ArtNomads visit Torino and enjoy a picture-perfect day of contemporary photography

Continuing our quest to bring you the best art destinations, artfairs, festivals, public art and more to help you plan your art travel… Previously, we headed east to Milano and southwest to Alba. This week we headed northwest to Turin, to take in the EXPOSED Foto Festival and The Phair photography fair!

Delving into the world of contemporary photography in Turin, art enthusiasts and cultural explorers can discover a captivating journey that unveils the city’s vibrant and evolving art scene.

EXPOSED Foto is a new, city-wide celebration of photography; each of 20+ venues curated their own exhibitions. It’s timed to coincide with ThePhair, which is an annual fine art photography event in with 30+ galleries under one roof.

Once again, our daytrip from Asti started with the fast early train. In contrast to our Milan trip, The Phair and most of the EXPOSED venues were mostly within a 20-30 minute walking radius from the Torino Porta Nuova station.

We arrived around 9am and, under bluebird skies, walked the general area and get a lay of the land, since galleries and the fair didn’t open until later. We visited several piazzas, sculptures, monuments and churches. 

TURIN / TORINO

Turin is both an old and modern city, nestled near the foot of the Italian Alps, situated on a picturesque river and close to wine country.  It’s layered with cultural, architectural, and natural richness.

It has been (and still is) a very important city, with origins earlier than 220BC. At various times, it’s been a significant Roman fort, the capital of Sardinia, the seat of the Duchy of Savoy, and the first capital of a unified Italy, from 1861-1865.  Oh, and it was French at least 3 times.

So, you’d expect something grand, with varied architecture spanning centuries, and Torino does not disappoint.

Via Roma, the main street from the train station to the historical heart of Turin is indeed grand – palatial even- and lined with pricey boutiques of fashion powerhouses for probably half a mile.  It’s impressive.  It also has covered sidewalks. The streets are wide, the architecture is inspiring, and the piazzas are massive. Historical sculpture is present in squares, parks and many roundabouts.  If you’re visiting Turin to take photographs, there’s plenty to delight.

Moved in Mysterious Ways

Of course, Turin’s also known for housing one of the most famous & studied objects on Earth: The Shroud (of Turin). While the real deal is sealed away and no longer on public display, we lucked into a display of a full-scale photo replica of it at the Church of the Most Holy Annunciation. We did NOT know this was here, we just felt compelled to wander in.  As Ferris Bueller once said, “… If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” (A really good rule for any travel!)  The Church was beautiful and the “photography exhibit” was a great bonus.

You’d also expect such an important city to host a wide range of museums and galleries, showcasing art and artifacts varying from the ancient to contemporary. With nearly 20 galleries and dozens more museums and foundations, you could spend weeks here and not see it all. 

EXPOSED Foto: The Venues & Exhibitions

As mentioned, we only managed to visit 6 of the EXPOSED stops. Below, we share thoughts and images from four of them. (With a super-secret bonus if you read to the end.)

Bearing in mind that we’re not really art critics, a few exhibits really stood out to us, either for content, overall presentation, or both. Most were well-organized, had clear wayfinding, and were prepared for international visitors, by having exhibition text in multiple languages (generally Italian and English).

GAM

The “Expanded” section, with a group exhibition at GAM (Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea) entitled “I paesaggi dell’arte” (The landscapes of art) was probably the strongest in terms of curatorial intent.   Various didactic wall texts explained that “landscape” would be explored both in natural and architectural contexts, and that themes of “dizziness, the double, the offset, the spiral, the slippage of image and light” would run through the works featured. 

The exhibit did convey these themes, with a mix of new and older works, several of which captured the making of other iconic artworks, such as Robert Smithson’ “Spiral Jetty” in the Great Salt Lake in Utah (which of course struck a chord with us, having lived there for a decade). As strong as the show was overall, the weird layout made it hard to get into the groove and really understand the presentation at first.

Central to the layout was a piece by Jacopo Benassi (pictured above, on cart) who also had a separate solo exhibit (below).

Benassi seems to be a rising star, as we also saw his work at MiArt. Again, an artist presenting photography in a sculptural manner. He calls himself a photographer, but…

We also toured the museum’s exhibit of works from its permanent collection – a separate entry fee – but we’ll write about that separately, because it’s not about photography, and because it deserves it.  

CAMERA

Another venue with strong presentations was CAMERA – Centro Italiano per la Fotografia.  “Heatwave” by Korean artist Dongkyun Vak focused on the tensions of the anthropocene. Some great images here, though Mr. Nomads felt the presentation lacked flow.

Our favorite exhibit in fact, while heavy on text, was not officially part of the festival-specific programming.  “Robert Capa Gerda Taro : la fotografia l’amore la guerra” beautifully blended art and journalism as it recounted the pair’s relationship during the Spanish Civil War, during which Roberto captured possibly the most iconic image from that conflict:

Displayed chronologically, it covered community, collaboration, soldiers (male and female), death, destruction and the aftermath of war. Good flow, with strong visual storytelling (although sad).

Another exhibit at CAMERA that heavily incorporated sound and video to complement the photographs was “Voci Nascoste” by Arianna Arcara, Antonio Ottomanelli, and Rosalea Ramistella.  This exhibit was highly regional, and time pressure prevented us from really delving into it.

