SENTIERO by Alex Cecchetti announced as recipient of the 10th edition of the Italian Council with work to premiere at Biennale Gherdëina and then tour Europe

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SENTIERO by #alexcecchetti is one of the winning projects of the 10th edition of the Italian Council, a programme for the international promotion of Italian art by the General Directorate for Contemporary Creativity of the Ministry of Culture. The project, curated by Valerio Del Baglivo, will be seen for the first time at the eighth edition of the Biennale Gherdëina 8 curated by Lucia Pietroiusti and Filipa Ramos. It will then continue to be exhibited with subsequent presentations in Austria, #sweden, #germany, #unitedkingdom, Switzerland and in Italy, where it will become part of the permanent collection of MUSEION - Museum of Contemporary Art in Bolzano. 

Biennale Gherdëina ∞

20 May - 25 September 2022

www.biennalegherdeina.it

SENTIERO by #alexcecchetti is one of the projects that will be part of Persones Persons, the eighth edition of Biennale Gherdëina, curated by Lucia Pietroiusti and Filipa Ramos, taking place from 20 May to 25 September 2022. Today, the artist and this project have been  announced as one of the recipients of the 10th edition of the Italian Council, the international call for proposals promoted by the General Directorate for Contemporary Creativity of the Ministry of Culture to support Italian contemporary creativity.

The environmental installation and performance by #alexcecchetti, curated by Valerio Del Baglivo, will be exhibited for the first time in Urtijëi/Ortisei and in the surrounding landscape of Gherdëina/Val Gardena, in the unique setting of the Dolomites, a Unesco World Heritage Site, as part of  Biennale Gherdëina (20 May - 25 September 2022).

After the inaugural presentation at Biennale Gherdëina 8, the project will then be shown at TAXISPALAIS Kunsthalle Tirol in Innsbruck (AT), IASPIS in Stockholm (SE), Kestner Gesellschaft in Hannover (GER), Cove Park in Argyll & Bute, Scotland (UK), Somalgors74 in Tschlin (SUI), and MAXXI L'Aquila (ITA). These presentations will take place during 2022 and 2023, with more details to be announced shortly. It will then enter the permanent collection of MUSEION - Museum of Contemporary Art in Bolzano. 

SENTIERO consists in the creation of a path surrounded by nature, which, in the words of the artist, "accompanies us in a spiritual experience of communion with the multiple forms of life of Val Gardena: an immersion in the deepest and most vital connections that hold together the life of the mountains". The work stems from the artist's reflection on the notion of a physical and imaginary journey, which has led him to create a work that is in part a community art project and an environmental art intervention, and in part an aesthetic-performative path and installation. 

SENTIERO creates a path within the Alps, reconstructing the relationship between human beings, the environment and aesthetics: this path is safeguarded by a group of local guides trained by the artist, who accompany us along the journey. Wearing costumes with designs and embroidery, the guides create choreographies inspired by the celestial movements that rhythm the seasons, tell stories, recite poetry, sing songs and invite the public to interact with the environment.

Moreover the work includes a number of installation elements that serve as 'stations' for experiencing the landscape; communing with trees and other species and observing astronomical events. Steps mark the audience's path and accompany them to the heart of the work and the experience: a YURTA, a tribute to the way of life of Central Asian nomadic peoples and entirely embroidered and painted with natural dyes from local plants, serves as a shelter to stay overnight and eat a meal of mountain herbs, the same ones that were passed along the path. SENTIERO has a nomadic identity and travels in different natural and cultural contexts, opening up a reflection on the concept of the border that characterizes the geographical area of North and South Tyrol, with the ambition to cross arbitrary demarcations and to reason about the idea of political, geographical and ontological margin.

SENTIERO is accompanied by an App for smartphones to book the visit with the guides and which will contain documentation of the project, and a forthcoming publication published by NERO.

The director of the #biennalegherdeina, Doris Ghetta, said, "With SENTIERO by #alexcecchetti, we have captured the zeitgeist of this historic era, in which the importance of having an immaterial collective experience is once again crucial, while traces will remain in the landscape and in us in the future."

Artist, poet, choreographer, gardener, #alexcecchetti develops immersive scenarios experienced as both physical and mental landscapes, exploring the relationships between the political and the imaginative, ecology and poetry, choreography and painting. Recent solo exhibitions include: Casa da Cerca, CAC (Almada, PT, 2021); Netwerk Aalst, CCA (Aalst, BE 2020), Spike Island (Bristol, UK); Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo (Torino), Centre For Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle (Warsaw, POL) in 2017. Installations and performances: MAXXI (Rome, 2021, 2020), SEMA Seoul Museum of Art (Seoul, KOR) 2020; Castello di Rivoli (2019, 2020) and Serpentine Galleries (London, UK), in 2019; Palais de Tokyo (Paris, 2017, 2014); Centre Pompidou (Paris, 2017 and 2014). Winner of the Amedeo Modigliani Prize 2020.

www.alexcecchetti.com

The project is supported by the Italian Council (10th edition, 2021), program to promote Italian contemporary art in the world by the Directorate-General for Contemporary Creativity of the Italian Ministry of Culture.