Good morning, and welcome to Artissima 2025. This is the AudioGuide project and you are listening to tour number 01 entitled "Il pianeta di Babele", which allows you to discover works by artists from different generations, spanning a wide variety of techniques and languages. The 32nd edition features 176 galleries from 36 countries. Like in the previous years, there are 3 curated sections: Back to the Future, which is dedicated to historical research, Present Future, dealing with more current research, and Drawings focussed on works on paper, which are collected in the centre of the Oval. Drawing inspiration from the essay by the visionary thinker Richard Buckminster Fuller from 1969, identified by the director Luigi Fassi as the theme of this edition, we imagine travelling on our 'Spaceship Earth' as the crew. We entrust artists with the task of leading us in acknowledging and rethinking our role and mission. Fuller's method for examining systems involves a broad and holistic integration of many variables, contrasting sharply with the hyper-specialization and compartmentalization typically found in knowledge acquisition. Once dominated by the academic division into particular genres and techniques, the art world in the twentieth century liberated itself from these limitations, evolving into an unexpectedly diverse system characterised by an endless array of viewpoints, practices, and themes. Today, it encompasses numerous languages, mirroring the diversity of humankind. Our journey will lead us to discover the lively and fruitful variety of languages in contemporary art. The AudioGuides were developed for Artissima by the advisors of Arteco. This tour was curated by Sergio Manca. We are ready to go. The first stage will be the ASNI gallery, in the New Entries section, at stand number 7 on the fuchsia corridor. Now pause your player and press play once you are there.

We are at the stand of ASNI gallery, founded a year ago in the centre of Riga, which makes its debut at Artissima this year. ASNI's mission is to exhibit and promote the work of young artists from the Baltic area. Here, we are introduced to an artist whose work encourages us to reevaluate our accustomed understanding of photographic methods. Her name is Agate Tūna, she was born in Riga in 1996. Photography has undeniably evolved more than any other medium of documentation and expression over the past century, becoming a routine and everyday activity for all of us. Every year, hundreds of exhibitions dedicated to authorial photography are organised, reflecting a media world that now primarily uses images as a direct method to boost interest and involvement in current affairs. In this setting, Tūna's research is positioned as a tangential outlier. Captivated by the idea of spectrum, the artist employs analogue and off-camera techniques, favouring an experimental and conceptual methodology. Reflecting on suggestive beliefs that we have ignored due to the materialist and technical outlook of the modern digital era, Tūna concentrates on photography's capacity to seize the essence of the subject and encapsulate the intangible elements of reality. Fundamental to this is the process, embracing the intricate nuances akin to those found in alchemy. In addition to manipulating images in the darkroom, she produces three-dimensional creations based on chemigrams. This technique relies on the direct application of chemicals to photosensitive paper, creating abstract visuals that are both organic and ephemeral. Subsequently, the pieces are printed onto plexiglass or aluminium structures, forming enigmatic objects from cool materials that evolve into surprising qualities. Her practice, based on exploring the relationship between technology and spirituality from a female perspective, leads her to investigate materials that bridge distant worlds, charged with an energy that unites time and memories. One of these, and central to her recent exhibition "Voltentity", is the quartz crystal. Known for its therapeutic properties as a conduit of spiritual energy, quartz is also piezoelectric, making it essential in the production of microchips, military radios, and mobile phones. In the present era, our understanding of the electromagnetic waves around us and the enigmatic algorithms that govern our lives is only partial: these are perhaps the phantoms of the modern age. Like crystal, photography becomes a catalyst for invisible forces that pass through our bodies and our spirits. Our next stage will be Deborah Schamoni Gallery, which overlooks the purple corridor. The stand is marked with the number 13. Pause your player and press play when you are there.

