Artissima closed its 33rd edition in Turin on Sunday, 1 November, after four days at the Oval Lingotto that drew more than 34,000 visitors. The fair brought together 183 galleries from 35 countries, including 37 first-time participants, confirming its standing as Italy's only fair devoted entirely to contemporary art. It was the fifth edition under director Luigi Fassi.

This year's theme, Fancy: A Flexible, Acrobatic Body, took its cue from the philosopher Martha C. Nussbaum, framing imagination as the capacity to move beyond one's own point of view and cross differences. The fair was organised in four flagship sections — the Main Section, Monologue/Dialogue, New Entries and Art Editions — alongside three curated sections, Present Future, Back to the Future and Disegni, with 66 galleries presenting monographic projects.

Discovery remained the fair's calling card. Among the presentations drawing attention was Thomas Dane Gallery's stand built around Marisa Merz, the Arte Povera artist who was born in Turin a century ago and is the subject of a three-venue retrospective, La danza delle ore, spread across the Castello di Rivoli, the Fondazione Merz and the city's civic gallery, GAM. The gallery led with a single tall, unframed sheet in which a pale, mask-like face rises from clouds of sprayed blue and gold.

Coming straight after Frieze London and Art Basel Paris, Artissima does not try to compete on scale or star names. Owned by a public foundation of the city of Turin, it keeps participation costs lower than its rivals, particularly for young galleries, and its curators arrive looking for artists to programme in 2027 and 2028. For many of them, the fair's value lies in what it surfaces early rather than what it sells on the day.