archive The history and origins of Arte Sella The history of Arte Sella does not proceed in a linear fashion. It all began amid plenty of uncertainty and a variety of mistakes and strokes of luck but, over the years, ideas, emotions and love for art and nature have given rise to a Contemporary Art Biennial with an international reputation. The idea In 1986 Carlotta Strobele, originally from Austria and a graduate in philosophy, Emanuele Montibeller, a street market trader and artist from Borgo and Enrico Ferrari, an architect, painter and town planner for the local government, decided to pool their ideas and their love for art and nature by creating Arte Sella. Their main objective was to set up an association that would develop the concept of art in nature locally and thus take part in the cultural and moral renaissance on the part of contemporary art. The fact that it remained uninfluenced by collective artistic canons and was able to assimilate the new ideas that artists were putting forward in that period proved to be the making of Arte Sella. First period (1986-1990) A year passed between the idea of creating Arte Sella and devising a working plan for the exhibition. This period was necessary in order to establish the first contacts with foreign artists, with local cultural institutions and with the local people. The work and the help of Jacob De Chirico and the Associazione Amici di Borgo were of vital importance. Moreover this early phase helped to establish the main criteria of Arte Sella which would be respected in the years to come. The fundamental principles of the exhibition were set out as follows: 1) The artist is no longer the absolute protagonist as happened just a few years ago with Land Art, which was characterised by extremely “impressive” marks on the land. 2) Nature should be defended as the vessel for our memories. 3) Our relationship with the environment is changing: nature is no longer protected but interpreted in its absence, it is a fount of knowledge and of experience. 4) The art works are part of a space and time that are specific to the place where they are created. They are not part of a limited place and they favour the use of organic and not manmade materials. The works come from nature, they live in it and then over time return to it. The first exhibition was private: Carlotta Strobele made her house “Casa Strobele” and its park in Val di Sella available to the group. Emanuele Montibeller and Enrico Ferrari exhibited some of their works and called on their friends, many of whom were well-known in artistic circles outside Trentino as well, to contribute. Their objective was to “abandon the works to the decay and splendour of memory” (C. Strobele). At the beginning the people of Borgo were rather sceptical about the exhibition, to the extent that the expression “to do an Arte Sella” came to be used locally to describe strange and unusual behaviour. As the years have gone by, however, the locals have learnt to appreciate this initiative to the point of growing fond of it and making it their own. Over the years the association has grown until today there are about 20 people who give their time generously and free of charge to organise this Contemporary Art Biennial. 2nd period (1990-1996) The third exhibition showed the need for an organisation capable of dealing with the structural and managerial problems than began to arise. In October 1990 the Arte Sella Association was founded: its strength lies in having brought together different people to co-operate on a project by focusing their interests on one single aim: love for art and nature. The members of the organisation were chosen by Emanuele Montibeller according to a rather odd criterion: their curiosity with regard to nature and its “being art”. The new association was not made up solely of artists or artisans but also of ordinary people, and it was this that has given the Association its cultural and artistic originality in that both experts and non-experts have contributed, each according to their abilities. The roles inside the organisation were attributed on the basis of people’s jobs, their personal experience and their interests: the archives, administration, photography, advertising, public relations… Everybody was responsible for a specific area but the general decisions were and still are today taken together during the Association’s meetings. The help and the support, both financial and moral, of the municipality of Borgo Valsugana and the Autonomous Province of Trento were essential for the origins and development of Arte Sella’s activities. The Association also worked with other centres which had the same aims such as Le Centre d’Art de Crestet (France), Tickon (Denmark) and the Civitella d’Agliano project in Italy. In 1990 a Committee was set up with the task of