Spazi Livio Rossi Click here to return to the home page of the exhibition areas. The exhibition and information area of Arte Sella. Where: Corso Ausugum 55-57, Borgo Valsugana (Tn). Opening time: Wednesday from 10:00 a.m. until 12:00 a.m. and from 4:00 p.m. until 8:00p.m.; Thursday and Saturday from 4:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.; Sunday from10.00 a.m until 12.00 a.m. (Monday and Tuesday closed). Information: (+39) 0461 751251 - (+39) 339 2099226. Arte Sella at Spazi Livio Rossi Since it was founded in 1986, the cultural association Arte Sella aims at organising and promoting its contemporary art events in the natural landscape of the Sella Valley (Borgo Valsugana municipality, in the Province of Trento). Arte Sella is responsible for the Arte Natura(Art in nature) route ,organises the exhibition centre in Malga Costa (Costa shepherd’s hut area) during the summertime and the events at the Cattedrale Vegetale (Tree Cathedral), the greatest attraction of Arte Sella, which was created in 2001 in the Malga Costa by Giuliano Mauri Alongside the usual activities of the Association, a substantial cooperation network has been set up in the last few years involving musicians, entertainers, photographers and other professional artists from various cultural fields (architecture, design, cinema, landscaping, art-therapy, collecting activities). Arte Sella has also favoured important events of experimentation and creative growth  within an artistic and cultural context deriving from its contemporary art route. Alongside the activities in the Sella Valley mentioned above, 2006 saw the opening of a new exhibition room in the Borgo Valsugana historic centre. This is a place of architectonical importance, situated in the main street which also has a cultural value, as it has been seat of an ancient library and of an important craft workshop since the beginning of the last century. The Rossi family intended to increase the value of the building they owned and put it to the community’s disposal. The Arte Sella Association welcomed and accepted this initiative aiming at reviving an area full of potentials: The Spazi Livio Rossi host the new administrative and management seat of the Arte Sella Association and a permanent exhibition centre. A consulting centre exists for University students who want to learn more about the history and the activities of the exhibition, be it through the documentary material published by the Association or through the catalogues and specific publications collected year by year. Meetings, debates, lectures, public events, music performances give life to the area on any possible occasion. The top floor of the building hosts creative workshops for children and adults organized and held by the triFOLIUM Association which has been responsible for the Arte Sella didactic initiatives for quite a long time. The proposals are diversified, consistent with and related to the inspiring principles of the Arte Sella project. Our intention is to meet the community’s needs for creative and artistic expression, ranging from literature to the history and study of different techniques and materials.. Spazi Livio Rossi: the past The Rossi family’s building is situated in corso Ausugum in the Borgo Valsugana histroric centre and has a long and fascinating history, which comprises several generations of the Rossi family who have managed to turn this place into an adequate seat for their own activities and, most importantly, for the development of  their own interests and passions. The Rossi Family moves to Borgo at the end of the 19th century, as Mario Rossi, grandfather of the present owner of the building, Ivo Rossi, decides to open up his own family business. Mario descends from a family of silk traders from Parma who moved to Trento at the beginning of the 18th century. After working as a shop assistant at the Chesani emporium in Trento, Mario decides to open up his own business and decides Borgo Valsugana is the right place where to open an emporium of non perishable goods. The choice of the place is a strategic one, being Borgo the basis to conquer the markets of the Bassa Valsugana valley, Tesino, Vanoi and Primiero. Mario rides his horse from market to market together with his assistants to collect customers’ orders and to deliver the goods personally. The trade activity comes to a halt when the first World War breaks out: Mario joins the Austrian army, his family is evacuated to Piedmont and the family building is occupied by the Austrian Army. At the end of the war, in the 20’s, the family business recovers and reaches its peak in the 30’s. In this period Mario develops his most creative phase and opens up a chair maker’s workshop. He draws the chairs himself and makes them also thanks to innovative machineries imported from Germany. His chairs are modern and artistic objects which become so successful that they are even exported to the Italian colonies in Africa. Today some of the original chairs, the drawings and the documentation of the commercial activity are kept inside the building. At the beginning of World War II the family business comes to a standstill again because Livio Rossi, Mario’s son and manager of the emporium and of the workshop together with his father, is recalled to the Army. At the end of the war, after Mario Rossi’s death, his son Livio is still working for the family business. The chair maker’s workshop is no longer profitable, being the market demand changed. For this reason the workshop is definitively closed down in the late 60’s. Differently from his father, who was a trader and a brave undertaker, Livio is a passionate humanist, fond of learning and researching; he becomes one of the cultural exponents in Borgo and transforms his shop into a reference point for all the people fond of culture and art. Livio goes on managing the emporium, but he also dedicates himself to his great passion: the ex libris. His love for these objects leads him to the world of creators and collectors of this kind of books, till he eventually sets up an international network of contacts all over Europe and with Eastern European countries and Russia in particular. The letter, information and material exchanges with other people keen on ex libris, particularly Russian collectors, are so important to Livio that he begins to learn Russian at the age of 80. Nowadays the building hosts the whole collection which amounts to about 5000 ex libris and has been filed by Livio Rossi himself according to their country of origin. Spazi Livio Rossi. The present and the future Ivo, Livio’s son, decides to go a different way from that of his predecessors and closes the family business down: in the last years the building has been rented and hosts shops whose owners are not related to the family. Today Ivo Rossi wants to bring the building back to its cultural origin in order to continue a tradition handed on from father to son. The starting point of this new project cannot be but reviving the memory of a place which has a lot to tell as have the people who have loved and lived it. Ivo’s will has met the new needs of the Association, which in the last few years has widened its range of cultural interests and hopes to contribute to the improvement of the Borgo Valsugana historic centre and to reach a wider and interested number of citizens. This way an old relationship is restored: the Association recalls with affection how Livio Rossi gave legal support to the new born Arte Sella Association when he was President of the Amici di Borgo Association. He welcomed the new cultural project within his Association, thus showing trust, open-mindedness, intelligence and far-sightedness. The name chosen wants to be a sign of respect for the existing relationship with a single person who also represents a sense of being and belonging typical of the Borgo community. Arte Sella intends to organize photography or contemporary art exhibitions to recall and safeguard those local memories made of respect for the environment considered as nature, community life and historic context. An exhibition of ex libris is also scheduled to celebrate the quantity and richness of the collection, the amount of cultural exchanges which took place meanwhile and, last but not least, the aesthetic and artistic value of several pieces. Part of the collected material may be destined to the creation of an archive dedicated to collectors among others. Events and exhibitions in the calendar section