We picked for you 5 exhibitions in Turin during Artissima (3-5 November). 

1. Carlos Garaicoa - “El palacio de las tres historias”
at the Fondazione Merz (until 4 February 2018)

A series of large-scale, site-specific installations, photographic works and videos specially commissioned for this exhibition. El Palacio de las Tres Historias continues the Garaicoa exploration of the themes and architecture of the city as an ideal space. This project draws its inspiration from the city of Turin.

“Carlos Garaicoa looks at cities, architecture and underlying dreams, those cast aside and those that can still be realised. Just as Havana constituted a starting point for investigating the meaning and possibilities of our society, so Turin becomes a metaphor of contemporaneity through the words, images and history of an industrial utopia, transforming itself and becoming something that still needs to be understood”, says Claudia Gioia, curator of the exhibition.

2. “Like a Moth to a Flame”, Sandretto Re Rebaudengo Foundation & OGR Grand Reparation Offices (4 November 2017 to 14 January 2018)

If the title inspires you, let’s say it’s worth going just for the names of the three curators: Tom Eccles, director of the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College in New York; Mark Rappolt, editor in chief of the English magazine Art Review; and British artist Liam Gillick.

The strength of the exhibition is precisely in the curation. The three curators visited all the museums in Turin, and they identified a path between the works, that the museums have lent to the exhibition (two important pieces from the Egyptian Museum and 100 objects). The thread is built around free associations in time and space. The exhibition is divided into two locations, and at the entrance of both are works of the same palindromic title: “In girum imus nocte et consumimur igni”.

The work of the OGR is by Cerith Wyn Evans, sitting in a circular text made in neon (2006). Under the same title is Guy Debord’s last movie (1978): the video is the starting point of the exhibition at the Sandretto Re Rebaudengo Foundation. The phrase articulates a riddle: “what runs at night and is consumed by flames”? One possible solution is a moth.

3. Cecile B. Evans – “Amos’ World: Episode One” at the Castello di Rivoli (3rd November 2017 to 7 January 2018)

The Belgian and American artist brings to the Rivoli Castle a new version of her work “Amos’ World: Episode One”.

Amos’ World is a video installation, conceived like a TV show across three episodes. The first episode introduces Amos, an architect who is a combination of The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry and the archetype of a pathetic white male. Amos is forced to face the tenants of the building he designed, who are not conforming to his expectations. A rift in relationships begins to emerge and challenges the individual-communal structure. This Belgian-American artist, who lives in London and Berlin, has already held numerous exhibitions including a solo show at the Tate Liverpool in 2016. She also took part in the ninth edition of the Berlin Biennale, in 2016.

4. Uriel Orlow – “What Plants Were Called Before They Had a Name”, Al Pav living art park (5 November 2017 to 17 March 2018)

What names did the plants have before they were discovered? Artist Uriel Orlow wondered what plant names were in the native languages of South Africa. The work recalls the subordination mechanism that led the colonialists to rename the local flora by assimilating it to the Linnaeus system. Through film, photos, installations and sounds, the artist suggests the idea of the botanical world as a stage for complex and articulate political dynamics.

5. Niki de Saint Phalle at the Fico Museum MEF (until 14 January 2018)

An exponent of the Nouveau Réalisme, Niki de Saint Phalle is the protagonist of two exhibitions: “Antologica” and “The Tarot Garden” (Tarot from the Renaissance to today).