Fondazione CRT / Palazzo Madama

Palazzo Madama mounted what was billed as an important exhibition, “State of Emergency” by Max Pinckers, about British colonialism in Kenya and the Mau Mau freedom movement of the 1950s.  The exhibit reveals how some 70 years later, the wounds of this struggle are still raw. It had a great pamphlet and some unarguably strong images. The photographs were large scale and presented with audio and books to help the viewer through didactics.

I felt the display was sort of random, and both of us felt the exhibit was overpowered by the intriguing space hosting it.  Instead of a typical gallery space, it was mounted in a room that was basically a suspended archaeological dig, with glass floors offering views of the Roman walls and previous fortifications, palaces and other structures on which the current building stands. 

The walls were also an architectural onion, with layers of plater, brick, and stone revealing various doors, windows, and other features from over a thousand years of renovations and modifications.  A large historical panel about the Palazzo also drew my attention away from the images on display.

Palazzo Madama is as big a must-see in Torino as we can imagine.  I just wish the photography exhibition had been located elsewhere so it didn’t have to compete. We did not have time to visit the other non-photography exhibitions, but recommend you allow time.

Gallerie d’Italia

Galleria d’Italia hosted two presentations: a large Exposed exhibition in collaboration with National Geographic, and an AI-animated feature. It also presented their “immersive gallery”, about Italian radio & TV celebrities of the 1950s and 60s. This we walked through, but the clock dictated we not spend much time there.

“Beauty and the Beep”, an AI video by Simone C Niquille, addresses data collection and machine vision (think iRoomba) and animates a wooden chair, sending it careening through an equally digital house. It’s similar to Simone’s “Sorting Song”, which we saw in London at the Victoria & Albert Museum just a few weeks ago, but not as good. It does add another data point for digital media being classified as photography.

Cristina Mittermeir

The star at Gallerie d’Italia was clearly Cristina “Mitty” Mittermeir– photographer, author, thought leader and activist. Her massive exhibit (in partnership with NatGeo), which showcased humankind’s fragile coexistence with the planet, was organized into sections:

“Il Senso Dell’Abbastanza / Enoughness: A Way of Being”

This section featured various First Peoples in stunning and vivid detail, and we honestly wish it had been larger.  These images, some in color and many more in black & white, were very powerful portraits, most with elaborate traditional dress and markings. They all projected strength, knowledge and cultural pride. I felt this was her best room.

“La Grande Saggezza / A Greater Wisdom”

Images here were mostly landscape format, with nature as subject. Some very striking images, though more than a few left me wondering about cropping choices.  But as I said; we’re not art critics.

“Un Pianeta Oceano / An Ocean Planet”

Here again we saw some quality images, capturing the majesty and, simultaneously, both the abundance and fragility of ocean life. Some were stop-you-in-your-tracks powerful.

This was the largest section, with in multiple rooms, with some of the most surprising photos – obtained though manipulating white balance and/or exposure – and yet we felt it could have used some selection editing for an even more powerful effect.

Overall, we saw many stunning images, weaving a story through peoples, nature and animals, reminding that the world is fragile, and that we as humans need to help care for and appreciate each other, other cultures and our environment.

The PHAIR

The Phair was our original goal for the day.  Someone handed us a flyer for it when we were leaving MiPhoto a few weeks prior; we wouldn’t have known about it otherwise.

Minimal advertising aside, if you’re into Ansel Adams, Matthew Brady or other historical, traditional work, you’ll probably only have passing interest, as it’s thoroughly contemporary.

But if you’re open to new ways of seeing photography, add it to your calendar. It’s compact, high-quality, and innovative. It’s probably worth a daytrip on its own, but combined with Exposed, it makes for a great weekend (or more). Read our in depth review HERE.

EXPOSED: Bonus Exhibit(s) !

OGR Torino, the multiuse creative / conference center which hosted ThePhair also hosted several EXPOSED Foto presentations, all again presenting “photography” in boundary-pushing ways.  Across four rooms of large-scale and immersive environments, we got that extra kick of contemporary art satisfaction: neon, color, video, seriousness and humor.

Practical Stuff: How & When to go

There’s only so much you can see in one day; we managed to visit 6 (of 23) official venues, plus ThePhair, and a couple independent galleries. We really recommend a minimum of 2 days for your visit.

Turin is served by a pretty major international airport, and of course is accessible by Trenitalia, Italy’s state-owned rail company. Taking the train is an hour or less from Milan, 30 minutes from Asti, 2.5 hours from Bologna, and hop flights from places like Geneva, Rome and Venice (though the train may be easier from there).

This is EXPOSED‘s first year, and they have some definite kinks to work out. A noble first effort, though, and we hope to come back to see more of the venues, which include palazzos and contemporary private foundations 

Through additional galleries, exhibitions, and installations dedicated to contemporary photography, you can immerse yourself in a visual feast that showcases the intersection of tradition and modernity in Turin’s artistic renaissance.

If you can’t make a decent photography-based weekend (or longer) visit out of that, what are you even doing!?

The Phair has been presented annually since 2019, but its dates have floated from August to early May, where it seems to have settled recently.  You should check their site  before booking flights or hotels, but we definitely recommend timing your photography-based travel to Turin to coincide with these two events! If you have even more time, come earlier and check out the Vinum Alba Wine Festival!

Torino also hosts several other photography-related events throughout the year, including exhibitions at various galleries like Camera, workshops at Fondazione Fotografia Modena, and tours organized by local photography associations. These events offer opportunities for both enthusiasts and professionals to engage with contemporary photography in Turin. While our recommendation is for a (long) weekend in May, you can really have a great photography-focused experience in Torino any time!