Welcome to Artissima! You are listening to audio number 6 entitled Strange Creatures and you are about to explore a contemporary art fair by following the tour designed for you by Elena Patrignani. Let’s start by saying what an art fair is: it is a place full of works of art on display to be looked at, sold and bought. They are brought here from all over the world: they come from Argentina, India, the United States, South Africa, the Netherlands, Romania... and are sold by special shops called galleries. Each gallery has a dedicated space where it exhibits the artwork it wants to sell and is recognisable by the name on the flag attached at the top. Art often transports us to wonderful, mind-blowing worlds: entering here is a bit like stepping through a magic portal and being catapulted into a fantastic dimension inhabited here and there by strange creatures. What do you say, shall we go after them? In order not to get lost, we need a map! Did you get it at the reception desk? Open it wide and look for the PONCE+ROBLÉS gallery at number 9 in the Drawings section. Put the audio on pause and then press play once you’re there, I'll be waiting for you!

Here we are on the first stage of our journey. We are in the PONCE+ROBLÉS gallery from Madrid. I want to tell you a story: there will be a time, a long time from now... Wait, what are you thinking? I know that stories begin with “Once upon a time, a long time ago...”, but in this case, the story is not about the past, but about the future, that’s why it’s THERE WILL BE and not ONCE UPON A TIME. What I wanted to tell you is that this gallery is inhabited by strange little creatures. Do you see them? They come from the future, or rather, the artist who drew them, whose name is José Castiella, believes that in hundreds of years the world will be occupied by beings like these. They look like cartoon characters, a bit slimy, with long, thin legs or the body resembling a large worm. Some have squinting eyes and pointed noses, others have big teeth or some kind of antennae on their heads. There is one who looks very angry, so angry that his nose explodes creating a cloud of black smoke. Where are these creatures drawn? José Castiella creates them in little notebooks that he always carries with him. First he pours some coffee on the open pages, then he plays with the dripping liquid by spreading the stain, waits for the coffee to dry and... begins to see strange shapes in the marks on the pages, he sees bodies, faces, noses... a bit like when we look at clouds and play at finding shapes! At this point, José takes his pen and starts adding details so that what he sees is visible to everyone! It is as if the characters appear on the sheet by themselves and very slowly make themselves known. To create these works, the artist does not need strange materials, nor does he need to work in a specific place. Maybe you could try it too then: all you need is a notebook, a little bit of an adult’s coffee and a pen... hopefully the creatures that appear to you are not too scary! How about now we go and meet some more fantastic characters? So, pause the player and head right next door, to the SALTOUN Gallery of the Back to the Future section at number 1 on the central corridor. Press play when you get there, see you in a moment!

Here we are at Richard Saltoun, a gallery so important that it has one branch in London and one in Rome. Despite the confusion and noise of the fair, an atmosphere of religious silence reigns here: there are figures that seem to be staring at us, motionless and mute; let’s approach them slowly, be careful because they are very delicate! What do these sculptures look like? Are they small, big? Smooth, rough? Cheerful and funny or serious and a bit creepy? José Castiella’s characters were funny, they looked like something out of a noisy cartoon, but here everything is different: these creatures are stiff, their eyes are fixed and empty, they look human, but not quite... what are they missing? They have no legs, no arms, they cannot move. And then, the mouth is closed, and the ears are missing, the creatures cannot communicate and cannot hear outside sounds. They seem trapped in a rock, in the earth, as if someone had put a curse on them and they became petrified forever. The artist who made them was called Carmen Dionyse. She worked with ceramics and clay and with very long labour, layer after layer after layer, she moulded these beings. Before starting her work, she had no idea what she was going to create, only at the end, looking intensely at the sculpture, did she give it a name. The artist’s world had always been peopled by wonderful beings: when she was a little girl, Carmen was a very shy and solitary child. She would immerse herself in the stories in books and by collecting stones, small found objects and pieces of cloth, she would create characters, animals and flowers that populated her fantasy world. Her love for fantasy stories and ancient myths never abandoned her and throughout her life she continued to create magical beings like the ones we are looking at right now. Before you leave, try to imagine: who are these characters, what is their story, why and by whom were they trapped? So, as these creatures inhabit Carmen Dionyse’s imagination, they will also inhabit yours! Take all the time you want, stopping the player, then when you are ready I’ll be waiting for you at the next stage, the Simondi gallery at number 7 in the Brown corridor.

