Fondamenta – the Italian for ‘Foundations’, a nod to galleries as wholly fundamental to the existence of art fairs and the art market, will offer an insight into Artissima’s research process, exactly five months ahead of the 2020 edition of the fair in Turin (6 – 8 November, preview 5 November).
Presented on this website, a simple and intuitive interface, Fondamenta offers a virtual selection of approximately 200 art works (priced up to 15,000 Euros and rotated if sold), presented by Italian and international exhibitors from Artissima 2019. Each gallery will show works by one selected artist which will be displayed in virtual versions of the five sections of the physical fair: Present Future, curated by Ilaria Gianni and Fernanda Brenner; Back to the Future, curated by Lorenzo Giusti and Mouna Mekouar; Disegni, curated by Letizia Ragaglia and Bettina Steinbrügge; New Entries, curated by Valerio Del Baglivo; and the Main Section, on this occasion selected by Artissima’s Director Ilaria Bonacossa.
Fondamenta is not a viewing-room, exhibition or a digital replacement for the fair, but rather a shared perspective on contemporary artistic practices, with a focus on experimental curation.
A collaborative project with galleries, and for galleries, Fondamenta is an opportunity for them to connect and exchange ideas with their peers and the public.
The aim is in fact to create an occasion for research and networking for a new generation of collectors and art lovers.
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In Ilaria Bonacossa’s words:
Looking at art and discovering trends, or singular visions, is a passion I share with gallerists, who I admire for their ability to single out unknown talents. This project is all thanks to the research of Artissima’s amazing 2020 curatorial team, who present their work ‘in progress’, offering galleries the opportunity to generate dialogue in a difficult and complex moment for the contemporary art world. Fondamenta is a select and focused curated platform that can be viewed and experienced in people’s own time, supporting the discovery of the most current artistic developments, as well as facilitating our galleries’ relationship to new art lovers and collectors from different generations.
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Comments from the 2020 curators:
Ilaria Gianni and Fernanda Brenner, curators of Present Future
We focused our selection criteria on individual artists’ practices of contemporary significance, grounded in our time while also reflecting on historical genealogies. These artists draft a visionary landscape of the future, all which have an impact on critical thinking.
Lorenzo Giusti and Mouna Mekouar, curators of Back to the Future
Selected within the group that have participated in the past 10 editions of “Back to the Future”, these artists dealt with the same problems picturing different answers. Together, they offer a reading of a world that is gone and still present at the same time. Their works provide us a “useful sensibility”, participating in the elaboration of our story in the present.
Letizia Ragaglia and Bettina Steinbrügge, curators of Disegni
The Disegni 2020 presentation of Artissima will be entirely dedicated to women artists. We wanted to take a deeper look at the place occupied by women in drawing and to explore multiple facets of this medium: abstract, primitive, functional, urban, mixed media, surreal, amazon-like, objective… drawings as microcosms who allow an intimate insight in the artists’ world.
Valerio del Baglivo, curator of New Entries
In times of social distancing, I have invited artists whose practices concentrate on a constant search for the definition of identity, with the aim of proposing a different anatomy of bodies that accommodate the power of the senses. Navigating the politics of (self) representation these artists adopt inherently interdisciplinary forms, and produce work that ranges from live performance, film, installations, paintings, to texts.
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Project Main Partner: Art Defender
Section Partners: Tosetti Value – Il Family office (Main Section), illycaffè (Present Future), Irinox (Disegni), Professional Trust Company (New Entries), Fondazione Sardi per l’arte (Back to the Future)
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