Torino, autumn, Artissima. Which in 2018 celebrates its first 25 years, in a city that becomes a setting for exhibitions and events: an explosion of contemporary art that involves the main institutions and galleries for an entire season. Here are the initiatives you simply can’t miss.
Starting on 18 September, Castello di Rivoli presents Nalini Malani: The Rebellion of the Dead. Retrospective 1969-2018. Part II curated by Marcella Baccaria in collaboration with Centre Pompidou of Paris. On 2 November the museum opens a show by Cally Spooner, winner of the Premio illy Present Future 2017, during the last edition of Artissima. Until 24 February you can also visit the new multimedia installation by Hito Steyerl, one of the most active artists and theorists of our time, curated by Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev and Marianna Vecellio. Also: the exhibition Giorgio de Chirico. Masterpieces from the Collection of Francesco Federico Cerruti has been extended until 4 November.
The fall calendar at GAM covers an impressive programme of events. On 26 October the exhibition The Macchiaioli: Italian Art towards Modernity opens, narrating the background, birth and beginnings of this movement in painting. Starting on 31 October, the exhibition-dossier Apollinaire and the “Surréaliste” Invention: the Poet and his Friends in the Paris of the Avant-Gardes delves into emblematic aspects of the Parisian avant-garde of the turn of the century, around the figure of Apollinaire. From 20 September, in the ticket desk area, Maria Morganti presents The Substitute: the Travelling Studio, a work “in progress” made during the residency project for artists under 35, in collaboration with Fondazione Spinola Banna per l’Arte. The photographic print Circus Vitry by Marcello Maloberti will be on view until 11 November, while the GAM video centre will pay homage until 17 February to Laura Grisi, presenting two films acquired at the last edition of Artissima: Wind Speed 40 Knots, 1968, and The Measuring of Time, 1969.
Opening on 29 October at Fondazione Merz, the exhibition Petrit Halilaj. Shkrepëtima will feature the completion of the major project that was the winner of the second edition of the Mario Merz Prize, in a final version complete with the artist’s performance experience.
For Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo 2 November will be a day of many openings, with four new retrospectives on four contemporary artists: Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, an artist of Ghanian descent born in England, finalist for the prestigious Turner Prize; Rachel Rose with the European premiere of her video installation Wil-o-Wisp; Andra Ursuta, an artist from Romania who lives in New York and investigates the theme of human vulnerability with dark humour, with the show Vanilla Isis; Monster Chetwynd, a British artist based in Glasgow who works by combining different media, forcefully exploring the relationship between art and theatre.
For its first birthday OGR – Officine Grandi Riparazioni hosts Mike Nelson, who will produce a new immersive installation for the occasion, specifically designed for the spaces of Binario 1 and inspired by their industrial past (opening: 1 November).
Starting on 14 September, at Binario 2 visitors can see the group show Dancing is what we make of falling, an exhibition of videos shown in succession, from week to week on the same screen, triggering interactions between artists of different backgrounds and generations and forming a choral narrative.
For Artissima 2018, the Pinacoteca Giovanni e Marella Agnelli is glad to showcase GIUSEPPE CHIARI | LA LUCE, an audiovisual installation Tempo Reale realised in 2018 based on an original score by Giuseppe Chiari (La luce, 1966), sponsored by Frittelli arte contemporanea, Florence.
Palazzo Madama, from 28 September, presents The Shroud and its Image, an exhibit itinerary that retraces the history of the Shroud and the various functions of the images that have reproduced it over the course of five centuries.
100%Italia is a distributed exhibition on the last 100 years of Italian art, from the early 20th century to the present, organised by MEF – Museo Ettore Fico. The show sheds light on the leading role played by Italian art, where each decade is marked by the presence of a strong personality. It extends into different location, and concentrates in the spaces of the museum in Torino on the themes Novecento. Corrente. Informale. Abstraction.
At PAV – Parco Arte Vivente on 4 November there is the opening of WEED PARTY III, the first solo show in Italy by the Chinese artist Zheng Bo, curated by Marco Scotini.
