Italy is known throughout the world for its art. But it is the art of centuries past. We live off a tourism that comes to see what others created before us, while the villages where that beauty was born empty out, grow old and close. We believe that culture is not only something to inherit and safeguard, but something to make, today — and that the right place to begin again is precisely the most fragile of places.
We imagine a contemporary art that lives not only in the galleries of the great cities, but in the squares and alleyways of small villages. Our vision is not to impose a single, global style: it is the opposite. The world's richness lies in its distinct cultures, and drawing out the roots of a place is the most authentic way to speak to everyone.
Inland areas cover roughly 60% of the territory. Thousands of small towns are losing population: the young leave, the houses stand empty. A community is lost, along with a heritage of knowledge and crafts.
We celebrate our extraordinary past, yet we produce very little contemporary creation, concentrated in a few places. For most people, the art of today feels distant.
A recurring, itinerant art event that each time chooses a village, lights it up, and leaves it an open-air museum as its legacy. Two phases: the creation and the legacy. Then the format repeats, in another village. Each edition lights up a new place; every village that has already hosted keeps its museum.
The artist arrives from elsewhere, with an idea and a way of seeing. The village's artisan — the one who knows the stone, the clay, the iron, and the stories of the place — becomes the guide toward the soul of the territory. From that meeting a work is born that carries roots, and those roots become shared heritage. Those who visit see not only a work: they see where it comes from.
When the project succeeds, a village changes its face: abandoned houses become museums and studios, the young find a reason to stay or return, the workshops come alive again.
The project will be run by a non-profit entity (social enterprise / Third Sector entity): no profits to private individuals, every surplus reinvested. Its sustainability rests on a mixed finance: base access is free; revenue comes from the experiential levels, from merchandising and the artisans' works, from sponsorships and Art Bonus, and from public funding at the outset. The village benefits first.
It grows from a group of young founders who bring vision, strategy and organization — and who are, themselves, the generation the project speaks of: young Italians who choose to create, and not only to inherit.