The Artissima is Italy’s premier fair for contemporary art, featuring top artists since 1994, and is currently directed by Ilaria Bonacossa.
Bonacossa hopes to make Turin the “world’s hub of contemporary art,” and under her directory supervision, she hopes that Artissima will act as “a protagonist inside that universe.” The fair also displays a replica of the “infamous Roman night club” called Piper. Art like this helps make the Artissima ooze the cool, controversial, and bold vibe. Some may wonder why a replica of a nightclub might be so important in bringing buzz to an art fair. The reason for this is because the Piper club was a “hotspot throughout the Sixties and Seventies,” thus calling upon the local Italian history. Bonacossa draws parallels between Piper and “Studio 54,” a former nightclub in New York City, and currently a Broadway theatre, saying that it was “Italy’s answer to Studio 54.” Piper was designed by Pietro Derossi, a “radical” architect, who “gave access to his archives upon Artissima’s request.
” The club’s reincarnation at the Artissima included a replica of its original pink ceiling and chairs. Bonacossa also states that she likes to work with young artists, who aren’t very “institutional.” In my opinion, is it very important to represent different voices in a fair of contemporary art. Original, inspired, creative rule-breakers are the backbone of contemporary art, and young undiscovered artists should be given a voice. “I wanted to include young galleries and artists which may be a bit under the radar, as opposed to the usual suspects,” she continues. The Artissima also displayed a Los Angeles gallery called “Bad Reputation,” alongside a Milan gallery called Clima.
Clima “was founded two years ago, and represents names which include New York-based Dana Lok and Italian artist Cleo Fariselli.” This allows readers to see how the displayed art is influenced by other art from all over the world. Another booth which demonstrated a Bucharest-based gallery called Anca Poterasu displayed works by Romanian interdisciplinary artist Olivia Mihaltianu. The “cutting edge” display showcases mostly cinematography and filmstrips. Her work, Robe de soirée, is “a dress made of 33mm film role, worn by Mihaltianu as a teenager in the year 1996.” The dress is shown in her Film métrage series, which she describes as a series of “works developed in the last two decades referring to the physical body of the film material, as well as to the immaterial aspect of the moving image and the endless appetite of our society for producing an endless supply of footage and imagery.
” At this point in the article, readers can see that Italy’s art is representational of art from all over the world, and can therefore can imagine what art they can come across in Miami. I find it interesting that, instead of making an analysis of Miami’s work and comparing it to that of Turin, Eyton literally focuses on Turin’s art, and only the last sentence drew the reader’s attention back to Miami. This in itself, in my opinion, is an artistic way to compare Italy to Miami, and it is almost as if Eyton is saying, at least in an artistic sense, that Turin is Miami. The spunky author ends his article almost like a news reporter, as if he was speaking casually to the reader throughout the whole article, and we can almost imagine the words rolling off of his tongue on a television screen with the words, “Now back to Miami.” Before reading Eyton’s article, I expected to read about Miami’s most famous works of art.
When I think about Miami, I would think that the art would be very ocean themed, fun, and “loud.” However, sources show that Miami’s contemporary art ranges from Swiss to Netherlandish art (The Art Scene). According to Alexxa Gotthardt, author of the article “Your All-Encompassing Guide to Miami’s Sprawling Art Scene,” “To the contemporary art set, Miami is a place of annual pilgrimage, where productivity and decadence play nice.” Gotthardt is yet another source that claims that Miami is a representation of the world’s art. After reading Eyton’s article, I am now left with a greater understanding of its influence from Italian art, and it makes sense that Miami has such a name for contemporary art.
