THE NEW ACQUISITIONS OF FONDAZIONE ARTE CRT AT ARTISSIMA 2025

With the highest budget of the past thirteen years, Fondazione Arte CRT — the art-oriented body of Fondazione CRT, which this year celebrates its 25th anniversary — has once again reaffirmed its confidence in the proposals of the galleries participating in Artissima. During the 2025 edition, the Foundation acquired 26 new works by 11 artists, all destined, as always, for public enjoyment. Significant pieces by John Giorno, Cian Dayrit, Majd Abdel Hamid, John Menick, Felix Shumba and Valentina Furian will become part of the permanent collection of the Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, while works by David Schutter, Simon Callery, Alessandro Pessoli, Marco Cingolani and Franciszka and Stefan Themerson will be made available for display at the GAM – Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Torino.

For twenty-five years, Fondazione Arte CRT has been one of the main partners of Artissima, the international contemporary art fair in Turin, which it supports through various initiatives, most notably the acquisitions program. This long-standing collaboration stems from the conviction that Artissima offers the city a unique opportunity to strengthen and project its role on the international art scene.

On the occasion of its 25th anniversary, Fondazione Arte CRT renews and reinforces this commitment by further increasing the historic acquisitions fund from €280,000 last year to €300,000. This marks the highest budget in the past thirteen years, confirming the Foundation’s determination to continue investing in the promotion of contemporary art and in the shared cultural heritage of Turin and its region.

“Fondazione Arte CRT, which operates on behalf of and thanks to the support of Fondazione CRT, is proud to renew its commitment to Artissima, Italy’s leading contemporary art fair and one of the most renowned internationally.
On the occasion of our 25th anniversary, we wanted to further strengthen this partnership by increasing the acquisitions fund to €300,000 — the most significant allocation in recent years — as a concrete sign of support for the galleries and artists participating in the fair. Through the acquisitions we will make together with our Scientific Committee, the works will become part of the collections of GAM – Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Torino and Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, enriching two outstanding public institutions and reinforcing Turin’s role as a capital of contemporary art.”, says Patrizia Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, president of Fondazione Arte CRT.

The Fondazione supports the galleries and artists taking part in the fair through the acquisition of works, thus fostering the growth of an extensive collection of contemporary art that is now one of the most prestigious: over 950 works ranging from painting to sculpture, video to photography, large installations to NFTs, created by 380 artists – for a total investment of over 42 million euros. Confirming the Fondazione’s mission, the works that become part of its permanent collection are immediately made available to the community and to the two museums for their respective exhibition activities and for loans to other institutions, enabling Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art and GAM – Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea to continue to update their displays, in a constant dialogue with the leading exponents of the international art scene.

As has become customary in recent years, the Scientific Committee of Fondazione Arte CRT was once again present at Artissima for the second consecutive year. This year, the Committee was represented by Hans Ulrich Obrist (Artistic Director, Serpentine Galleries, London), Susanne Pfeffer (Director, Museum MMK für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt), and Vicente Todolí (Artistic Director, Fondazione Pirelli HangarBicocca, Milan); Manuel Segade Lodeiro (Director, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid) and Suhanya Raffel (Director, M+ Museum, Hong Kong) contributed remotely.

As the consultants of the Fondazione for acquisitions, the Committee has participated in the choice of acquisitions in the fair, in synergy with the Directors and Chief Curators of Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art and GAM – Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, selecting works that further enhance the artistic heritage of both museums, centres of excellence in Piedmont and important resources to bring art to a wider, heterogeneous audience on local, national and international levels.

Regarding the acquisitions, the Committee of Experts of Fondazione Arte CRT remarks: “A very special moment in Turin, a city of art that Artissima enlivens together with the exhibitions of the many cultural institutions across the territory. This year, many of them are celebrating important anniversaries — among them the Fondazione Arte CRT, which marks its 25th year.
A dynamic moment, because – to paraphrase Italo Calvino – in Turin one can truly write, for here the past and the future coexist in the present with a strength rarely found elsewhere. This is felt even more intensely at Artissima, through its curated sections, where pioneering artists and galleries reaffirm this attitude: in an age where information abounds but so does amnesia, it is essential to “protest against the obvious.” For this reason, Artissima presents works by pioneering artists, sometimes forgotten, who deserve to be rediscovered and reinterpreted. As Erwin Panofsky once said, “the future is sometimes invented with fragments of the past.” Hence the need to preserve memory while at the same time supporting emerging artists: because the history of the past is also an anticipation of the future. It is impressive to see, here in Turin, the number of directors, curators, and art professionals gathering over these days. Turin is always worth a journey. And as Alighiero Boetti used to say, “art brings the sun and the light to Turin.”

