Turin is the center of an art system

Turin is the center of an art system that has been designed with care by local administrations.

There are at least two places not to be missed in the city, both of which are hidden behind somewhat mysterious acronyms that mean Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo and Officine Grandi Riparazioni, respectively. Fondazione Sandretto is the private creation of a business woman from Piedmont, and it is mainly a training workshop with holidays for artists, a lot of teaching, ever-changing exhibitions and very high standards. The building appears naked from the outside, but when you enter, the warmth of the works of art on display, which are more often international rather than Italian, surrounds you and absorbs you. Le Grandi Riparazioni, next to the Porta Nuova station, is a larger area as it used to be the huge facility where locomotives and railway wagons were serviced. Large black iron shapes welcome visitors into the access yard, and you realize that this installation, by the English artist William Kentridge, has been created to preserve the memory of those who performed repairs here. The emotional impact is considerable, especially when it begins to get dark and the lights are switched on. Inside, with excellent furnishings even for the reading area, the cafeteria, the restaurant and event hall, you will find yourself roaming for hours among the collections of an important Turin bank.

Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo

The role of the Piedmont region for contemporary art, this time unquestionably Italian, is confirmed by the charming industrial archeology building that acts as a sanctum sanctorum for Michelangelo Pistoletto in Biella. Even if void of mirror games, the almost mathematical symbology of Pistoletto’s inexhaustible creativity, also known as Arte Povera, expressed by the wooden beams on the upper floor of this former textile plant are enough to justify the trip.  A visit would kill two birds with one stone.