"The ninth edition of Flashback? Exciting!" Stefania Poddighe and Ginevra Pucci speak.

Edition number IX of Flashback, Turin’s ancient and contemporary art fair, was held this year from November 4 to 7, in a new venue, the former Dogali Barracks, but as always with a selection of high-quality exhibitors. The numbers exceeded expectations (18,000 visitors), and many gallery owners also expressed satisfaction. What did the directors Stefania Poddighe and Ginevra Pucci think about it? We caught up with them for a brief interview, with Federico Giannini.

FG. Flashback is back in attendance after almost two years of a pandemic and stop at trade shows. What were the feelings?

GP-SP. This ninth edition was very exciting. You could sense enthusiasm and curiosity, but at the same time we noticed a social behavior full of respect. Respect for the rules, for each other, for the place, perhaps in the knowledge that respect is the only way that can guarantee us a future of sociality. So many young people and so many foreigners crossed our thin red line. We were also very excited about this after two such difficult years.

This year the theme of the fair was The Free Zone. What does it mean? What reasons led to the choice of this theme?

The theme chosen for the ninth edition is deeply related to this historical moment. It is about a time that needed us united but wanted us divided, a time during which we questioned the concept of freedom, freedom that we lacked, freedom that we took, individual freedom and the ethics of reciprocity. The Zona Franca is a hymn to the expressive freedom of artistic research, a free space that welcomes diversity, a place beyond the norm, the usual, which because of these characteristics, represents a space of confrontation in which to find mediating cues.

One of the big novelties of the 9th edition of Flashback was the change of venue: the fair was coming downtown this year, to a large space, namely the Barracks on Via Asti. How did it go? How was the impact? What did the public and exhibitors think of it?

Flashback has distinguished itself since its inception as an innovative and evolving format that focuses on the ability to look at what already exists, what has been overlooked to reaffirm its existence and strength. This is the task that we set ourselves and that we also accomplish thanks to all the galleries and artists who participate in the project. Here the new venue, a disused barracks, fits perfectly into the format, a neglected space full of history and meaning strongly reaffirms its relevance to provide us with the tools to understand our present. This choice represented a great challenge for everyone, for the organization, for the architects and for the galleries. Like everything that is innovative the path was challenging but the result was beyond our expectations. We were struck by the enthusiasm of the public, for them too it was a new experience, light years away from the exhibition halls, but one that was able to transform the visit to Flashback into an experience of continuous discovery. Space after space the architecture disruptively entered the project and, as one of our exhibitors put it, transformed the fruition from fairground to museum. Thanks to the new venue, therefore, we can call ourselves the first site-specific historicized art fair.

About the audience: did the fair meet expectations?

The fair went well beyond expectations both in terms of participating audience and sales. A key factor in the increase in audience was the curiosity to see how works and galleries interacted with a temporarily converted space. We are supersatisfied.

Let’s come to the sales: some important ones were concluded. Any cold comments?

The fact that Flashback worked from a sales point of view is a confirmation for us about the choices we made. Whoever runs has a fair has the task of creating the right context so that everyone’s interests are satisfied, we always work in this direction guaranteeing a very high quality and always providing, with an innovative spirit, new stimuli both to the galleries and to our public.

Do you already have new things in mind for next year?

Now that we have realized how stimulating it is to work on disused spaces so many ideas are already rattling around in our heads, on the other hand the next one is the tenth edition!

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