04/07/10
In the morning, I pack my stuff up and wrap the olive oil and olive paste up well in clothes and meet the Sardinians in the living room who are ready to leave for their daytrip and we say our goodbyes. Alfredo asks if I want a lift with my Massive Suitcase which is really great as it is still so heavy after relinquishment of the speakers. Before we go, Alfredo takes the new beer barrels out of the car boot and he gives me first taste of a local brew from a microbrewery and it’s really good, quite like a mild ale.
We go to Via Roma for one last look at the Incitta works as I missed the bubblewrap fashion line which sounds intriguing. The cardboard piece in daylight looks quite different. The bubblewrap bikini, hat, shoes and clothes are cool and Michela previously told me the artist did a performance on the first night so this is the remaining expo. Alfredo shows me the red light district which is closed up except for one older woman who I’m not sure is there for business or not.
Alfredo drops me at the train station and I get my ticket. The train is not for 50 minutes so I head to the station restaurant for coffee and snack. It looks like there is a full 5 course menu for €12 but instead I order pasta e insalata mista which is simple and tasty.
The Torino train is departing from platform 4 which is down 2 flights of stairs and up 1 which is no simple feat with my luggage. The journey goes quickly and in Torino it’s baking hot. I go to Platta Cafe Via Emmanuale II which I think is on route to the GAM. After 45 minutes in the heat and recaffeinated, I set off again and find the GAM at the end of Via Emmanuale II. The luggage lockers are too small for the suitcase so it goes in the backroom and I go to the air conditioned first floor. It’s the museum collection curated thematically and seems to be dumbed down a little for the presumingly ignorant public. There is however a good mix of contemporary modern and traditional, plenty sculpture, with many Italian artists representing and some familiar international artists. The museum feels quite spacious and homely. There’s 2 pieces made by short pen strokes which reminds me of the piece Richard put in Contents May Vary Issue 3 so I text him Dadamania.
On floor 2 there’s lots of figurative work and a room which seems dedicated to nude children. Back down stairs I go to the basement which is the guest curated Underground Project containing a neat contemporary show Permanent Mimesis starting with a Roman Ondak piece in the foyer. Downstairs in the basement also there’s a video room and archive with the film being screened showing a man taking long handstands in a museum setting. I pick up a copy of MAG#0 and collect my luggage and set off for the bus stop. At the bus stop there’s lots of people very sweaty from the heat and I pick up some German conversations and suspect they are on the same flight. I buy a mandarin sorbet which is a hyperreal orange flavour and gives me brain freeze.
