Early November · Turin Oval
For Italian and European contemporary art galleries, foundations, artists, curators, private and institutional collectors, museum directors, critics, art press and sponsors preparing their presence at Artissima Turin and needing fine-art catalogues in limited print runs, numbered prints, fair totes, VIP collector kits and delegate materials — delivered in time for the opening of the Oval in Turin.
Artissima — Contemporary Art Fair — is Italy’s leading contemporary art fair and one of the most important in Europe, dedicated to twentieth- and twenty-first-century art with a strong focus on emerging research and independent galleries. Each year in early November the Turin Oval welcomes more than 200 galleries from Italy, Europe, the Americas and Asia, and attracts thousands of private and institutional collectors, curators, museum directors, critics, art press and industry professionals. For participating galleries, artists and foundations the preparation calendar is dense, print runs are limited and recipients are varied — Italian and foreign collectors, museum curators, foundation directors, accredited press, institutional delegations, emerging artists — so every kit must be split clearly between limited-edition catalogues, numbered prints, fair totes and delegate materials.
For a merchandising programme around Artissima, Corp-Merch.IT runs the full chain from its operational hub: receiving the gallery or artist master graphic files (AI, EPS, PDF/X-4 with CMYK images at 300 dpi, FOGRA39 colour profile for fine-art print, authenticity certificates for the numbered editions), adapting them to the personalisation techniques (fine-art printing in limited edition on Hahnemühle and Canson paper, water-based screen printing on GOTS-certified organic cotton for shoppers and totes, hot-foil stamping on FSC-certified paper for catalogues and institutional brochures, direct UV printing on Faenza and Caltagirone ceramics for small artist editions, laser engraving on Maniago stainless steel for the work-design tool kit, acid etching on Colle Val d’Elsa glass for the glasses and small sculptures of the institutional programme, artisan bookbinding for the limited-edition catalogues), physical pre-production sample with Pantone colour map and technical sheet, production on the Italian supply chains (Milan fine-art print, Como screen printing, Faenza ceramics, Caltagirone ceramics, Maniago steel, Colle Val d’Elsa glass, Fabriano paper for the catalogues, Turin bookbinding), and delivery to a central Turin hotel, the Oval stand or the gallery office in the agreed time slot. For programmes covering several galleries or artists we split into recipient-labelled lots, with distinct delivery addresses if a gallery headquartered in Rome or Milan wants to collect its share from its own warehouse.
The Artissima audience is varied and kits must be tailored to the recipient. The Italian collector visiting the fair with their acquisition agenda looks for a coordinated memento of the gallery (GOTS-certified organic cotton shopper, fine-art print in limited and numbered edition signed by the artist, bilingual brochure with the gallery presentation and the represented artists, technical sheet of the work) they can take back to the studio and place in their archive. The foreign collector updating their portfolio needs institutional-quality catalogues with critical texts in English at minimum, and coordinated packaging suitable for safe air transport. The museum curator updating their map of emerging research looks for institutional catalogues and small artist editions to examine at the fair and then propose to directors. The foundation director following the fair for their acquisition programme expects a coordinated, refined item suited to a representative meeting: Scandicci leather folder, bilingual brochure, small numbered artist edition. The first-time Artissima artist needs functional gear (coordinated shopper, business cards printed on FSC-certified paper, bilingual biographical sheet) and a small limited-edition catalogue of their work. A merchandising programme that respects these five audiences converts much better than a single kit trying to cover them all.
A recurring case is the merch coordinated with the gallery programme presenting an artist at the fair: the gallery team prepares a neutral graphic base aligned with the gallery’s visual identity (GOTS-certified organic cotton shopper, bilingual brochure, small numbered artist edition) and adds the presented artist details (name, year of birth, curatorial claim, work code) in a dedicated limited print run, so each visitor leaves with a specific memento of the artist they met at the stand. Printing on FSC-certified paper, GOTS-certified organic cotton, Faenza and Caltagirone ceramics, Colle Val d’Elsa glass, Maniago steel and Hahnemühle / Canson paper for fine-art prints is a frequent request from galleries most careful with the environmental claim and the print quality, and we handle it with FSC and GOTS certified screen-printers, ceramicists and typographers, and with fine-art print labs accredited for the certified print runs.
Most galleries, curators and collectors running a merch programme for Artissima coordinate their Italian operations from Turin, Milan or Rome. The Turin hub — where Corp-Merch.IT works through fine-art print labs in the San Salvario district and consolidation warehouses in Lingotto — lets us receive graphic files and Pantone references from the gallery team, run the pre-production sample across the Italian supply chains (Milan fine-art print, Como screen printing, Faenza ceramics, Caltagirone ceramics, Maniago steel, Colle Val d’Elsa glass, Fabriano paper for the catalogues, Turin bookbinding) and ship the lot to the Oval stand or the delegation hotel within a very short courier window, twenty-four hours from the Piedmontese capital. For programmes combining an Italian gallery and an international distribution partner we run bilingual materials (Italian and English at minimum) and, on request, full multilingual production with translations aligned to ISO 17100 and certified for the institutional catalogues. For programmes pairing Artissima with parallel fairs such as Flashback or DRAWING we mirror the logistics on both dates with a single operational contact and a dedicated MOQ price list for the annual volume.
The Artissima window is concentrated but the merch programme must be planned against a calendar that includes the two set-up days opening the preceding Wednesday, the invitation-only preview on Thursday, the three public opening days from Friday to Sunday, the morning curator-conversation and panel schedule, the afternoon foreign-delegation visits and the gallery gala dinners. For galleries and artists the gap between confirming the fair calendar and the Oval opening is normally under eight weeks, and any item that must be at the stand, the conversation room or the institutional room for day one must be closed and shipped at least one week before the debut. We work backwards from that moment: production must close two–three weeks before the debut; the courier slot must be booked for the Wednesday or Thursday of the Artissima week; the addressee list must be finalised at the same time as the preview calendar is confirmed; the presented artist details (name, curatorial claim, work code) only add a small print run to an already-produced neutral graphic base.
