Flashback Habitat
Associate Member / Italy
Flashback Habitat is an independent art centre where art and life are linked in an indissoluble pair — an ecosystem dedicated to all contemporary cultures.
Located in a large park just a few minutes from the historic centre of Turin, the complex is composed of four pavilions:
- Pavilion A is dedicated to local artists and associations;
- Pavilion B is dedicated to exhibitions and is the venue of Flashback Art Fair — the fair where all art is contemporary (held annually);
- Pavilion C is dedicated to conviviality, with Il Circolino, which hosts the bistrot, talks, film & video screenings, a lab for children and families, and a full calendar of musical events;
- Pavilion D is still a work in progress…
- Facilities
- Art Gallery
- Meeting Room
- Workshop room
- Library
- Arts / Creative / Business / Social Incubator
- Multi-purpose Space
- Exhibition and Programming
- Education and Training
- Activities
- Exhibition and Programming
- Education and Training
- Former use of space
- Law and Government Building
- TEH Membership
That's Flashback Habitat
Ecosystem for Contemporary Cultures
Flashback Habitat was established in 2022. Covering 20,000 square metres of space on Corso Giovanni Lanza 75 in Turin, the site is currently undergoing redevelopment through the revitalising power of art and culture.
The location was formerly an orphanage. This is why Flashback Habitat’s permanent exhibition "A Better Life. Fragments of Stories of the Provincial Institute for Childhood of Turin" seeks to give voice to the many lives that intersected within the building, once the Children’s Institute of Turin, through glimpses into the stories of some of those who experienced it: the children, now adults, the nannies, and former staff.
The exhibition, curated by artist and artistic director Alessandro Bulgini, is envisioned as a collective, choral artwork where history, emotion, art and life are intertwined.
It is housed in twelve rooms on the third floor of Pavilion B, the very spaces where babies were once fed and cared for by nurses and nannies. Each room offers a self-contained world, inviting visitors to immerse themselves in the stories within.
Inaugurated in 1958 by President Gronchi, the Provincial Children’s Institute welcomed around three hundred boys and girls each year. Many were born at Corso Lanza 75 and later placed for adoption, usually before the age of three. Today, many of these individuals, now grown, return to visit Flashback Habitat and its activities, recognising in Corso Lanza their origins, their first home, and enriching the place’s renewed life with their stories and emotions.
Flashback Habitat is now an independent and open art centre with a mission to represent the complexity of the world through the arts. It is a shared house of cultures, a living space where anyone can care for and nurture the arts and creativity of people and places. It is a space to reflect on the social responsibility of creative practice and a welcoming environment where everyone can support, value and generate artistic expression. A home for those who wish to commit to art and to life.
