Artissima the International Fair of Contemporary Art in Torino presents the first new features for its 31st edition, which will take place at the Oval in Torino from 1 to 3 November, directed for a third year by Luigi Fassi and with the support of the Main Partner Intesa Sanpaolo and Gallerie d’Italia – Torino, the museum of the bank sponsoring Artissima for the fifth consecutive year.

Confirming its uniqueness on the European scene and its attractiveness on an international level, Artissima is working on an edition of the highest quality, experimental, cutting-edge and research-based, under the transversal theme of The Era of Daydreaming.

The Era of Daydreaming

“In an era of incessant connections and limitless external stimuli, – Luigi Fassi explains – a fascinating rediscovery is taking place: the inestimable value of impromptu thinking and daydreaming. The reassessment of this unexplored territory of the mind represents a field of research that involves the cooperation of researchers in different areas, on the borderline between science and the humanities. Through daydreaming we continue to shape new relational scenarios, generating ambitious projects that revitalize our biographical development. Wakeful dreaming has immense creative potential, employed primarily by artists to break down the barriers of what is known and predictable, to blaze new trails in the exploration of our time. This year, Artissima invites you to listen to your reveries, summoning a community of daydreamers, of artists and those who accompany their work, in a thrilling voyage of discovery of the unlimited potential of the human mind”.

In line with this year’s theme, this year’s coordinated image – created by the Torino based studio FIONDA – is translated into dynamic and fragmented images, like frames of a film that tells our lives in real time. “Images in sequence, details of movement and actions, a clock that marks a random time, to celebrate the unique quality of everyday life and our ability to transform it”.

The selection committee

The committee that selects the galleries participating in the sections Main Section, Monologue/Dialogue, New Entries and Art Spaces & Editions is composed by 7 international gallerists: Paola Capata, Monitor gallery based in Roma, Lisbon and Pereto; Philippe Charpentier, mor charpentier gallery, Paris and Bogota; Raffaella Cortese, Galleria Raffaella Cortese, Milano; Guido Costa, Guido Costa Projects, Torino; Antoine Levi, Ciaccia Levi gallery, Paris and Milano; Nikolaus Oberhuber, KOW gallery, Berlin; and Elsa Ravazzolo Botner, A Gentil Carioca, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, Brazil.

The curatorial committee

The 3 curated sections of the fair – Present Future, Back to the Future and Disegni – experienced inside the fair with monographic stands and on the digital platform Artissima Voice Over, welcome 4 new components: Léon Kruijswijk (curator of the KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin) and Joel Valabrega (curator of Performance and Moving Image at Mudam, Luxembourg,)are the new curators of Present Future; Heike Munder (independent curator and writer, Zurich) and Jacopo Crivelli Visconti (independent curator, São Paulo) are the new curators of Back to the Future. Irina Zucca Alessandrelli (curator of Collezione Ramo, Milano) returns at the head of the Disegni section.