Founded in 2007 as a non-profit cultural association by a group of collectors, Associazione Barriera is a 500-square-metre space situated in a former industrial building in the Barriera di Milano neighbourhood in Turin. Through long-term exhibition formats, live events, and research-based projects, Barriera creates a place for exchange between artists, curators, writers, and collectors, as well as for contamination with other artistic languages and disciplinary perspectives. Alongside its exhibition programme, the space hosts a series of informal events, such as meetings, gatherings, and short-term residencies, based on the idea of radical hospitality. Driven by a community-driven approach, this format brings together local and international participants, encouraging collaborations and forms of knowledge production that emerge through lived experience.
Since 2018, the space has been curated by Sergey Kantsedal. Among the artists Barriera has collaborated with in recent years are Agnieszka Polska, Apparatus 22, Ariel Schlesinger, Aslı Çavuşoğlu, Franko B, Jacopo Benassi, Jenna Marvin, Kan Xuan, Luca Bertolo, Madison Bycroft, MRZB, and Slavs and Tatars. Its network of institutional collaborations includes Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Fondazione CRT, Artissima, SAHA Foundation, EXPOSED Torino Foto Festival, Goethe-Institut, and the Lithuanian Culture Institute, alongside private galleries such as CLIMA, eastcontemporary, Galleria Continua, Gregor Podnar, Matta, Massimo Minini, Spazio A, and Zak Branicka.
www.associazionebarriera.com