TRENTINO, A PLACE WHERE ART AND NATURE MEET

If it’s true that art imitates nature, in Trentino – among Alpine lakes, babbling brooks, alpine pastures, glaciers and ancient woodlands – there is no shortage of sources of inspiration. So it’s not surprising that artists from all over the world are being drawn to this “place for the soul”, creating works that are stimulating an ever-expanding range of cultural activities. Throughout the year, festivals, concerts, installations and exhibition routes immersed in nature allow visitors to enjoy the unique experience of seeing, hearing and touching the results of the union between art and the landscape in this area crowned by the Dolomites, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The beauty of art; the harmony of nature

Arte Sella in Valsugana was conceived as a path through the trees of an ancient woodland, concealing artistic creations made exclusively with natural elements, where artistic creation is thus skilfully blended with the beauty of the land, in search of new aesthetic forms. Branches, leaves, stones, grass and tree trunks are the raw materials with which more than 300 artists from all over the world have created an open-air exhibition that changes with the seasons. It can be visited by following the “Sentiero Montura”, a nature trail in the Val di Sella of about 4 km that can be explored on foot all year round. It connects the two main exhibition areas, the garden of Villa Strobele and Malga Costa. The walk is suitable for families and hikers of all ages. Along the way, you can see the works of Shally Matthews and the artists’ benches that form part of the Arte Sella Benchmark project. The Area of Malga Costa offers visitors the opportunity to immerse themselves in a large park and discover monumental works of art, including the Cattedrale Vegetale (Tree Cathedral), the Arte Sella Theatre, the Terzo Paradiso (Third Paradise) and the Trabucco di Montagna (a fisherman’s stilt house in the mountains). An alternative route is to visit the Gardens of Villa Strobele, the place where Arte Sella was born in 1986. Some of the more recent works can now be seen in the villa gardens; notably, the installations created in collaboration with internationally renowned architects – including Kengo Kuma, Eduardo Souto de Moura, Michele de Lucchi – thanks to the partnership with the Polytechnic University of Milan. A new artistic project, called Sky Museum, has also been launched together with the Municipality of Borgo Valsugana: for the first time, Arte Sella has tackled the urban space of the town, creating a path to enhance the architectural and landscape qualities of the historic centre. www.artesella.it

Also in Trentino, art lovers can visit the high-altitude art park RespirArt in Pampeago, where works of art are set against the peaks of the Dolomites, at an altitude of 2,000 to 2,200 metres. The result of a project by journalist and art curator Beatrice Calamari and artist Marco Nones, it leads you on a three-kilometre circular route to discover art installations. The works, created by internationally renowned artists, forge a dialogue with the peaks of the Latemar Dolomites, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. As of summer 2022, RespirArt is the only art park that you can also listen to, thanks to an audio system via a smartphone and acoustic headphones that connects to the art installation. There are 16 works of sound inspired by the 16 installations along the park’s route, creating an immersive experience, inspired by “listening” to art gestures. It has been developed with the 3D Sound technique, which enables you to hear spatial audio perceived at 360 degrees. www.respirart.com

In the Valli Giudicarie, Bosco Arte Stenico offers an easy walk, which is also accessible to accompanied disabled persons, and allows visitors to explore the symbolic language of contemporary art along a path through the forest, with works of art among the grass, trunks and branches, in dialogue with each other and with visitors.

www.boscoartestenico.eu

Symbols of rebirth

Out of destruction, nature can be reborn with beauty and pride. Marco Martalar, a wood artist from the Altopiano dei Sette Comuni, is firmly convinced of this. After Storm Vaia in 2018, he transformed the wood that had crash-landed in the mighty wind that had torn through the forests of Veneto and Trentino that night into works of art. His most monumental work is the Drago Alato di Vaia (the Winged Dragon of Vaia), erected on the Cima Tablàt above the village of Magrè, part of the municipality of Lavarone in the Alpe Cimbra. It’s the largest wooden dragon in the world. It took months of work, 3,000 screws and 2,000 pieces of wood debris from the devastation of Vaia. The Dragon is more than 6 metres high and 7 metres long. You can reach it from the hamlet of Slaghenaufi by following the signs for the Chalet Tana Incantata, where you can leave your car and continue on foot to the hamlet of Magré. Or take the Tablat chairlift up to Bertoldi and then continue on a short, scenic walk.

After the dragon, Marco Martalar also made the Cervo di Vaia (Deer of Vaia) in the Alpe Cimbra, located among the meadows around the Millegrobbe hut, and in September 2022 the great Lupa del Lagorai (Wolf of the Lagorai) in Panarotta, at the Pian della Casara near Vetriolo Terme, above Levico Terme. You can reach this sculpture by parking at the Alpine Taste hut in Vetriolo Terme (formerly Maso Vetriolo Vecchio), and from there it is an easy 1 km walk of about 15-20 minutes along a forest track. In Val di Fassa, meanwhile, other giant animals and wooden figures dominate the high-altitude pastures in the Buffaure area. These include the Bregostana – a witch of Ladin lore – a pack of wolves and an eagle. They are the work of sculptor Francesco “Franz” Avancini and are also made from wood from the debris of Storm Vaia salvaged from the forests in the valley.

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