Here we are at Simondi, a very important gallery in Turin. Do you remember how earlier, talking about Carmen Dionyse, we said that she was super passionate about ancient mythology? She is not alone: Flaminia Veronesi also shares this great love for stories of fantastic creatures told thousands of years ago. In sculpture and painting, Flaminia represents extraordinary monsters: there are centaurs, sirens, winged horses, sphinxes... Do you know some of these prodigious beings? Approach Flaminia’s paintings, look closely and try to find the Centaur, a creature with the body of a horse and a human torso and head. The Centaurs, according to the Greeks, were a people of warriors and hunters and in antiquity were often depicted armed with a bow and arrow. Now let’s see if you can find mermaids in the paintings... mermaids were terrible half-woman, half-fish beings who lured sailors with their gentle song to wreck their ships against the rocks.. Somewhere there should also be a sphinx, half woman and half lion with big wings on her back. Did you find it? The sphinx stood guard over tombs, temples and cities and strictly controlled those who dared to approach. Only those who were able to solve its extremely difficult riddles were let through... and speaking of tests, let’s see if you can find the sculptural reproduction of the painted sphinx in this gallery! And is there another creature present both in the paintings and represented as a small statue? Now we leave this little fantasy world to fly to the other side of the fair, straight to India. So, pause the player and I’ll see you at the Madragoa Gallery, at number 5 in the Orange corridor.

Here we are, safe and sound! We said we would see each other in India, but you may have noticed that the gallery is actually Portuguese, did you notice when you read the flag up there? I was not mistaken, it is the artist we are talking about who is Indian. In this gallery, there are the works of two different artists, we will focus on those of Debashish Paul. How many of Debashish’s works does this gallery contain? They are colourful paintings and some are made up of many different pictures. How many nails are needed to hang these works on the wall? Each work can be purchased in its entirety, or can be bought in pieces, ready-to-hang, in their frames. Who knows whether the artist also gives the buyer of the entire work the instructions for hanging it on the wall correctly or whether the owner can decide to hang it in a different way if he or she likes... Have you noticed that Debashish also invents fantastic beings with these bright colours? Flaminia Veronesi is inspired by mythology, while this artist creates shapes from scratch, the colours and appearance of these characters that are a little bit human, a little bit animal, a little bit things... they almost look like costumes, disguises. And indeed, you should know that the artist makes clothes and masks very similar to these paintings. Even as a child, Debashish sewed: he was born into a family of women who embroidered all day, and the village where he lived was famous for weaving. And so he had started collecting scraps of cloth on the street to sew clothes for his dolls. Growing up, he did not stop: now he creates extraordinary, colourful costumes made of fabric, paper, precious threads, glass eyes, shells, beads, but instead of dressing dolls, he wears these costumes himself. Paul says that when he enters the costume he transforms, he becomes something he is not normally and while the mask protects him, he can do things he is not otherwise allowed to do. He is a very shy person, but with his extraordinary clothes on, he is no longer afraid and he feels free. Try typing his name online and search for videos of him wearing his costumes: he dances, gets wet, walks in nature like a magical and beautiful creature. What now? We set out again to learn about the work of an English artist. To discover her, we have to go to the Soft Opening Gallery at number 1 in the Black corridor, in the Present Future section. Pause the player and restart it once you get there, I’ll be waiting for you.

Here we are on the last leg of this kind of safari in search of strange creatures. At the Soft Opening Gallery, what has British artist Nevine Mahmoud been up to? There are animals without pieces and pieces of animals without animals... In the centre, on two dark bases, what beast could be represented? It has four legs, doesn’t seem to have a tail, you can’t tell if it has hooves or some kind of fingers, it is smooth, without a single hair, and above all, it has no head! And if it has no head, it has no mouth, no nose, no eyes and no ears either. Where could such an animal live? Is it wild or domestic? What does it feed on and how, since it has no mouth? How does it move without being able to see from its eyes? Perhaps, however, if it wanted ears, it would only have to stretch out a little to choose a pair from those on display. Maybe depending on the colour, they allow it to hear different sounds... the black one to listen to the sounds of the night or those coming from the remotest depths of the Earth, the pink one only music or mother’s sweet words... and what do you think? What sounds do the different ears here make? I wonder what the artist thinks about that? With these strange animals without pieces and these pieces without animals, we concluded our journey in this kind of parallel world that is Artissima. We went into the future together with funny beings made of coffee, entered the silent space of mysterious sculptures, immersed ourselves in a mythological world inhabited by sphinxes and pink winged horses, imagined an artist disguising himself and transforming himself, and finally observed strange animals without pieces. Who knows if this place is inhabited by other mysterious and fantastic creatures that have escaped us: if you stay a little longer at the fair, sharpen your eyesight, they might peep out here and there. To get out of here, you will once again pass through the magic portal of Artissima, returning to the everyday world, but perhaps, we hope, a little bit of wonder might stick with you and who knows, you might need it to see something extraordinary even where everyone else only sees the usual things... Thanks for travelling with me, can’t wait to be with you again next year! I certainly hope we’ll meet again!