In Turin — one of Northern Italy’s rapidly rising creative hubs — a flurry of artists and collectors are gathering for the thirty-second edition of Artissima. Entering its fourth year under Luigi Fassi’s directorship, the art fair continues to make inroads into the art world withits commitment to critical dialogues, an openness to emerging voices, and a uniquely pointed curatorial vision.
Open from 30 October to 2 November, the fair returns under the theme Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth. On board are 176 galleries from 33 countries— each tasked with showcasing a vision for the future of sustainability, interconnectedness, and artistic innovation.
Here, the COLD Magazine unpacks the coldest, must-see presentations — from John Giorno’s Dial-A-Poem (1968-2019) to zebras chit-chatting in Basim Magdy’s film, New Acid(2019).
João Gabriel’s Tender Reframing of Queer Intimacy
How do you reconcile the softness of the queer body with public (and private) narrativesabout hypersexuality, transience, and disease? This is the question at the heart of João Gabriel’s showing with Portugal-based gallery LEHMANN in the curated Present Future section. Through dreamy, impressionist strokes, the Leiria-born painter takes 1970s, pre-AIDS gay porn as a starting point for addressing representations of the body. Here, his delicate compositions speak less of unflinching eroticism and more of the queer experience as one of tenderness and — at times — estrangement.
John Giorno’s Pop-Tinged Take on Art, Poetry, and Activism
Ring, ring! The late John Giorno is calling. On show among a selection of monographic projects curated by Heike Munder, Dial-A-Poem (1968-2019) is prompting viewers to answer a call from one of 282 poems by 132 artists in the speaker of a vintage, corded telephone. Elsewhere, an array of tongue-in-cheek phrases find themselves printed in acrylic on canvas. A standout — “I WANT TO BE FILTHY AND ANONYMOUS SCUM AND SLIME” —is rendered in a particularly fun pink. Presented by Galerie Eva Presenhuber and Thomas Brambilla Gallery in collaboration with Giorno Poetry Systems, these works probe at the line between high and low, between mass consumption and meaning.
Graciela Sacco’s Open-Mouthed Provocations
Evocative — if a little unsettling — is a collection of works from the late photographer Graciela Sacco. Presented by Rolf Art, the Argentinian artist probes at the possibilities of photosensitive processes to capture an uneasy state of affairs. Her oral fixation takes shape across images of open mouths, scattered across streetscapes, graffiti, and, most interestingly, on the surface of a football. Though political undercurrents run through the collection, images of Sacco’s 1993 series show her at her most overt: here, her iconic mouths are plastered atop a sign reading (in Spanish) “Don’t Vote on Promises”.
Basim Magdy’s New Acid (2019) Takes Us on a Trip to the Zoo
This trippy little film from Egyptian artist Basim Magdy stars animals in an abandoned zoo. The catch? They’re caught up in surreal, illogical conversations about everything from sleep deprivation to love, death, and hallucinogenics. Accompanied by an off-kilter soundtrack from the C2C Festival, the 14-minute short blurs the line between human and animal in ahellish fever dream of digital texts sent by some seriously funny zebras. Outside the main fair, New Acid is screening at the Former Zoological Gardens — co-presented by Artissima, the City of Torino, and Prague’s Hunt Kastner Gallery.
Colonial Trauma Comes to The Fore with Jermay Michael Gabriel
Delving into symbols of the Italian colonial archive, Jermay Michael Gabriel’s transdisciplinary practice centres the intergenerational trauma underpinning his Italian-Ethiopian-Eritrean heritage. Presented by ArtNoble Gallery, a series of triptychs feature colonial iconography — think military horses alongside camels and motorcycles — on gold leaf. Burned beyond recognition, they ask: what happens when we can only see part of the picture?