Our second stage is the stand of Deborah Schamoni Gallery. Founded in 2013 in Munich by its eponymous owner, it features the work of international artists, fostering both established research and new artistic expressions. Here we have the opportunity to see the works by Nicole Wermers and Judith Hopf, two German artists belonging to the same generation. The first was born in Emsdetten in 1971, the second in Karlsruhe in 1969. While both artists explore the structures of contemporary society and work with sculptures and installations, their distinct approaches highlight the vast expressive potential inherent in artistic expression. Shifting from the spectral and energetic universe of the young Tūna, we enter a realm of tangible objects and substances, which, due to their familiarity, might initially appear almost self-evident. Yet, surrounded by references and biting sarcasm, what is presented to us compels us to view the ordinary aspects of our world with a discerning perspective. Wermers, born in 1971, offers small clay figures of women, half-reclining, as proposed monuments and preliminary drafts for a commission's review. Their pose recalls a long artistic tradition, which goes from the Renaissance and Canova up to Henry Moore. Looking at them, however, you realize that the high base on which they rest are boxes of commercial products, such as hair dyes and cat food. Within these compositions, every element is an object. The relaxed and historically eroticised poses hint at a condition of pleasure that precariously rests on the consumerist fetishism of the pedestal. Similarly, that long fur tail, rolled up like a water pump, seems to be exposed as a commodity to be bought by the metre. With almost Dadaist irony, the artist questions our attitude as buyers and consumers towards art and nature. The creations of Judith Hopf, born in 1969, link us to the surrounding natural world and highlight our desire to exert control. On the one hand, the sun's rays cannot penetrate the enclosed environment of the fair or gallery except in the form of stylised yellow stripes, which become a pure minimalist decoration of the walls. Similarly, only the presence of their bronze replicas allows the branches of the tree to break through the wall and extend into the exhibition space, embodying a freedom of growth that has been withheld from them. This piece feels like a harbinger or a homage to the tenacity of the plant kingdom. Next, we proceed to the heart of the fair and head to stand number 1 in the Back to the Future section, located in the lilac corridor. Pause your player and press play when you are there.

We've reached the Back to the Future section, which this year showcases works created from the 1940s to the 1990s. Our journey leads us to the stand of a prominent gallery in Vienna. It is the Krinzinger gallery, founded in 1971 by the art historian Ursula Krinzinger. This venue has showcased renowned figures in Viennese performance and action art, in addition to offering a multi-year programme centred on Asian artists. The fair's exhibition honours the author Erik Schmidt, who shares both nationality and generational ties with the artists featured in the previous series. Born in Hedford in 1968, he currently resides in Berlin. Nonetheless, his work significantly deviates from the earlier series. Schmidt's work is deeply connected to figurative art, consistently featuring humans through various mediums such as painting, found images, videos, and drawing. From the 2000s onwards, he has received international recognition for his pictorial creations, frequently executed on photographs, alongside videos that examine social behaviours and class dynamics through an anthropological lens. The 1990s works before us offer a glimpse into the early phase of his career. While Schmidt assumes the role of an observer in the world, his observation is not wholly objective. Through autobiographical experience, he decides instead to record and interpret the system that surrounds him. He does this through poems and graphic productions, or by taking on the role of different characters in his videos. References to the pop world, nightlife, mass media communication and the dialectic of subcultures are constant. Along with the exploration of urban spaces and the art system, he involves fashion magazines, advertising posters and pornographic publications in his work. It assimilates these components and engages with them. Sometimes, his graphics feature straightforward words like 'dream', 'open', or 'warmth', which evoke with empathy and clarity the desire for a free emotional and sexual existence. Sometimes instead he tells, as a sympathetic reporter on the field, the social phenomena typical of the New York of the time such as the kids clubs and the Chelsea boys. His pen adjustments on fashion photographs aren't acts of censorship, but rather markers that disclose the hidden sexuality within the images, confronting us with new possibilities outside standard dynamics. Next, we proceed to the adjacent Present Future section, heading to the Meessen gallery positioned at stand number 2, directly opposite the fair entrance. Pause your player and press play when you are there.