Works acquired for Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art

“Poetry as a space for continuous creative elaboration (John Giorno); the utopia of hyper-technology and its failure (John Menick); the tension between vision, control and vulnerability (Valentina Furian); line and colour as tools for processing loss and grief (Majid Abdel Hamid); the use of cartography to address the trauma of colonial heritage (Cian Dayrit); the invention of techniques as a form of resistance to extractivist policies (Felix Shumba).
This selection for the Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea brings together artists whose works address the complexity of the present and the fragility of the human condition. These are works with strong political and social connotations but capable of maintaining a poetic dimension, characterised by practices that embrace slow gestures, where individual creativity becomes a space for freedom and resistance.”says the Director of Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art Francesco Manacorda.

Majd Abdel Hamid

Muscle Memory III, 2022

single-channel HD video, color

18′ 47”

Ed 3/3 + 2 AP

P420

Majd Abdel Hamid

Muscle Memory Composition, 2022

Cotton thread on fabric

40.5 x 38.5 cm

P420

Majd Abdel Hamid

Muscle Memory Composition 6, 2022

Cotton thread on fabric

28.5 x 26.5 cm

P420

Cian Dayrit

Natural Histories of Struggle: For Land, 2021

Objects, embroidery, imagery, and digital print on fabric (collaboration with RJ Fernandez and Henricus)

125 x 185 cm

Nome

Cian Dayrit

Valley of Dispossession, 2021

Objects and embroidery on textile (collaboration with Henry Caceres)

198 x 165 cm

Nome

Valentina Furian

Eclissi, 2024,

Two channels video, mute, color

1’ loop

Ed. 3

Una Gallery

John Giorno

DIAL-A-POEM Push Button Edition, 1968-2019

Telephone and computer with 282 recorded poems from 132 poets

12.7 x 27.9 x 27.3 cm

Ed. 9/20 + 5 AP

Thomas Brambilla

John Menick

Telharmonium, 2025

Generative 4K video, generative audio score, custom software, economic simulation

Ed. of 5 + 2 AP

Matta

Felix Shumba

Oracle 1- 5, 2024

Charcoal on paper

72 x 70 cm each

Fonti Gallery

Felix Shumba

Familiar Fruit | A third of dawn | Along, a certain line come a 4th of a teeth | length of light and with a lemon, 2024

Charcoal on paper

72 x 70 cm approx.

Fonti Gallery

Works acquired for GAM – Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Torino

 “I am very pleased that the GAM collection is being enriched with works by artists who, although coming from different contexts, maintain a deep connection with the history of Italian and European art. The acquisitions of David Schutter, Simon Callery, Alessandro Pessoli, Marco Cingolani, and the duo Franciszka and Stefan Themerson reflect the museum’s commitment to supporting artistic research that transcends geographical and temporal boundaries, while finding in Italy an ideal point of reference. These works engage in dialogue with both the history and the contemporaneity of painting and the moving image, strengthening GAM’s mission to build a living collection capable of reflecting the complexity and vitality of art today, also through the history” says the Director of GAM – Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Chiara Bertola.

Simon Callery

Stura, 2021

Canvas, distemper, pencil, thread, stainless steel, wood

169.3 x 165 x 23 cm

1/9 Unosunove Arte Contemporanea

Marco Cingolani 

Conferenza stampa, 1993

Oil on canvas

185 x 185 cm

Thomas Brambilla

Alessandro Pessoli 

Tenager faces series, 2024

Acrylic on plastic sheet

45.5 x 30.5 cm

Unique work

P420

David Schutter

ANB C 1.03 series, 2024

4 oil on canvas

60 x 50 cm

Magazzino

Franciszka and Stefan Themerson

The Eye and The Ear, 1945

Colour film 33 mm

10 min

Edition 5 + 2 AP

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