ARTISSIMA IN THE CITY
It’s Not the End of the World / Artissima LIDO
Openings: 9–11 November
Different venues around Torino
www.artissima.it
IT’S NOT THE END OF THE WORLD
Five projects for Torino:
Artissima with Castello di Rivoli, GAM, Fondazione Merz and Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo
Artissima 2012 is proud to present a new exclusive programme of collateral exhibitions produced by the fair and realised in collaboration with the leading contemporary art institutions in Torino.
The project follows a new strategy aimed at strengthening the city’s important network for contemporary art of the city and further expanding Artissima calendar of events through a vast and stimulating programme of exhibitions, installations, video and performances.
It’s Not the End of the World includes five exhibition projects by five well-known international artists, one at each of the participating institutions. The title—which is a tongue-in-cheek reference to the Mayan prophecy for December 2012—implies the wish to tackle, albeit in very different ways, the current artistic, historic and socio-political moment. At the same time it is a statement which stresses a collective optimistic and proactive attitude towards the difficult existing economic situation and how this is affecting the cultural world.
Artissima, which like the other institutions will be presenting an exhibition in the city, has chosen Palazzo Madama, Museum of Ancient Art—one of Torino’s most important venues, as its location.
Ruin – Politics by Dan Perjovschi at Palazzo Madama Museum of Ancient Art for Artissima
Romanian artist Dan Perjovschi is presenting a new installation composed by a video projection and a series of drawings realised directly on the glass floor of the Palazzo’s courtyard, overlooking the Roman ruins. The idea of the “ruin” becomes a point of departure for the artist’s analysis of contemporary society from economics to politics, from religion to globalization to the very definition of art: a caustically provocative journey that raises constant questions and doubts.
Tulkus 1880 to 2018 by Paola Pivi at Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea
Paola Pivi presents a unique photographic survey of all the world’s Tulkus, religious figures in Tibetan Buddhism which are considered to be reincarnations of influential spiritual leaders. Reversing the conventional approach to the “foreign” Buddhist world, this colossal task—which kept a team of researchers busy for three years—presents a surprising collection of over 1.000 images from the Tibetan diaspora.
Homeless Paradise by Valery Koshlyakov at GAM Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea
Russian artist Valery Koshlyakov presents a site-specific installation for the entrance of the GAM. By means of debris, humble materials and objects with symbolic meanings, the artist creates an extraordinary sculptural path into the gallery. This shelter, like a kind of survival structure, links the outside of the museum to the exhibiting space, establishing a connection between the visitor and its social-political context, as well as between everyday life and the art world.
Beirut, I Love You – A Work in Progress by Zena el Khalil at Fondazione Merz
The video installation by Lebanese artist Zena el Khalil is a work in progress drawing from her novel Beirut, I Love You, published in 2008. Centered on the city of Beirut, it is a universal story of the love between two best friends, set against the backdrop of global conflict. The film intertwines witnesses, notes, words and sounds, building a bridge between East and West and asserting the importance of beauty in defiance of every looming threat.
The End – Venice 2009 by Ragnar Kjartansson at Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo
Fondazione Sandretto presents the installation by Icelandic artist Ragnar Kjartansson developed at the 2009 Venice Biennale. The work grew out of a six-month-long performance during which Kjartansson painted incessantly the same swimsuit-clad model with whom he shared the studio space and daily activities. The painting installation, in its maniacal accumulation and obsessive repetition, melts art and life through a theatrical, exuberant and yet melancholic gesture. In Torino, Kjartansson will present a new musical performance that brings together some of the most famous musicians on the Icelandic scene.
The exhibitions will be on view until January 6, 2013.
ARTISSIMA LIDO
Five projects for Torino:
98 Weeks, Auto Italia South East, Irmavep Club, Public Fiction and Soma
Artissima LIDO is a unique project dedicated to young artists and curators as well as innovative and experimental approaches to exhibition making. This year, five international alternative spaces have been invited by Artissima to realise original exhibition projects conceived specifically for five surprising and unconventional museums in the neighbourhood of the Quadrilatero Romano, in the city centre.
The curatorial collectives have proposed installations, video, interventions, performances and workshops, in dialogue with these unique institutional venues.
Words…Action curated by98 Weeks (Beirut)
Museo Diffuso della Resistenza, della Deportazione, della Guerra, dei Diritti e della Libertà
(Museum of Resistance, Deportation, War, Human Rights and Freedom)
A programme of Lebanese films, never previously distributed in Italy, centred on the theme of resistance, and a writing workshop led by author Christian Raimo on the idea of the Constitution and possible forms of democracy.
My Skin Is at War with a World of Data curated by Auto Italia South East (London)
Museo di Antichità (Museum of Antiquities)
A performance space that is both stage set and rehearsal studio, erasing the boundary between production and presentation, to explore the narrative and perceptual interaction of movement, video, light, and sound.
Livret VI curated byIrmavep Club (Paris)
Archivio di Stato (National Archives)
Ashow that explores the notions of memory and transmission, tracing new paths between oral history and writing, in a guided tour of the past and present.
Treating Shadows as Real Things curated byPublic Fiction (Los Angeles)
Museo della Sindone (Museum of the Holy Shroud)
The project is dealing with concepts such as alchemy, symmetry and illusion to present works that examine the flexibility of perception, the nature of faith, and the realm of the metaphysical.
A Waiting Search curated by SOMA (Mexico City)
MAO Museo d’Arte Orientale (Museum of Oriental Art)
The artist Daniel Monroy Cuevas creates a new path through the Museum, traced by the light of rediscovery, that turns its architecture into immersive digital images.
In addition, to foster the dialogue between the LIDO international alternative spaces and the Italian context, CRIPTA 747—in collaboration with Artissima—will present TAXI, a new web platform devoted to research and exchange among curators, artists and institutions.
For more info about It’s Not the End of the World, Artissima LIDO, as well as about Artissima, the fair exhibitors and events: www.artissima.it.
Artissima
International Fair of Contemporary Art
9–11 November 2012
Preview and Opening: 8 November
Oval, Lingotto Fiere, Torino
ARTISSIMA, a brand owned by Regione Piemonte, Provincia di Torino and Città di Torino, is managed by Fondazione Torino Musei. With the support of: Camera di commercio di Torino, Compagnia di San Paolo, and Fondazione per l’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea CRT.
Main Partner: UniCredit
Partners: Fiat, illycaffè, Iren, Lauretana, Lonmart
In-Kind Sponsors: Exclusive Brands Torino, Ferrero Rocher, L’Eclettico, Robe di Kappa, Tisettanta
Media Coverage: Sky Arte HD
