"Masks" among the trees: in Piedmont, Giulia Cenci's new work.

Radis, the new art-in-public-space project of the Fondazione per l’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea CRT, concludes its first edition with the inauguration of the site-specific work le masche by artist Giulia Cenci (Cortona, 1988), curated by Marta Papini, whose presentation to the public will be held on Sunday, October 6. Placed in the clearing of Chiot Rosa, in Rittan, a place that possesses a high symbolic value linked to the Resistance, the work consists of a series of aluminum sculptures made from casts of birch trees that line the meadow, combined with elements typical of her sculptural language. To create his works, the artist adopts recycled materials, such as waste from the agricultural production system or car wrecks, and casts of prototypes with animal and human likenesses. The artist assembles and fuses these fragments into complex sculptures in which manual skills and serial production coexist. Wolf heads, mannequin heads, and vine branches create hybrid figures between trees and flowers, between humans and animals. The title of the work refers to the masche, figures of the Piedmontese peasant tradition also recounted by Nuto Revelli in his texts, and pays homage to all people marginalized for their diversity. the masche of Giulia Cenci are figures that seem to observe with curiosity and amazement what happens under and around them, on the lawn, around the trees and among the structures designed and installed to host the moments of pause and aggregation of inhabitants and people visiting.

The Radis project, from the Piedmontese radis (root), was created with the aim of enriching the Piedmontese territory with a heritage of public art works made available to the community, in dialogue with educational programs, public meetings and exhibition projects that return part of the collection of the Fondazione per l’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea CRT to the community. In fact, the inauguration of the work was preceded by a summer public program that consisted of numerous appointments between Cuneo, Rittana and Paraloup: Marta Papini and Giulia Cenci participated in the conversation Bread of the Woods; Nicolas Ballario and Rodrigo D’Erasmo performed the show LIVES! The Life of Louise Bourgeois in Words and Music; Treti Galaxie curated the sixth edition of Supercondominium; in collaboration with Fondazione Nuto Revelli, the conference Landscapes in the Crisis between Memory, Ecology and Action was held. Ecomemory and sustainable future projects, which hosted, among others, Mia Canestrini, Matteo Caccia and Alessandra Viola; finally, the mapping of art in public space in the province of Cuneo curated by Vittoria Martini was presented during a conversation with Francesca Comisso, which was followed by the meeting The witnesses of “The World of the Losers” and “The Strong Ring” with photographer Paola Agosti.

In conjunction with the inauguration of le masche at the Rittana Civic and Cultural Center, the second chapter of the group exhibition L’opera al nero (The Work in Black), which includes works from the Fondazione per l’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea CRT and the Fondazione CRC, curated by Marta Papini and Leonardo Pietropaolo, with Giulia Cenci, will be on view. The first chapter of the exhibition, which opened on July 14, 2024, focused on the relationships between humans and other living beings, looking at the relationship between the body and the outside world, with works by Lorenza Boisi, Steffani Jemison, Lin May Saeed, Letícia Parente and Tabita Rezaire. In the second chapter of the exhibition, it is the experience of the individual body that takes center stage, in relation to technology and the processes of change and transformation: the exhibition is enriched with works by Ed Atkins, Roberto Cuoghi, Anne Imhof, Seth Price, James Richards and Alessandra Spranzi. Produced with the technical sponsorship of Big Broker Insurance Group - Ciaccio Arte, the exhibition will be open until Nov. 10, every Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. The public opening of le masche will be held on Sunday, Oct. 6. During the day, which will also include a musical performance by Bandakadabra, it will be possible to participate in a light lunch offered at the Rittana Community Center, family educational activities by Associazione Feliz con La Scatola Gialla, and visit the exhibition The Work in Black.

"The unveiling of the work le masche marks the point of arrival and at the same time the starting point of Fondazione per l’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea CRT’s Radis project: the work by artist Giulia Cenci is the first step in the four-year journey that involves communities and players in the area in cultural and artistic production," says Fondazione CRT President Anna Maria Poggi, “Fondazione CRT is convinced that art and culture, especially when they leave institutional walls, are a powerful tool for enhancing territories and human capital, a valuable bridge between stories and people.”

"I am excited and proud of the outcome of the first edition of Radis," said Patrizia Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, president of the Fondazione per l’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea CRT. "Giulia Cenci’s work is the concrete, poetic and story-dense outcome of a long journey that Fondazione per l’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea CRT wanted to tie deeply to the place for which it was intended. le masche is a site-specific work born from a slow and thoughtful process, guided by the artist and curator Marta Papini, based on the involvement of the community, schools, and the contribution of skilled professionals and artisans. I am sure that the sculptures of this sensitive and imaginative artist will be able to inhabit the welcoming clearing of Chiot Rosa, giving Rittana and us a new and open landscape in which stories, fairy tales and fantasies, humans, trees, stones and animals can coexist."

"le masche “ is the fruit of the stories of Chiot Rosa: stories of resistance, fear, joy, stories of love and hate, stories of animals and plants. With her work, Giulia Cenci pays homage to all creatures marginalized for their difference from the norm, today as yesterday,” said curator Marta Papini.

"The fruitful collaboration with Fondazione per l’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea CRT has been able to build, in this first year of the Radis project, an artistic path of great value, innovative and particularly participatory," commented Mauro Gola, president of Fondazione CRC. “Art and culture confirm their strategic role in the development and regeneration of mountain territories and their ability to activate local communities, with unexpected and impressive results.”

“The Pink Chiot seems to carry in its stillness an invisible story of refuge and struggle, contrasts and contradictions that reside in the evolution of our country and its difficulties,” said Giulia Cenci. “I could not help but think that here people gathered and struggled, found shelter as well as death.”

"Giulia Cenci’s sculptural intervention, thanks to the Radis project promoted by the Fondazione per l’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea CRT, will make Chiot Rosa, already rich in history and natural beauty, a place of extraordinary attractiveness and capable of adding new suggestions and emotions in all those who will access it," said Giacomo Doglio, mayor of Rittana.

Notes on the artist

Giulia Cenci graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Bologna, received a Master’s degree in Fine Arts from St. Joost Academy, Den Bosch-Breda, NL, and took part in the deAteliers residency, Amsterdam, NL. Over the years his work has been appreciated in Italy and abroad in numerous important solo and group exhibitions. She participated in the 59th Venice Biennale, exhibited in New York, Lyon, Amsterdam, and was the winner of the Baloise Art Prize at Art Basel 2019 and a finalist for the MAXXI BVLGARI PRIZE 2020 and the Future Generation Art Prize 2023/24.

"Masks" among the trees: in Piedmont, Giulia Cenci's new work.

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