The inauguration in Bene Vagienna of Piazza del Chafleo, the work by Colombian artist Iván Argote, is the culminating moment of the third edition of Radis, the art for public space project conceived and supported by Fondazione Arte CRT, the art-oriented arm of Fondazione CRT, in collaboration with Fondazione CRC.
The public opening will be held on Sunday, 11 October at 11.30 am. The artist Iván Argote and curator Marta Papini will be present along with representatives from the institutions and local authorities. The project will be introduced by Patrizia Sandretto Re Rebaudengo (president of Fondazione Arte CRT), Mauro Gola (president of Fondazione CRC), Claudio Ambrogio (mayor of Bene Vagienna) and Ambassador Juan José Páez Pinzón (Consul General of the Republic of Colombia). The day will continue with the opening of the exhibition La mano sinistra del buio (The Left Hand of Darkness) at Palazzo Lucerna di Rorà and with refreshments at the Palazzetto dello Sport.
‘When art encounters public space, it becomes an experience that belongs to everyone’ states Anna Maria Poggi, president of Fondazione CRT. ‘And that’s what happens with Radis, a project that brings contemporary art to the spaces of everyday life and transforms them into opportunities for encounter, curiosity and wonder. The work created for this edition fully interprets this spirit: it dialogues with the surrounding environment and offers locals and visitors a new way of looking at the area. For Fondazione CRT and its art-oriented arm, Fondazione Arte CRT, making art accessible means just this: ensuring that cultural heritage is not something to be observed from a distance, but a living presence that creates connections and a feeling of belonging.’
‘We are delighted to launch the third edition of Radis, inaugurating the work through which Iván Argote reconceived the public space of Bene Vagienna, transforming it into an art piazza, a place full of imagination, for socialising and hospitality. I am certain that this artwork-piazza will become part of local everyday life, just as happened in Rittana with the work of Giulia Cenci, installed in a birch wood, and in Dogliani with the giant sculpture by Petrit Halilaj in the field in Borgata Valdibà’, states Patrizia Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, president of Fondazione Arte CRT. ‘With Radis, since 2024, the Fondazione decided to expand its field of action on a regional scale, involving public spaces and local communities in the creation of new contemporary art. For Radis, the conception and creation of the work are special opportunities for building around it a complex journey of knowledge, through educational activities for local schools and other activities and events designed for different audiences. In Bene Vagienna, we were able to do this thanks to dialogue with the mayor, Claudio Ambrogio, and being able to count on the concrete, participatory and invaluable support of Fondazione CRC and its president, Mauro Gola. Thanks to the curator, Marta Papini, her team and the artist Iván Argote for having accepted this new challenge with enthusiasm, intelligence and commitment. Thanks to Fondazione CRT and its president, Anna Maria Poggi, for having unreservedly shared the project’s goals.’
Curated, as the previous editions, by Marta Papini, the work for the third edition was created in Bene Vagienna, in the space known as ‘la rotonda’ (the rotunda). The installation will remain the property of Fondazione Arte CRT, on loan to the town of Bene Vagienna.
Piazza del Chafleo is the realisation of a project artist Iván Argote has been developing since 2016. In 2019, the artist created a video in which he imagined the many possible meanings of the verb ‘chafleare’, which he invented. ‘Chafleare’ is a neologism, the definition of which remains deliberately open. Instead of installing a monument to commemorate a person or event from the past, Iván Argote transforms the space known as ‘the rotonda’ into a square that takes the name of a new word that will acquire meaning gradually, depending on how people use this place. If people come to kiss, ‘chafleare’ will mean ‘kiss’; if people come to protest, it will mean ‘protest’. The work overturns the logic of the traditional monument, which locks in who and what is commemorated, giving it back to the people who use and pass through the space, transforming the square into an open question about how we choose to be together, symbolically and physically.
The Piazza del Chafleo comprises three sculptural elements in pink cement: a monumental stair for contemplating the landscape from a new perspective; a curved structure that ev okes the ruins of the nearby ancient Roman amphitheatre, conceived as a place for gathering, and a fountain with water that exists only if you are able to imagine it. Three round plaques arranged on the ground like traditional manhole covers, stimulate the imagination, evoking the rules for a kind of teleporting game. Three short inscriptions on the benches – ‘Ti ricordi la prima volta che abbiamo chafleato qui?’ ‘Do you remember the first time we chaffled here?’ – invite each person to interpret, in their own way, the meaning of the verb ‘chafleare’. As in all squares, the Piazza del Chafleo is filled with pigeons: the gilded sculpture of a giant pigeon, relaxing among the trees in the square, is dedicated to them. The pigeon is of special importance to Iván Argote, who has chosen it as an icon symbolising the marginalised. Here, it is the first inhabitant of the square and suggests to visitors a possible way of using its elements.
