5-7 November

OVAL, Lingotto Fiere

Director: Francesco Manacorda

Visitors: 47,000

Galleries: 153 from 23 countries

There were three new developments in 2010: the appointment of Francesco Manacorda as director; the spectacular new fair location at the Oval; and the birth of BACK TO THE FUTURE, a new section of the fair through which to rediscover masters from the past.

Alongside the fair, the curatorial programme based on the theme of “trespass” took the name of POESIA IN FORMA DI ROSA (Poem in the form of a rose), a title borrowed from the book of poems published by Pier Paolo Pasolini in the years of his early films.

The site for the programme was created by the Berlin-based group raumlabor and was called Casa delle contaminazioni (House of contaminations), a real and ideal space, an environment of old refrigerators, washing machines, doors and blinds intercepted on their way to the dump.

The fair’s catalogue was completely “do it yourself”: each visitor could print the press releases of the galleries and other informative texts for free, at the Print Shop.

Another new initiative was “Mostra per Mostra – Contemporary Art in Piedmont”, an itinerary of museum-quality exhibitions, offering visitors to Artissima a preview of the many events programmed in the Piedmont region in November.