For teams following Artissima from Turin, Milan or abroad we also run a two-wave kit: a pre-Artissima wave on the Wednesday or Thursday of the fair week to the delegation hotel or to the gallery warehouse in the Crocetta or San Salvario district, and a post-Artissima wave that returns any unused material to the gallery warehouse for storage until the next edition (annual). This split is a frequent request because the visitor and accredited audience that actually takes home a coordinated Artissima memento is much smaller than the stand and conversation-room audience, and most galleries do not want surplus material left in Turin after the last day.
Gallery institutional catalogues on FSC-certified paper with hot-foil stamping and Turin artisan bookbinding, numbered and signed artist editions on Hahnemühle / Canson paper, bilingual critical texts (Italian and English) aligned to ISO 17100 for international programmes.
GOTS-certified organic cotton shoppers with water-based screen printing aligned to the gallery identity, cotton-canvas totes for the safe transport of catalogues and prints, recycled-paper shoppers for the small artist editions.
Scandicci leather folders with discreet engraving of the gallery mark, branded FSC-certified paper notebooks, metal or wood ballpoint pens, bilingual critical sheets (Italian and English), multilingual labelling on request, coordinated small stationery.
Numbered fine-art prints on Hahnemühle paper, Faenza and Caltagirone ceramics with custom glazing, blown Murano glass for unique pieces, Scandicci small leather goods with engraving of the gallery mark, reserved for the collector and museum curator.
Before starting production we close graphic masters, quantities per gallery and per recipient, packaging and named recipient. The final delivery address is locked against the gallery director or artist logistics contact calendar: the delegation reference hotel in Turin (Crocetta, Centro, San Salvario), the gallery warehouse in the Crocetta or San Salvario district, or the Milan or Rome gallery office for programmes that stay elsewhere. Oval access constraints and the Comune di Torino ZTL condition the loading slots, which is why most teams choose early-morning or after-20:00 deliveries, when commercial vehicles are again allowed in the central areas.
For an Italian programme routed through Turin the consignments are consolidated at the hub and shipped to the Oval or the hotel within 24-hour windows via BRT, SDA, GLS or DHL Express Italia, by appointment for venues that require telephone notice. For programmes above 1,000 pieces we offer appointment delivery with telephone notice and, on request, on-site set-up by our staff at the gallery stand or the conversation room. For materials that require controlled-environment conditions (fine-art prints on Hahnemühle paper, catalogues, small leather goods, Colle Val d’Elsa glass for the small sculptures, Caltagirone ceramics for the miniatures) we coordinate temperature-controlled transport with specialised partners. For kits bound for international delegations we run multilingual labelling (Italian, English, French, German, Spanish, Russian, Arabic) and tamper-evident pouch packaging with bilingual packing list in the recipient’s name, with packaging certified for the air transport of works and prints. For clients subject to CSRD reporting (D.Lgs. 125/2024, transposing Directive (EU) 2022/2464) we attach a sustainability sheet per order with a Scope 3 CO₂e estimate under the GHG Protocol Corporate Value Chain on the Lombardy–Piedmont leg and from the production supply chains involved, with material-level and leg-level breakdown usable for the client sustainability statement.
All Italian B2B orders are invoiced in EUR at the standard 22% VAT rate (with reduced 4%, 5% or 10% rates applied where the product category allows: publishing, art objects, PDO/PGI products) and routed through the Sistema di Interscambio (SdI) of the Agenzia delle Entrate to the recipient code or the buyer’s PEC address. Corp-Merch.IT is an Italian VAT-registered operator, listed in VIES for intra-EU transactions, and handles reverse charge, split payment and self-invoicing for the public administration under current Italian legislation.
Eight–ten weeks is the safest window for production on the Italian supply chains and delivery to the delegation reference hotel or to the gallery warehouse in the Crocetta or San Salvario district. Six–seven weeks work when the product mix is simple, the gallery graphics are already approved and the print runs are already defined. For galleries pairing Artissima with Flashback or DRAWING we mirror the lots across both dates with a single operational contact.
Only after the Artissima organisation confirms the set-up window, the loading lane and the named recipient. Most teams combine the Oval with a Turin hotel, the gallery office or a consolidation warehouse in the Lingotto district. For gallery gala dinners the evening before the debut we propose delivery to the restaurant or the delegation reference hotel with twenty-four hours’ telephone notice.
Yes. Individual gallery institutional catalogues, fair shoppers, VIP collector welcome kits and institutional gala kits can be packed and labelled as separate lots, with distinct delivery addresses if the gallery has more than one represented artist or more than one destination address (for example the Turin hotel for the delegation, the Crocetta gallery warehouse for the stand, the Milan office for storage). For programmes covering multiple galleries or artists we mirror the lots per gallery and consolidate in recipient-labelled crates by logistics node.
No. Corp-Merch.IT is an external, independent B2B supplier that helps contemporary art galleries, artists, curators and sponsors prepare their own merch around Artissima. It does not organise, sponsor or represent Artissima, Artissima Srl, Regione Piemonte or the Città di Torino.
Corp-Merch.IT is an external, independent B2B supplier for contemporary art galleries, artists, curators, collectors and sponsors attending Artissima. This page helps galleries, artists, curators, collectors and sponsors prepare their own merch around the fair. It does not represent Artissima, Artissima Srl, Regione Piemonte or the Città di Torino.