‘I have been working on the idea of creating the Piazza del Chafleo for almost ten years. A place whose name comes from an imaginary verb that I hope will gain meaning through the way the space is used’, Iván Argote explains, ‘In other words, it is an invitation to imagine the meaning of a new verb through the use of a square. The Radis project has made it possible for this idea to become reality: the Piazza del Chafleo now exists.’
‘Making room for the imagination in public space is a form of resistance against the dominant narratives, similar to the way in which Giulia Cenci’s le masche appear to visitors in the Chiot Rosa clearing (Rittana) and the fantasies of children filled the school designed in the air by Petrit Halilaj in Borgata Valdibà (Dogliani). With the irony, lightness and ‘radical tenderness’ that define Argote’s practice, Piazza del Chafleo invites residents to reimagine and give new meaning to shared space, finding in it a new place for gathering and community’, explains the curator, Marta Papini.
Also on Sunday 11 October, together with Iván Argote’s work, the exhibition La mano sinistra del buio (The Left Hand of Darkness), curated by Marta Papini, will open at Palazzo Lucerna di Rorà in Bene Vagienna. This exhibition features works from the collections of Fondazione Arte CRT and Fondazione CRC, with the aim of making them available to audiences across Piedmont. The title references the celebrated science-fiction book by Ursula K. Le Guin, published in 1969. It is set on a frozen planet called Gethen, the inhabitants of which do not have a fixed gender, taking on male or female characteristics for brief periods during fertility cycles. Similarly, the exhibition explores the life of what resides beyond the borders of the tangible and classifiable: underground or underwater, in the future or in the past, in outer space or on our planet, the works on view investigate a non-binary way of interpreting the world, in dialectical relation with the nature of Palazzo Lucerna in Rorà, which houses a city archaeological museum in which every object is classified, ordered and catalogued. The exhibition includes works by Francesco Cavaliere, Patricia Domínguez, Regina de Miguel, Aleksandra Mir, Isadora Neves Marques and Diego Perrone and will be on view until 6 December 2026.
‘The third edition of Radis consolidates our fruitful collaboration with Fondazione Arte CRT, confirming our shared commitment to making art a strategic tool for creating community and promoting our regions’, states Mauro Gola, president of Fondazione CRC. ‘The rich programme of events, which began in the months preceding the inauguration and will conclude in the coming weeks, have made it possible for Radis, through broad collaboration with local bodies and associations, to grow in terms of rootedness and ability to engage different audiences.’
‘I am honoured, in the name of my administration and the whole community, to host in Bene Vagienna such an important work’, states Claudio Ambrogio, mayor of Bene Vagienna. ‘A work that is not just beautiful, but that will increase the visibility of our city, bringing culture and tourism. My heartfelt thanks to those who made all this possible: to President Patrizia Re Rebaudengo, to the President of Fondazione CRC, Mauro Gola, to the artist Iván Argote for his extraordinary talent, to the curator Marta Papini for her invaluable vision, to the Technical Office of the Municipality for its tireless work, and to all those who in various ways contributed to realising such a beautiful and important work for Bene Vagienna. Heartfelt thanks to everyone.’
Radis, a word that derives from the Piedmontese term for ‘root’, was created to bring contemporary art to a broad public and engage with unconventional contexts. The project is divided into four parts: the commission of permanent public artworks; an education programme for schools curated by Felìz Impresa Culturale Creativa, which will continue after the work is installed; the exhibition; and a public programme aimed to engage the public in the lead up to the opening of Iván Argote’s work. In addition to the new edition of Supercondominio, the public programme included the series of events Opere Vive. Percorsi di valorizzazione arte pubblica del cuneese, an initiative created by the cultural association ART.UR that aims to introduce the artistic projects found across the province of Cuneo, focusing on the deep tie with and active participation of the local communities that live with these works. The series will conclude on 25 October in Dogliani with an event devoted to Abetare (a day at the school), 2025. Doodles and Drawings from Schools in Dogliani and the Balkans, the work created by Kosovo artist Petrit Halilaj in Borgata Valdibà (Dogliani) for the second edition of Radis. On 27 October, a workshop for children, Activissime, will be held in Bene Vagienna and led by Iván Argote with the collaboration of Felìz Impresa Culturale Creativa.
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Piazza del Chafleo (2026) di Iván Argote
Photo credit: Andrea Guermani