evaluating artists and their works and ensuring both artistic co-ordination and international co-operation. Each year artists of international fame came and built their works in the woods of the Val di Sella, making the exhibition more and more extensive and helping to meet the expectations of the organisers. The early exhibitions were organised at Casa Strobele where the artists worked together with a strong spirit of friendship and co-operation. Georg Jappe, a member of the Arte Sella committee said that Casa Strobele was the soul of the exhibition: “We all eat together around a great wooden table in the garden, we meet around the fire in the comfortable dining room, we talk, we drink, we have a laugh until the battle for the bedrooms begins, with some people sleeping on camp beds – it’s the “fête permanente” that the artist Fluxus Robert Filliou always dreamed of – here tensions are put aside, we welcome people we only know through the mass media, they become friends and we make plans for the future together”. Arte Sella was becoming a real institution. Third period: the change (1996-2000) Since 1996 the Arte Sella project has been laid out along a path in the woods on the southern slope of the Armentera mountain. The route, named ARTENATURA (Art in Nature) is designed to enable visitors to view the artworks and at the same time enjoy the natural site itself with its different types of woods, rocks and trees. After many years of work the association had gained experience, esteem, skill and consensus such as to allow it to branch off into other directions in addition to ARTENATURA. The Association’s strengthening and diversification began in 1998 when it started to manage the Malga Costa building which, while originally designed to play a logistical role, actually ended up replacing Casa Strobele and hosting interesting initiatives such as exhibitions and concerts. In 2002 for example the English artist Sally Matthews held an exhibition entitled “Boars” in which she displayed her drawings, sketches and two sculptures of wild boars created using earth, cement and elements of the subsoil. The Malga Costa became a sort of artistic community, a place for meetings, intercultural exchanges and shared experiences as well as a space for various creative workshops. The future Today artists with different backgrounds and interests meet at Arte Sella. They live together, they get to know one another, and they create works and installations which express the bold and provocative language of contemporary art and of nature. Nobody knows what the future has in store for Arte Sella but one thing is certain: the change in mentality of certain emerging artists who are moving away from the ephemeral and who prefer to use materials from the modern period such as cement and steel, cannot endanger the core of Arte Sella. Despite its unusual nature in contemporary art, it remains a colony of artists who are convinced that the earth is not enslaved by humankind. The artists: 1986 Ulrike Bahrs Jakob de Chirico Claudio Costa Ugo Dossi Enrico Ferrari Emanuele Montibeller Raphael M. Ortiz Igor Sacharow-Ross Matthias Schönweger Peter F. Strass Brigitte Weimer 1988 Maurizio Bonato Antonio Bove Mirko Bratu_a Claudio Costa Cranach & Juco Jakob de Chirico Giuseppe Debiasi Ariane Epars Gert & Ruth Gshwerdtner Dieter Kunerth Guido Mariani Jonier Marin Kurt Matt Claudia Papi Peter F. Stauss Andrea Zago Sergio Zandonella Du_an Zidar Corrado Costa Antonio Porcelli Angelica Thomas 1990 Dominique Bailly Michele Bertolini Helmut Dirnaichner Eberhard Eckerle François Méchain Gertrude Moser-Wagner Giuliano Ortsingher Otmer Sattel Wolfgang Temmel Hervé Vachez Laszlo Bállà Johannes Heimrath Bernard Heidsieck Georg Jappe Koiné Harry Matthews Caroline Menegol Sarenco 1992 Marc Babarit & Gilles Bruni Jae Eun Choi Tonia Kudrass Giuliano Mauri Alan Sonfist Nils - Udo Robert Zahornicky Stuart Brisley Mario Ciccioli Roberto Paci Dalò Terry Fox & Claudine Denis Alain Gibertie Matthias Jackisch Jànos Szirtes 1998 Chris Booth Laura Castagno Alda Faiolini Antero Kare Richard Künz Ueno Masao Helge Røed Flora Viale Dimitri Xénakis Jeannette Zippel Thomas Neumaier, Tomas Hoke, Antera Kare, Rolph Westphal Rolf & Anti Westphal 2000 Marinette Cueco Richard Harris Giuliano Orsingher Yves Rousguisto Roy F. Staab Bob Verschueren 2002 Bruni & Babarit Paul Feichter Johann Feilacher Matilde Grau Sally Matthews Belle Shafir Steven Siegel Thierry Teneul The artists who take part in Arte Sella each year come from various European countries such as France, Germany and Austria. In fact one of the fundamental rules for the choice of an artist by the Committee, which is that the exhibition has to include representatives from the Alpine region, has been followed from the very beginning. However, the success of the project and its