ABOUT

The Biennale Gherdëina was founded by Doris Ghetta in 2008 as a MANIFESTA 7 fringe event. Drawing inspiration from the spirit and intent of MANIFESTA 7 to raise the profile of Alto Adige/South Tyrol as a region brimming with contemporary culture. Over the years, Biennale Gherdëina has grown exponentially, acquiring international resonance and affirming itself as a biennial contemporary art event in the public space.

Through the production, diffusion and communication of works created specifically in relation to the region’s space and culture, Biennale Gherdëina stimulates reflection and raises public awareness by highlighting the richness of the landscape and the culture of the local area.

Close cooperation between our region’s artisans, sculptors, professionals and international bodies in the sector offers a unique opportunity for research and development, as well as raising awareness of the area’s boundless treasures. Biennale Gherdëina provides an opportunity for social development and education in the name of art through a series of fringe events, such as talks by artists and conferences, plus related publications.

The importance of public art – culture is us.

Public art is a key tool for an evolving culture: it reflects on society, adds meaning to places by highlighting their uniqueness, and has the power to act as an intersection between past, present, future, and between various disciplines and ideas.

The artists of Biennale Gherdëina not only enjoy the aesthetic quality and benefits of exhibiting in public places. By working directly with local designers, artisans, architects and personalities, they also contribute to the development of the identity of a region that is a UNESCO World Heritage site. Each artist inevitably projects their own personality on ideas, sites and social constructions and thus, through art, supports alternative perspectives to reawaken and, at the same time, challenge the community’s assumptions, beliefs and values.

Public art is a reflection of its place and its time. It acts as a signpost in all human settlements. Artworks thus become emblems, interweaving with our images of places. Even when they are only temporary, captured in postcards and photograph albums they become memorable moments in time. 

In addition to counting on a great many private supporters,
why does the Biennale Gherdëina need public support too?

The Biennale produces works of educational value which, insofar as they are offered to citizens free of charge, thus become a common good. The event is in no way exclusive since anyone can take part, both actively and passively.

Why the Gherdëina, the Val Gardena?

Ladinia in the Dolomites is an example of an area in which three cultures have merged – while respecting each of their specific characters – for decades (the CAI and Alpenverein Alpine associations joined together as ‘Lia da mont’ back in 1958). The Biennale is also an example of a veritable fusion of the cultures of Alto Adige. Given its location, it is no coincidence that past editions of the event were visited by a public not only from all over the local area itself but also from the whole Tyrol-South Tyrol-Trentino Euroregion – proof of the fact that collaboration can reach out beyond borders.

Ladinia is a special and unique terrain for the experimentation necessary for a site-specific public art project. The area stands out not only for the major role the linguistic factor plays there, but also for the immense culture – rooted in mountain agriculture and artistic handicrafts – that it has developed in the course of the centuries. These two specific ambits demonstrate how nature and culture have to proceed at the same rate. Architecture is a clear example of this mechanism: it represents a harmonious link between human being and landscape, a vital relationship that the Biennale Gherdëina is keen to revive by joining the immaterial with the material, without any trivialisation of the local area. The hospitable Val Gardena possesses a great variety of traditions and an enormous artistic and cultural heritage. The task of the Biennale Gherdëina project is to improve perception of the valley’s cultural value and understanding of current complex historical-cultural problems by making the population aware of the importance of and need for conservation, not only through research work but also adopting a virtual, participatory, emotional approach.

Education is a long-term project:

At the moment in which it was conceived, what we refer to today as tradition was innovation

Learning takes place when questions are asked. When we educate our way of seeing, we may be prompted to ask vital and primary questions about ourselves and what surrounds us. An art exhibition in public spaces such as the Biennale Gherdëina guides public education towards innovation and creates learning opportunities; from didactics to aesthetics, it contemplates the undeniable role that cultural memory plays in reproducing and maintaining the identity of the people of the Alto Adige region, reverberating memory through  symbolic forms of language, arts, myths, rites, dances and costumes of our culture. 

The Biennale Gherdëina is repeated every two years to allow it to develop, exteriorise and materialise public trust and to make the community aware that it belongs to an exceptional, special culture through events, places and writing By attaching great importance to the value of research and education, the Biennale Gherdëina project seeks not only to rediscover the area’s roots but also to allow those who approach it with the right spirit to ‘take flight’.