14/11/2001
by Elena Balzani

Focusing on the latest trends of international art, supporting public collecting and encouraging private collectors - these are the goals of the Artissima fair, the annual showdown in Turin that opens to the public on the 15^th of November, and runs to Sunday the 18^th. Now in its eighth year, Artissima is becoming an exclusive reference point for contemporary art. In order to achieve this, it is renouncing, at least on paper, one of the most lucrative parts of the Italian art scene, the modernist art market, a mainstay for its arch rival, the Artefiera at Bologna. Artissima, taking place in the new premises of Palazzo delle Esposizioni in the Valentino Park, hosts 153 galleries, about twenty more than last year, with roughly 40% of the exhibitors from Europe. The presence of galleries from New York has been confirmed, despite the recent events: American-European FineArt, Cristinerose, I-20, Nikolai Fine Art and the Riva Gallery will be there. Last year only the Italian-American Esso Gallery was here.

Two events run alongside the fair this year and point to the international nature of the show. The review Video Lab and the collective show Present Future, representing the work of 12 young artists, have been selected by a dozen critics and international curators. One of the artists will be awarded the "Illycaffè Present Future" prize ($ 10,000, € 11,360) will have the chance to present a project for a new collection of coffee cups.

Among the incentives to promote contemporary art, two other initiatives, aside from the Illy prize, are worthy of mention. Once again, Artissima has at its disposal a fund of $ 45,450 (€ 51,650) to buy works of art to be included in the permanent collections of the GAM in Turin and of the Castello di Rivoli. The fund, first set up in 1997, has bankrolled acquisitions over the years to the tune of $ 228,800 (€ 260,000). As regards private buyers, each year Artissima invites a selected group of international collectors to Turin. This year, 150 collectors are expected from Europe and the United States, lured there by, among other things, an exhibition called Nuove complicità, that brings together about forty works of art from private collections in Turin. With a focus towards new trends, it was decided this year to exclude Arte Povera works. This movement will probably be present in the stands, although it did not receive considerable international attention in the recent Italian Sales held in London in October.

So what exactly is on offer? Asprey Jacques from London is presenting Candice Breitz, John Chilver,
Pamela Fraser, Ian Kiaer, Tania Kovats, and Graham Little, while another London gallery, Percy Miller, is concentrating on the work of two artists well-known in England, Hadrian Pigott and Jonathan Parsons, both of whom came to the fore with the Sensation exhibition. Photographs of landscapes taken from a motorbike by Pigott will be presented, as well as the "skeleton" of the UK by Parsons made by removing all the geographical signs from a map apart from the roads ($ 8,400, € 9,500). Large photographic images by David Spero depicting industrial control rooms, drawings by Charles Avery as well as abstract paintings by Roy Voss may be picked up for between $ 680 and 2,950 (€ 775-3,350).

Numerous German galleries are coming to Turin after a string of fairs held a few weeks ago in Berlin and Cologne. Among these, Düsseldorf’s Martin Bochynek is presenting Arrangement of Blow-Up-Explosions by the young German conceptual artist Joerg Zboralski, a painting from the Fürstenplatz series by the Düsseldorf painter Dorothea Breick, pupil of Gerhard Richter, a large wallpaper by Andrew Kromelow, a young sculptor from New York and a few paintings by the Berlin artist Hendrik Krawen. The prices range between $ 2,650 and $ 10,450 (€ 3-12,000). Again from Germany, the Markus Richter gallery (Berlin) is presenting works by Pedro Cabrita Reis for $ 18,500 (€ 21,000), works by Thomas Florschuetz for between $ 4,400-11,800 (€ 5-13,500), and works by David Tremlett for $ 5,680 (€ 6,400) and works by Max Cole for $ 4,500 (€ 5,100).

The gallery Van Gelder from Amsterdam is offering a "small armchair for contemplation" by Lily van der Stokker, the well-known Dutch artist who lives between Amsterdam and New York; Forever, a photographic piece by Marijke van Warmerdam, and Doride: places of home (2001), a photograph by Maura Biava, an Italian artist well-known in Holland, who received a commission of $ 338,000 (€ 385,000) for the public sculpture The Treaty of Maastricht that was unveiled in Maastricht on the 5^th of February. Prices here range between $ 1,900-8,000 (€ 2,200-8,500).

Of the emerging galleries, Edward Mitterand from Geneva is taking part in its very first fair. At Artissima it will be presenting After Dark, 2000, an oil on canvas (cm 224 x 168, for $ 17,000, € 19,300), as well as a pair of new gouaches ($ 6,000, € 6,450) by James Rielly one of the well-known Young British Artists launched by Charles Saatchi in London. Another work on offer is the c-print Legion (2000, cm 150 x 200, 3/6, $ 10,000, € 11,300) by Lee Wagstaff a young artist who graduated only one year ago from St Martin's School in London, but whose work has catalysed the attention of the media and who boasts David Bowie among his collectors.

Among the leading Italian galleries, Massimo De Carlo will offer works from various artists, ranging from the very well-known photograph by Maurizio Cattelan portraying himself hanging from a wall with tape, to an alabaster bell painted by Bartolini ($ 12,000, € 12,900), and a set of 6 photographs of critics and famous people from the art world covered by fake bruises by Roberto Cuoghi ($ 4,500, € 5,100). Emi Fontana is also offering a wide range of works, including a collage ($ 2,700, € 3,000) and drawings and photographs ($ 6,800, € 7,750) by Monica Bonvicini, and a previously unseen work from 1994/95 by Alessandra Spranzi (Non penso che si sia inventato tutto, ma non riesco ancora a crederci, colour photograph, $ 1,800, € 2,000). Two paintings by Cristiano Pintaldi on the tragic events that hit New York are the highlights offered by 1000Eventi ($ 16,000, € 18,000) as well as new works by Tim Knowles. The gallery will be dedicating a one man show to Knowles from the 22^nd of November, with machines capable of recording the movements and the atmosphere of the surroundings ($ 2,700, € 3,000).

Among the galleries from the United States, 1301PE from Los Angeles offers new paintings by Jorge Pardo, Judy Ledgerwood and Paul Winstanley, a large work from 1992 by General Idea entitled Fin de siecle, one of the first sculptures by Rirkrit Tiravanija and new drawings and works on paper by Diana Thater, Katy Schimert and Fiona Banner. The gallery will also present works by Jack Goldstein, Martin Kippenberger, Mike Kelley, and Pae White with prices that start from $ 3,000 (€ 3,300). The I-20 gallery from New York meanwhile is gunning for Rome I by Spencer Tunick, a photograph that the American artist took during a performance in April in Rome, in which he asked 130 volunteers to lie down naked in Piazza Navona ($ 12,000, € 13,600). The gallery is also presenting a self-portrait by the Los Angeles painter Marina Kappos ($ 7,000, € 7,500), works on paper by Eduardo Sarabia, the Los Angeles artist who works in Mexico ($ 800-1,500, € 900-1,700), as well as installation photographs by Piero Golia from Naples. It will also offer a video by Timothy Hutchings (an exhibition dedicated to him is currently showing at the gallery in New York) in which the artist visits, as though a tourist travelling through time, several European buildings destroyed during the Second World War. "Following the events of the 11^th of September this video gives the observer shivers," the gallerist Paul Judelson commented. And certainly not just in New York.