growing internationalisation from the time of the third exhibition, have encouraged many artists from other European and non-European countries to exhibit their works along the ARTENATURA route and in the MALGA COSTA. At the beginning the early exhibitions had a title and the artists had to interpret a specific theme. In 1994 the organisers decided that the theme from then on would be exclusively the relationship between Art and Nature. In this sense the artists were given a fair amount of freedom in the creation of their works but they had to adhere to the principle criteria of Arte Sella, creating their works while showing the greatest respect for nature and its essence. The number of artists varies each year depending on the association’s finances and the state of decay of the installations already standing along the route. As long as a work withstands the elements it stays on the ARTENATURA route and no other work can take its place. Arte Sella: a classification The interest and commitment of the organisers and the artists has allowed this ambitious project to become a high quality contemporary art exhibition that is recognised at the international level. In terms of classification, Arte Sella has not yet been “catalogued” by the people who decide these things. Indeed the exhibition cannot be considered either an outdoor museum or an ecological museum for various reasons. First of all because in an outdoor museum visitors usually find sculptures which are permanent and which are protected from anything that might damage them. In contrast, at Arte Sella, the artistic works are abandoned to nature and its life-cycle and since they are mainly made of wood, they are not eternal like a marble sculpture. Moreover, when they decay they are not rebuilt because they are destined to return to the natural environment to which they originally belonged. In addition, Arte Sella is not solely a museum without walls, as is an ecological museum. It is an exhibition of works of art amid the trees of the Val di Sella and its main aim is not to preserve the reminders of the past but to create a contemporary and future relationship between Art and Nature whilst showing the fullest respect for the surrounding area and its vegetation. To summarise, we can say that even if this is a project which is not easy to classify, Arte Sella represents the concrete achievements of the dream of three friends who have given life to one of the most important exhibitions in the Art in Nature artistic movement. Arte Sella: an example of symbiosis between art and nature The exhibition: Arte Sella is a biennial exhibition of contemporary art which began in 1986 and which gives artists from the Alpine regions an opportunity to live and work together and to offer their works to the local people and to nature lovers from the Alps. The exhibition takes place outdoors in the fields and woods of the Val di Sella, an unspoilt valley lying to the north of the small town of Borgo Valsugana. Arte Sella cannot simply be defined as an exhibition of internationally recognised works of art but also and above all as a creative process: the works are followed day by day as they are created and the artists are called upon to express their relationship with nature from which they draw inspiration – a relationship based on respect. The works are generally three-dimensional since they are made using stones, leaves, branches and tree-trunks. Only occasionally do the artists who take part in the exhibition make use of materials, objects and colours that are manmade. Each year, at the end of the exhibition, almost all of the artworks are left to decay naturally and to become part of nature’s life-cycle. Outdoors they deteriorate as a result of the passing of the seasons, until they are transformed by the surrounding environment into which they disappear forever. For example during the winter of 2002 Mikael Hansen’s work “The wall – installation for town-dwellers” from 1994 was destroyed by the wind and as a consequence removed from the exhibition. And one of the wolves made of cement and earth and part of Sally Matthew’s sculpture “Wolves” from 2002 fell over during a violent storm. Even if the fact of abandoning the works to decay naturally represents the essence of Arte Sella, some works of art can, in certain cases and for many reasons, be removed from the ARTENATURA route to begin a different journey that will take them to a museum or an art gallery in Italy or abroad. Arte Sella focuses all its activities on two main areas: ARTENATURA, the creative space along the bed of the river Moggio where the artist and nature become one, and the MALGA COSTA, a centre for events such as concerts, creative workshops and exhibitions of photography. Photography plays an essential role in Arte Sella, not just as a means of