We are at the stand of the Belgian gallery Meessen. Established in Brussels in 2008, the gallery is housed in an elegant building from 1911, spanning three floors. It also features a wunderkammer and holds exhibitions showcasing a diverse array of international artists. The pieces displayed here form a sort of anthology of the most recent exhibitions by the French duo mountaincutters. This collaborative project involves two people born in 1990 in Marseille and has featured in prominent European venues such as the Kyiv Biennale and the Palais de Tokyo. The name itself highlights the convergence of two distinct elements: a deep connection with the natural world and an engagement with human activity in its technical and expressive forms, almost resembling craftsmanship. At the base of the work of mountaincutters, generally conceived in situ, there is continuous research on materials, their physical qualities and their cultural heritage. Each element is shaped and treated directly by the artists. Even though they are separate pieces, they are designed as complementary entities that engage in a mutual spatial and expressive interaction, ultimately creating unique situations and environments. The feeling one gets from observing the works is that of being in an uncertain temporal dimension, dominated by a sense of fragility and incompleteness. Determining whether they are incomplete works, abandoned mid-creation, or remnants of a past that is elusive yet faintly recognisable is almost never possible. Their compositions are dominated by a sort of fragile order, in which energies of ancient rituals and the results of the mechanical work of the industrial era converge. Within this suspension, it is quite common to encounter photographic images mingling with ancient artefacts, where glass vases coexist alongside orthopaedic prosthetics. It's as if you're engaged in a complex conversation with multiple voices, which is challenging to interpret. In this parallel dimension, there appears to be something missing; indeed, every element, from the rusted metal to the crumpled paper, hints at an absence—the absence of the human being. Yet the passage, intervention and memory of the humang being are constantly evoked. It is perhaps due to the absence of those who once inhabited and moulded this place that the surrounding objects can communicate to each of us in unique ways, prompting reflection on our role in the world, bound within the timeless conflict between nature and history. Now, let's return to the Suprainfinit gallery space, marked as number 19 on the Rosa corridor A. Pause your player and press play when you are there.

Our journey's final destination is the Suprainfinit gallery, established in Bucharest in 2015 and directed by Suzana and Cristina Vasilescu. The gallery's exhibition schedule is centred on the artistic practices of Central and Eastern Europe, placing emphasis on new commissions and large-scale installations. We end our journey with the Romanian artist Victoria Zidaru, whose exploration delves into the subtle experiences associated with ritualistic traditions and spirituality. Zidaru, who was born in 1956, completed her studies in sculpture and tapestry at the Nicolae Grigorescu Institute in 1983. Her works take us back to nature, and require extended processes, frequently carried out jointly together with artists and local communities. Sometimes, as in the "Donate a word" or "Lingua ignota" projects, the public is called upon to contribute their words, which are then integrated into the installation. The works exhibited at the fair have been produced in recent months. They share a strong connection with those presently displayed at the gallery for the "ReFACEREA" exhibition, a show whose title suggests the action of remaking or rebuilding a world, viewed through a lens that incorporates a strong ecological awareness. The artist intends to propose a resilient approach: as the curator Adina Drinceranu writes, 'during times of disruption, shared memories and symbolic frameworks reappear, offering guidance for both individuals and communities.' Her personal experiences - influenced by her father's arrest as a political opponent in the 1950s - inspired her since she was a child to develop a profound appreciation for plants and the natural world, seeing them as both a source of comfort and a medium for contemplation. This relationship has transformed into a symbolic language of healing, where herbs, fabrics, and perfumes are ritualised through the practices of weaving, binding, inscription, and the emission of fragrance traces. The works are presented as living organisms that invade space and enter into a dialectical relationship with the white and orthogonal architectural structures that house them and with the hand-embroidered fabrics. Threads, herbs, and hay are interwoven into organic compositions where both the creative process and the material properties connect to the rituals of Christian mysticism and Eastern spirituality. Every element plays a role in reconnecting us to a tangible dimension of the sacred, which communicates with us through words inscribed like mantras, and scents that evoke the idea of returning to a primordial world—a world we have forgotten we belong to. Through the senses and the spirit, the viewer is invited to reconnect with a forgotten cosmic energy, perceiving nature as a nurturing entity that provides us with care and protection. Our brief and certainly not exhaustive exploration of the different languages that populate the world of contemporary art has come to an end. We started from the invisible energies that surround us and from alchemical experimentation; we crossed the contemporary world in its urban and consumerist dimension, observing it as an outsider or criticizing it with irony, and then we found ourselves in a suspended temporal dimension in which the artificial structures, incomplete and mysterious, are abandoned to allow us to return to our origins and to regain a sentimental and spiritual relationship with nature. We hope that this experience has stimulated and intrigued you. If you’d like another perspective on the art fair, go back to the info point or the AudioGuides landing page and select another podcast! See you soon and enjoy Artissima!