Barriera continues its programming with the exhibition Collisions and Missing Parts by Attila Csörgő and Vadim Fishkin, in collaboration with the gallery Gregor Podnar, Berlin. From 4 November to 15 December, visitors can see the works of the two artists, who share an interest in science and technology, themes they interpret with great poetic sensitivity and irrepressible playfulness.
From 5 October Fondazione 107 presents Vivace. Sostenuto. Andante., a dialogic exhibition by the artists Luigi Carboni, Cosimo Casoni and Thomas Lange.
Photography buffs simply shouldn’t miss the appointment at CAMERA – Italian Centre for Photography with CAMERA POP. Photography in the Pop Art of Warhol, Schifano & Co, curated by Walter Guadagnini. Until 13 January the show retraces the history and transformation of photography into artwork, reaching its height in the 1960s.
By now an indispensable part of the Artissima period, the festival Club to Club returns to the Lingotto in Torino from 1 to 4 November, providing avant-garde excellence in music for the 18th year in a row.
The fall calendar of the galleries adds even greater depth to the programme of exhibitions and events. Galleria Giampiero Biasutti presents Italia’s National Treasure Artists starting on 3 November, while Biasutti&Biasutti hosts the group show The Poetics of Abstraction and the Italian Informale until 19 January. Guido Costa Project opens Cosa in sé on 3 November, featuring works by Manuele Cerutti, De Serio, Hilario Isola, Tom Johnson and Diego Scroppo. That same evening, also for the Night of Contemporary Arts, Riccardo Costantini Contemporary presents the exhibition Io sono Dio by Pierluigi Pusole.
Cripta 747 is pleased to present, from 1 to 16 November, the studies of Andrew Wagner and Gernot Weiland, winners of the second edition Cripta747 Residency Programme.
Galleria Davide Paduletto presents Opening Contemporary by Nicus Lucà, until 8 December, while E-static welcomes visitors starting on 3 November with Lievità by Giovanni Morbin. Also at E-static, on 2 November the gallery presents Helix Talks, a permanent light-sound installation by Hans Peter Kuhn.
Until 27 October, Galleria Raffaella De Chirico hosts Reliefs, a group show on reliefs and material, before the opening on 3 November of a solo show by Börje Tobiasson. At the spaces on Via Giolitti, until 27 October visitors can see the Project Room by Marzio Zorio.
Galleria Galotti proposes two events: Il Vello d’Oro (The Golden Fleece) until 20 December, an exhibition on the mythological and archaic aspects of forms, and Alley (Autumn), a solo show by Andrea Magnani until 15 December. On 20 September Luce Gallery opens a solo show by Sebastiano Dammone Sessa, Traiettorie (Trajectories). Norma Mangione Gallery, until 27 October, features a solo show by Francesco Barocco, followed starting on 3 November by Meisenfloo, a group exhibition curated by Michael Bauer. Mazzoleni opens Equilibrium, an idea for Italian sculpture, curated by Giorgio Verzotti, on 26 October, with works by 15 artists.
Franco Noero hosts, at its location in Piazza Carignano, The History of Art by Francesco Vezzoli, from 16 October to 12 January; two solo shows are presented in via Mottalciata 10/B: Hidden in plain sight by Rayyane Tabet and L☿ver by Dara Friedman (both from 30 October).
Shirin Neshat returns to Noire Gallery with The Home of My Eyes, an unique, extraordinary artist’s book, and the video Roja, both until 10 November.
Alberto Peola, starting on 20 September, hosts Nistru-Confines by Victoria Stoian. Also, in coordination with Artissima, there is the opening on 3 November of Haystacks by Lala Meredith-Vula. Giorgio Persano opens Communication. The Doors of Cittadellarte on 18 October, a solo show by Michelangelo Pistoletto, while Photo & Contemporary presents Optical World by Franco Grignani (3 November – 7 December) and, until 27 October, the first solo show by Filippo di Sambuy, Book of Splendour.
The gallery Weber & Weber announces a series of solo shows extending to February 2019, including The Waiting Game by Colm MacAthlaoich curated by Valeria Ceregini, and the Irish artists Gillian Lawler – from 30 October to 8 December, with This Entropic Order – and Denis Kelly.
Finally, Tucci Russo Studio per l’Arte Contemporanea, at its location in Torino, hosts a solo show by Thomas Schütte, until 22 December.
