Radis

The location 

The site chosen for the intervention is Chiot Rosa, a clearing dotted with birch trees in the municipality of Rittana, 1,200 metres above sea level. It is a meeting place for mountain lovers, thanks to the paths that wind from here along the ridges and valleys of the area. They lead to the Borgata Paraloup, a small group of houses where the resistance to Nazi Fascism was organised between 1943 and 1944. Since 2006, the hamlet has been acquired and rebuilt by the Nuto Revelli Foundation through an innovative and sustainable architectural project.

During the twentieth century, the mountain and hill areas of the province of Cuneo, where Rittana is located, underwent a massive phenomenon of depopulation that continues to this day. After the Second World War, industrialisation forced people to move from the mountains to the plains, where large factories offered more job opportunities. This phenomenon profoundly changed the relationship between the inhabitants, domestic and wild animals, and the natural environment itself, which went from being devoted to pastoralism to being wooded.

The Artist

Giulia Cenci works in dialogue with the territory and its inhabitants to develop a site-specific project that takes into account the history and characteristics of the place. In her works, Cenci hybridises the human world with the animal and plant worlds, creating installations with post-apocalyptic atmospheres that blur the boundaries between the natural and the artificial. Cenci uses recycled materials, such as agricultural waste or car wrecks, as well as fragments of animal and human prototypes, which he assembles and fuses into complex sculptures in which handicraft and serial production coexist. His interest in places on the border between nature and anthropisation, and his research into the relationship between humans, animals and the natural environment, were the reasons for his selection for the first edition of Radis.

Educational programme, public program and group exhibition

The educational programme, developed by Feliz in collaboration with the association La Scatola Gialla, will be offered free of charge to schools in the area. It will begin with the creation of Attesa, a course designed to introduce primary school children to Giulia Cenci’s public art and research. The programme will continue throughout the 2024-25 school year with activities and workshops for students of all ages.
The public program, designed by the curator in dialogue with the artist, is a way of approaching the work and exploring the poetics of Giulia Cenci and the history of the area. The dates will be announced before the summer and will take place in Rittana and Cuneo.

The first event in the public programme will be a group exhibition opening on 14 July. The selection of works, drawn from the collections of the Fondazione per l’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea CRT and the Fondazione CRC, is the result of a dialogue between the artist and the curatorial team.

Publications

Il Diario di Radis (The Radis’ Diary) is a collection of six texts published monthly in the columns of Il Giornale dell’Arte, providing a progressive account of the project from different angles, from the territory to the didactic and participatory projects, to Giulia Cenci’s work, the masche. The Radis Diary is therefore intended to recount the project in its different levels of reading and the Italian digital format can be downloaded in HERE.

Il Chiot Rosa clearing and the work by Giulia Cenci are part of the Mappatura dell’arte nei luoghi della Provincia di Cuneo (Mapping of Art in the Places of the Province of Cuneo), curated by Vittoria Martini. This research (the Italian digital format can be downloaded HERE) tells of the works of art in the territory of Cuneo and the way in which they have been commissioned over the years. The mapping reveals the attention given to culture in this specific territory and tells of a virtuous model of commissioning for public space.

Download the press kit

Identity design by Fionda