“Art Fairs Must Become Cultural Institutions”: Interview with Artissima Director Luigi Fassi

Luigi Fassi discusses the role of an art fair that does not simply reflect the market, but seeks to shape imagination, relationships and a sense of cultural responsibility. The 33rd edition of Artissima will take place at the Oval Lingotto in Turin from 30 October to 1 November 2026.

This interview was originally published in Italian by Artribune.

Following its press presentation on 2 July, Artissima 2026 leaves behind a question that is more difficult than the programme itself: what can an art fair become when it does not want to limit itself to selling?

There is no simple answer, because a fair remains a fair. It has booths, prices and collectors. It must support galleries and generate sales. It may speak about research, imagination and cultural responsibility, but it cannot do so from a neutral position. Every argument it makes still passes through the market.

Luigi Fassi seems to begin precisely from this tension.

Artissima’s 33rd Edition in Turin

The theme of the 33rd edition, Fancy: A Flexible, Acrobatic Body, is more than a theoretical frame. Drawing on the thought of Martha C. Nussbaum, fancy becomes a practical faculty: the ability to imagine what has not yet taken shape, to shift the limits of what appears possible and to refuse the present as the only available reality.

Yet the image of the acrobat remains interesting only as long as it is not domesticated. An acrobat does not merely embody elegance in motion. An acrobat embodies risk. Balance matters because falling remains possible.

Applied to Artissima, the metaphor raises a precise question: how acrobatic can an art fair truly be before its difference becomes another recognisable brand?

The Cultural Role of an Art Fair

This is where Artissima’s position becomes more delicate. The fair claims a cultural role. It builds relationships with museums and institutions, supports acquisitions for public collections, and attracts curators, foundations, museum boards and collectors.

The question, however, is not whether this value can be declared. It is whether it can be demonstrated.

For a fair that defines itself through research and curatorial experimentation, the danger is always the same: it may become a more sophisticated version of the market rather than a space capable of critically testing it. Research can easily turn into a mark of distinction instead of remaining a genuine field of tension.

We asked Luigi Fassi to address this contradiction directly, discussing the relationship between the market and artistic research, Artissima’s curatorial identity, increasingly global, performance-driven and recognisable fair models, and the cultural responsibility that a fair can reasonably claim.

Interview with Luigi Fassi, Director of Artissima

Artissima 2026 speaks of a flexible and acrobatic body. But what must an art fair be acrobatic in relation to today: the market, the fragility of galleries, changes within the art system, or the risk of becoming a perfectly recognisable cultural event?

From the perspective of a fair such as Artissima, I believe acrobatics should be understood as the ability to create dialogue across several levels.

This begins with galleries and collectors, of course, but it must also involve museums, institutions, the curatorial field, the more culturally engaged business community and cultural diplomacy.

In other words, a fair must know how to encourage unexpected and vigorous relationships, all of which should contribute to a stronger presence and a greater impact for art.

This matters even more in a changing economic and market environment. I believe the market itself must draw value from the production of a more committed and persuasive cultural discourse.

How can this be achieved?

In her writing, Martha Nussbaum invites us to cultivate fancy, the projective force of the imagination, with greater commitment and humanity.

It is a very concrete proposition. Institutions, too, should allow themselves to be influenced by the insights of art if they want to operate with greater effectiveness and social force.

It is an invitation to exercise their institutional role with more conviction and purpose. At Artissima, we have taken that message seriously and want to extend it to the wider art community.

Artissima is often described as Italy’s most curatorial and experimental art fair. What is the risk associated with this identity today? When does research stop being a genuine tension and become a recognisable formula, almost a brand?

The risk would be to believe that we have acquired a permanent position of privilege, relying on the ritual repetition of a formula that has become all surface and no substance.

At Artissima, we work constantly to avoid that. Our scouting and research continue throughout the year, including visits to galleries in their own spaces.

That work is reflected in a highly selective process, in the wide geographical range of the participating galleries and in the significant number of first-time exhibitors. This year, 33 galleries will take part in Artissima for the first time.

The continuous activation of relationships through partnerships and cultural diplomacy is equally important. It is essential to maintaining the fair’s identity, but also to allowing that identity to develop rather than harden into a formula.

After five years as director, what must Artissima refuse to become? And what transformation do you believe you have made possible?

Artissima must refuse to become a generalist fair.

It must remain a platform for contemporary art focused on what is new and emerging, and on forms of exchange that give value to knowledge. It should continue to be a place where galleries and artists are discovered, anticipating the processes through which they later receive recognition and establish themselves.

That is precisely what collectors ask of us.

At the same time, Artissima must remain an important point of reference for the institutional art world, particularly for curators and directors of cultural institutions.

The moment I noticed that curators were losing interest in visiting the fair, I would know for certain that Artissima had taken the wrong direction.

In an art system dominated by increasingly global, competitive and recognisable fair models, can Artissima still afford not to resemble the major international fairs? Or are those fairs now beginning to be shaped differently?

Artissima has a long-standing and privileged relationship with galleries that work in an almost bespoke way.

At the centre of their activity are not simply artworks, but the individual subjectivities of the artists themselves. This is a significant difference. It places emphasis on the care that galleries devote to the development of their artists, in close dialogue with committed collectors and institutions.

Over the years, we have realised that many fairs, both large and small, have tried to resemble Artissima.

An art fair must sell, but Artissima also claims a cultural function. How can this responsibility towards artists, galleries, the city and the public be measured in concrete terms?

The market and cultural value can develop in synergy.

Several institutions and collections acquire works at Artissima in a structured and systematic way, with the aim of making them publicly accessible. These include the La Gaia Collection and Fondazione Ines ed Ettore Fico.

I would especially like to mention Fondazione per l’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea CRT. Through its acquisition budget of €300,000, which has been confirmed again for the 2026 edition, Castello di Rivoli and GAM Torino are able to expand their collections.

Those collections form a public heritage of extraordinary value. They enrich the cultural history of Turin and of Italy as a whole.

This initiative also places a considerable responsibility on Artissima. The fair must be capable of responding to the expectations and needs of both museums.

I therefore believe Artissima must create added value for the institutions within its territory and for the wider public. It should nurture a process of cultural inspiration through art and through the ideas that art can bring into society.

The responsibility is ultimately that of managing a fully developed institution operating within a vast, complex and constantly evolving field such as the art market, with all its wider implications for society.

In my view, this is the challenge art fairs must now accept: they must learn how to become cultural institutions.

Antonino La Vela

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