Artissima, Italy's fair devoted entirely to contemporary art, opens its 33rd edition in Turin on 30 October, running until 1 November at the Oval Lingotto. The fair brings together 183 galleries from 35 countries, including 66 monographic presentations and 37 galleries taking part for the first time. Director Luigi Fassi, now in his fifth year at the helm, presents the fair as a place for discovery rather than confirmation, where visitors are likely to encounter galleries and artists they have not seen before.

A new programme, Curators' Choice, underlines that pitch. Eighteen European curators, mostly in their thirties and forties, will spend time at the fair and each single out one gallery they discovered and found impressive, with the nominations announced in the manner of an award. The initiative is supported by Fondazione Arte CRT, which also backs a 300,000-euro acquisition fund allowing Castello di Rivoli and the Galleria d'Arte Moderna in Turin to buy works directly from the fair.

Around a dozen prizes sit alongside the selling floors, from the illy Present Future Prize to a new award for young female gallerists. The fair is owned by a public foundation controlled by the city of Turin, which Fassi says helps keep participation costs lower, particularly for younger galleries, at a time when the market is far from buoyant. A children's programme run with the football club Juventus and a film and video strand now in its fifth year extend the fair beyond professional visitors.

The international reach includes around ten galleries from Asia and a long-standing Latin American presence, while the VIP programme looks after about 600 collectors, roughly 60 percent of them from outside Italy. This year's citywide programme also includes the largest retrospective to date of Marisa Merz, shared between Castello di Rivoli, the Galleria d'Arte Moderna and Fondazione Merz.