October 30, 2021 – November 7, 2021
DAMA is an independent project taking place within historical venues in the center of Turin to involve a group of international galleries carefully invited by the artistic direction. From 2016 DAMA presents brand-new languages by emerging artists taking inspiration from Le città invisibili, a novel by Italo Calvino published in 1972, to offer a certain intimacy by installing a bespoke exhibition where artworks can be presented in a unique way, to provide to the visitors, the participating galleries and the artists a privileged environment dedicated to meaningful dialogue between contemporary art practices and history.
A parallel program of video and performance took shape every year through the contribution of international curators invited on a rotating basis: Lorenzo Balbi (2016), Joao Laia (2017), Martha Kirszenbaum (2018), Elise Lammer (2019-2020) and Ludovica Parenti (2020) which has invited some of the most active artists in the panorama.
2021 EDITION
The sixth edition presents an update of the exhibition project balanced on the new reality that marked the latest changes, completing the path started in 2020, aiming to integrate the Live Programme of video and performances with the visual works by artists proposed by their galleries, creating an heterogeneous exhibition that, from the fifth edition, should have been carried out through a meeting of mixed languages ranging from sound, performance, video and sculpture contaminated by a dense program of talks, to accompany the public towards a new exhibition’s approach into a wide-ranging vision.
In compliance with this process, this year’s program, titled APERTO, takes place entirely into open spaces and culture venues, to start a deep dialogue with the community and the town itself, setting a link with historical Italian sites and identifying palazzo’s courtyards as the right place to evolve the concept of interaction between the past and the contemporary, updating and concentrating the proposal through a widespread itinerary.
DAMA 2021 will therefore focus on the works by Italian artists from different generations, bridging the time elapsed between brand-new and established artists relating, once again, the history of the city with artworks linked together by shapes that create closed architectures activated by performative actions.
The program also comprises the collaboration with Gianluigi Ricuperati through interventions and conversations in three historical bookshops in the city and a night video programme into a multiplayer store that showcases for a few days exhibitions, an unusual stage for talks and a meeting point for cultural workers, artists, intellectuals and visitors.
DAMA takes place from Saturday 30 October to Sunday 7 November 2021.
Press conference on Friday 29 October at 11.00am in the Salone dell’appartamento di Mezzogiorno in Palazzo Carignano.