On Saturday 21 July 2018, at 5.30 pm at the MAIN – Maison de l’Artisanat International , Frazione Caravex Gignod, the inauguration of the new biennial exhibition will take place: B â ton Amis, curated and managed by the IVAT – Institut Valdôtain de l’Artisanat de Tradition .
The exhibition, open from Sunday 22nd July, aims to act as an “input” to give new impetus to objects that are slowly disappearing from our traditional craftsmanship. The object is analyzed from a development and renewal perspective and during the two-year period of the exhibition the assets will be gradually implemented by new acquisitions, proposing a constantly evolving cultural offer.
The thematic exhibition sees the stick as an object of interest, an artifact that in our contemporary world is slowly losing its symbolic value and social role. The stick can in fact represent, based on its function of use, the culture and era of reference, from a simple branch useful for walking in the mountains, to a complex symbol of power, war and victory.
“We have collected – says Nurye Donatoni, curator of the exhibition – works from collections of important museums and prestigious private collections, the aim is to tell through a great variety of heritages, about 400 exhibited objects, the stick in its complexity. We have exhibited very different artifacts: ritual, with important African command sticks, religious, with the precious pastorals owned by the Diocese of Aosta, the popular ones from the Aosta Valley, with the Brocherel collection and private collections, those of sport, with the sticks that made Chicco Pellegrino win in one of his important races at the Olympics, then moving on to the offensive stick, with the truncheons of the fascist era, and those of celebration, with the jesters’ marottes to end with the representations of the stick in paintings from the Plassier di La Salle collection and in photographs taken from the historical archives of the Aosta Valley”
The exhibition will be enriched by an important cultural activity with the musical review “Bastoni Sonori” curated by Selene Framarin which offers, every Saturday of the summer from 5:30 pm, concerts in which the stick comes to life through the notes. The review will see the presence, among others, of important figures in the musical panorama such as Alessandro Maiorino, Gilbert Impérial and Lorenzo Barbera.
In August, two plays are planned, proposed by the actor Andrea Damarco who, in collaboration with important figures, will represent and discuss the themes of “stick and sex” and “stick and madness”.
A series of conference meetings will finally give voice to the passion of collectors, owners of the exhibited works, and scholars who have reflected on the role and symbol of the stick object.
The exhibition can be visited from Tuesday to Sunday, from 1.00 pm to 7.00 pm.
Closed on Mondays
FREE ENTRY