How Public Institutions Make the Difference in Turin’s Art Market

Landing in the northern Italian city of Turin for its art week, there was both a chill and a sense of optimism in the air. After a week of highs and lows at Frieze London and a Parisian edition of Art Basel cut short, the art market crowds had plenty to worry about.

Italy had also experienced its own wave of student protests and workers’ strikes for several weeks by the time Turin Art Week rolled around. Tensions had run high on the Saturday before our arrival, with police teargassing protesters. In a city historically shaped by industrial powerhouses like Fiat and politically active university populations, politics are rarely left at the door.

Yet come Thursday, gallerists, buyers and visitors were serenely making their way to the Oval Lingotto, where Turin’s contemporary art fair, Artissima, was held. Rather than the speculative frenzy or anxiety that has characterised other international gatherings this season, Turin offered a more stable setting, where commercial transactions were bolstered by deep-rooted public cultural collaboration – a sign that civic engagement doesn’t necessarily hinder the art sector.

A Unique Commercial Model

Unlike major commercial rivals, whom are owned by private conglomerates, Artissima is co-owned by the City of Turin, the Piedmont Region and the Metropolitan City of Turin (Città Metropolitana di Torino). It’s a structure that shelters the fair from short-term speculative pressure, allowing it to maintain a clear curatorial focus on emerging practices and experimental research.

Adéla Janskà, 'Condition Orange' (2026). Photo: Courtesy of Galerie Rolando Anselmi and Artissima

For director Luigi Fassi, who describes Artissima as an ‘institution’, the aim has been to give ‘guarantees’ that not only reassure gallerists but make the investment of getting a booth worthwhile. “Today more than ever, fairs need to prioritise the urgent needs of galleries,” he tells The Art Journal.

"We can’t promise sales, but we can promise to open the doors to a rich ‘diplomatic’ network of international collectors, artists and realities. It’s that possibility for relationships that galleries tell us they really need.”

In this mission, Turin’s institutions become essential. Of the 12 prizes given at the fair, half are awarded in collaboration with museums and foundations from the region, alongside a €300,000 acquisition fund from Fondazione Arte CRT. “I want Artissima to keep ‘darsi del tu’ (to be on a first-name basis) with institutions,” says Fassi.

İz Öztat, 'Studies for Faustian Bargain' (2026). Photo: Courtesy of Zilberman Gallery

A new addition this year is the Curator’s Choice. Leading international institutional curators are invited to the fair to select and spotlight emerging galleries they have not encountered before. The aim is to turn that attention into opportunities for galleries to build relationships with different foundations and museums.

On the institutional side, these possibilities for exchange are just as important. “Turin’s strength today is above all in its capacity to bring together different institutions with different histories, identities and missions,” says Beatrice Merz, president of the Fondazione Merz and daughter of the Arte Povera pioneer Marisa Merz.

“It’s precisely this capacity to work together and go beyond single visions that is one of our most important resources. Collaboration isn’t just a modus operandi but an opportunity to multiply the possibilities of artistic research and strengthen the city’s cultural identity.”

Installation view of 'Marisa Merz – La danza delle ore' at Fondazione Merz. Photo: Giorgio Perottino

By the last day, over 34,000 visitors, 183 participating galleries from 35 countries and more than 700 international collectors and curators had descended on the fair over four days.

Among the visitors, multiple Patrons’ Circles from institutions in Buenos Aires, Inocência in Brazil and Berlin made the pilgrimage. “Bringing not only a wide variety of individual collectors, but collectors that support cultural bodies, has brought a very interesting point of view to the fair and growing perspectives for the galleries,” says Fassi.

Gallery sales ranged from approximately €800 to €200,000. This year, Fondazione Arte CRT’s fund was used to purchase 15 works that will become part of the collections of GAM (Turin Civic Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art). Among them are prints by the Italian artist Rossella Biscotti and a series of shots by the Ukrainian photographer Boris Mikhailov.

The numbers may not reach the dizzying heights of the sales made by mega-galleries at Basel and Frieze, but offer a glimpse of a more affordable and accessible art market.

A Choral of Voices

This effort is even more visible outside the fairgrounds. For the first time, the Fondazione Merz, the Castello di Rivoli and GAM Turin came together to create a large, three-chapter retrospective, Marisa Merz – La danza delle ore (The Dance of the Hours).

Installation view of 'Marisa Merz – La danza delle ore' at GAM - Galleria d'Arte Moderna di Torino. Photo: Giorgio Perottino

For Merz, this project is a display of the important cultural tradition and focus on experimentation that distinguishes Turin. It is something that public organisations have a duty to promote. “Institutions should help create the conditions to allow creative research to develop in the long run, supporting artist production, favouring connections between various actors in the industry and promoting better collaboration between public and private entities,” she says.

Beyond artistic promotion, politics are also part of the picture. Merz considers it essential to interrogate the present. “At Fondazione Merz, we try to do that through exhibitions that touch on social and political questions like what’s happening in Gaza. I think today a cultural institution should be able to do both: concretely support the work of artists and offer tools to the public with which they understand the complexity of the world we live in.”

This symbiotic relationship between public institutions and commercial players creates an environment unlike any other major European art hub. “Turin is a centre for contemporary art in Italy that really doesn’t have any other similar situations,” says Castello di Rivoli director Francesco Manacorda.

Installation view of 'Marisa Merz – La danza delle ore' at Castello di Rivoli. Photo: Sebastiano Pellion di Persano

“Milan has more galleries. Venice has the biennale. But Turin is this structure in which the contemporary and the past support each other, and that reciprocal support is crucial, because I also think that contemporary art is a ‘choral of voices’ rather than single visions, like a sort of Dostoevsky novel.”

For Merz, moments like Turin Art Week have the merit of drawing focus to the arts system, but their value is really measured in their capacity to leave something behind after they end. “This week contributes to amplifying the public’s presence, stimulating new projects and spotlight artists and realities that are part of the territory,” she says. “The challenge then is to transform this visibility into durable development.”

In an era where commercial art fairs often seem to operate in isolation from local communities, Turin seems to suggest that an art market anchored by committed public institutions and civic funding can help the sector weather market fluctuations.