VIAPAC

From the valley floor to the border, the Stura Valley has been affected by the art project VIAPAC (Via per l’Arte Contemporanea) a 200-kilometer-long itinerary punctuated by contemporary artworks linking France and Italy.

In addition to being a tourist link, this route has taken on a cultural, pedagogical, interactive and innovative significance, allowing the general public to meet the latest trends in art. VIAPAC is an international route both in terms of its route and its programming, which has included: one Italian artist, four French artists, two U.S. artists, one English, one Swiss, one Anglo-German and finally one Belgian artist.

The project was promoted with the aim of fostering artistic creation by bringing it out of its privileged places such as museums, galleries, and trade journals, to make it a resource for the enhancement and development of the territory, through the placement of works of art in natural environments, parks and communication routes. The goal was to give birth to a cross-border network that would stimulate comparison between different cultural traditions.

In Borgo San Dalmazzo, the 17th-century Chapel of St. Anne intended as an exhibition and educational center dedicated to the Shoah has become part of the project.

In Roccasparvera, at the Chapel of St. Roch and St. Sebastian, there is a Shell polished aluminum sculpture by Belgian artist Pascal Bernier, depicting a giant shell of St. James, as Castelletto is located on one of the back roads of the Way of St. James.

Moiola is home to the permanent installation “The Smuggler of Images,” displayed at the Saben Center. The work is based on videos, photos and light boxes through which the surreal story of a smuggler arrested by the Guardia di Finanza near the French-Italian border in the Stura Valley is told.

In Demonte, the installation is titled Mental Renaissance and is a marble, bronze, and brass sculpture inspired by the figure of writer Lalla Romano.

Aisone is home to the work composed of seven deer, in separate groups, forming part of the “monument to the deer of the Stura Valley,” a symbol of freedom, purity and change, in a quest to bring man and nature closer together.

In Vinadio, VIAPAC celebrates the Ugo Giants, two giant figures placed in front of the Fort Albertine entrance made of steel and fiberglass painted in green and neon pink.

At the border, on the Magdalena Pass, stands the Table-relief work that produces a model of the surrounding area, recalling Vauban’s models and orientation tables that often stand on mountains.