern Group and Prima Industrie, with curating by Sonia Belfiore, founder of Ultravioletto Arte + Impresa.
The four winners of the first edition, selected on the basis of in-depth analysis conducted by the Committee of MADE IN chaired by Artissima in the person of the director Luigi Fassi and composed of representatives of the first four participating galleries were: Mara Callegaro, paired with Carioca and the gallery Norma Mangione, Torino; Daniele Di Girolamo, matched with Pattern Group and the supervising gallery Franco Noero, Torino; Andrea Di Lorenzo, paired with Prima Industrie and the oversight gallery Peola Simondi, Torino; Nicola Ghirardelli, working with Mattioli and the gallery Mazzoleni, London/Torino.
Inside the fair, a special stand for the project displayed the works created during the first edition of MADE IN.
With Carioca Mara Callegaro has explored the concept of play, its rules and complexities. Studying inks and automated production lines the artist has created a work capable of simultaneously addressing various viewpoints and social dynamics, making them coexist inside a work where differences establish dialogue.
Andrea Di Lorenzo, on the other hand, has been guided by a poetic relationship between natural and industrial landscapes, materials, forms of workmanship, workspaces and surrounding nature. Together with Prima Industrie he has investigated the wide range of possible treatments of materials in synergy with the company’s automated production systems.
Daniele Di Girolamo examined the memory of a material and the relationships of belonging between people and objects. In dialogue with Pattern Group, the sounds of the processes of creation of the work have been transformed into heat, making them come back to live and reverberate in the present, with internal processes and the physical, tangible dimension of sculpture.
Finally, in collaboration with Mattioli, Nicola Ghirardelli has created two sculptures that form a new ecosystem made of cultural, artificial and natural elements. High-precision working processes gave rise to a work in which the scientific imaginary, with its lenticular forms, intertwines traditional know-how, resurfacing in the present with a new meaning.