documentation, but also, given the works’ ephemeral nature, as a way of completing the work of the artists. It is only through photography that Nature can testify over time to its changing art. Arte Sella is an extraordinary expression of art which allows visitors to discover contemporary art in the heart of the countryside. Following the artworks along the Artenatura path becomes an experience, a meditation and a symbiosis. This is why visitors – more than 100,000 in 2002 - and artists from all over the world have recognised its worth and its uniqueness, transforming the initiative of a small valley in Trentino into an international and exceptional exhibition. The artists’ works: The works that the artists have created and will create in the future for Arte Sella, live in a place of peace; they exist at each hour of the day and night because they are an integral part of nature. The works which are brought into being in these places vanish, underlining the ephemeral nature of human existence and of the materials used (wood, dry branches, leaves, roots) which decay and return to nature’s life-cycle. Working in the heart of the countryside in one of the loveliest valleys in Trentino, the artists have the chance to discover “nature’s essence” and to express their unusual conception of art through their works. And it is only by living in this place, experiencing it and getting to know the locals that the artist can create something astonishing which is at the same time in perfect symbiosis with the surrounding environment. Nobody arrives here with a “prefabricated” work as this would in fact spoil the harmony of the site and creating art in nature and with nature would not make any sense. The criteria: What is important for Arte Sella is not just the art object in itself but rather the moment in which this work lives with nature and the person who built it and the people who contemplate it. It is no longer about a type of art lived subjectively like in museums: here the art object can be touched by visitors. This behaviour is encouraged by “labels” in wood which invite people to stroke the works or to “play” them (where possible) so that they can fully appreciate the emotions and the sensations that the artist wanted to convey. Because the works are constantly changing and are subject to the elements, the perception of them also changes from season to season, according to the time of day or night and they cannot in any way return to their original condition. Here we are not talking about “restoration”, indeed the work must be “cultivated”. This cultivation does not imply the conservation of the object but simply the maintenance of the message linked to the work for as long as the work can withstand the weather, without interfering in its survival. On the basis of all these fundamental principles, the organisers of Arte Sella established several criteria at the outset which have been followed and respected through all the years of existence of the exhibition: the work of art as the only true protagonist of the exhibition, respect for nature and the environment, the exclusive use of organic and not manmade materials and the exhibition as a creative process. Also of fundamental importance is the need to protect and support – by limiting the number of visitors – the fragile environment which is an integral and fundamental part of the valley and the project itself. The success of the exhibition has encouraged the organisers to introduce a fee of 3 Euros for the car park and to visit the Tree Cathedral. However, visitors can still follow the ARTENATURA route free of charge. In addition, the exhibition is totally free from the point of view of rules and behaviour: visitors do not have to obey any rules as they do in museums, they simply have to respect and contemplate nature. Their love for this place and for their roots are the reasons that encourage the organisers to continue their commitment and co-operation each day: they see the area with different eyes, they work it and they give it to others so that they may see it in an unusual and extraordinary light. Discovering Arte Sella The Arte Natura path: in the woods of the Val di Sella visitors can appreciate a rare and gratifying itinerary: the ARTENATURA route. This is a path which can hardly be called a walk in the traditional sense but which takes you on an unforgettable journey through nature and its sounds and through art and its colours. The discovery of a living, unspoilt wood with its stones smelling of moss and with its majestic trees, will help you savour even more fully the appeal and the harmony of the artworks which, since 1986, are created and die against a backdrop of stunning beauty. STARTING AND FINISHING POINTS: Val di Sella (municipality of Borgo Valsugana) DURATION: 2 h 30 LEVEL OF TECHNICAL DIFFICULTY: none LENGTH: 3 km GRADIENT: slight incline The starting point for the ARTENATURA course lies near the Strobela bridge opposite the Baita Negritella bar and is marked by a round gateway made with roots and branches of apple trees and hornbeams (Disque Thierry Teneul 2002). The works lie along a path in the woods which carries on for two kilometres on the slope of the Armentera mountain. Following the dirt track visitors can admire both the installations along the route and the works hidden in the marvels of the woods. When you get to the work by Matilde Grau, “Intersticios”, the route changes. You follow a narrow but lovely beaten earth track until you come to the biotope which has an interesting Alpine pool in which Arte Sella has left its mark. Once you come to the road, follow it past the wide fields and centuries-old trees to the Malga Costa. Here you can visit the annual exhibition (July-September) and then continue through the woods until you come to the magnificent Tree Cathedral, a monumental work created in 2002 by the Italian artist Giuliano Mauri. Malga Costa: This is a rustic building which used to be used by shepherds in spring and summer for their herds of cows and for butter and cheese-making. In 1998 the organisers of Arte Sella decided to purchase this building and to transform it into the Arte Sella Documentation Centre. Thus every year visitors can learn about Arte Sella not only by following the ARTENATURA route but also by coming to concerts, plays, creative workshops and photographic exhibitions. During the summer of 2003, for example, the Malga Costa hosted an important exhibition of photographs: “Nests” by Nils Udo. This contemporary artist uses his body as the main instrument for his art. In 1978 in Lüneberg Heide (Germany), he built an enormous nest (10 metres in diameter) of dry branches, earth and stone and had himself photographed curled up nude at the bottom of it. Text taken with kind permission of the author from the degree dissertation “Un évènement culturel en Valsugana: Arte Sella exposition d’art contemporain” by Lorenza Trentinaglia. The Tree Cathedral Giuliano Mauri The “Tree Cathedral”, designed by Giuliano Mauri from Lombardy in Italy, , was the main project for the Arte Sella exhibition in 2001 as part of the “Art in Nature International Meetings” and it was created with the fundamental assistance of the Environmental Department of the Autonomous Province of Trento. It stands near Malga Costa and is the same size as a real Gothic cathedral. It has three naves made up of eighty columns of intertwined branches which are twelve metres high and one metre in diameter; inside each column stands a young hornbeam. These trees will grow about 50 centimetres a year and, with pruning, in a few years they will make a true “Tree Cathedral”. The whole structure covers an area of 82 meters by fifteen, is twelve metres high and occupies an area of 1,230 square metres. Over the years the protective wooden structures placed around the trees to help them grow will rot and fall away; then nature will have the upper hand. A trace of the dialogue with people will remain however that nature will not forget. Giuliano Mauri: “Within these protective wooden structures that I am putting in place there will be hornbeams. I’m building these structures to help the plants in the twenty or so years it takes them to become adult trees. After this time the structures will rot and return to the earth. In their place, with annual pruning, will stand eighty trees rather like columns that will bring to mind my work. Four lines of trees for the cathedral that I have always dreamed of. In twenty years people will realise that here we have the creation of nature which conversed with people. Which is what people have always done – conversed with nature. We forget because we do not know any more how to hold that dialogue.” Born in Lodi Vecchio in 1938, Mauri has exhibited his work at numerous outdoor exhibitions and at museums. He has taken part in prestigious exhibitions such as the Venice Biennial in 1976, the Milan Triennial in 1992 and the Penne Biennial in 1994. His works in the last twenty years include the great “Windmills” whose sails turn in an imaginary wind, “Stairway to Heaven ” which is 140 metres long and “Wood on the island” at the source of the Tormo river in the Lodi area. More recently there is the “Observatories for appraisal” in Gorliz in Germany and Sgorzelec in Poland, built to encourage the people of these two border areas to observe one another and leave behind a history that has pitted them one against the other. In the summer of 2001 Giuliano Mauri was working on two new projects: in addition to the “Tree Cathedral” for Arte Sella, he created the stage design for the Opera “Norma” for Claudio Abbado in the spheristerion in Macerata..