![Garzatura-Lanificio-Zegna1[1]](https://www.fondazionezegna.org/wp-content/uploads/elementor/thumbs/Garzatura-Lanificio-Zegna11-q8vc72z7lsoy9qu2fohjuo4um9n3x4cmh9p0rk1o1s.jpg "Garzatura-Lanificio-Zegna1[1]")
On the 26th edition of the FAI Spring Days, when over 1,000 extraordinary places throughout Italy will be specially opened up to the public for the occasion, Fondazione Zegna is organizing a new exhibition in Casa Zegna focusing on local history and culture.
It will explore the wool trade, from the Middle Ages to the present day, through the works of Ettore Olivero Pistoletto. The 2-day exhibition looks at the bonds that have always united enterprise and art in Trivero — Zegna and Pistoletto – for the good of the territory. Their journey together started nearly 90 years ago, towards the end of the ‘20s, when Ermenegildo Zegna (1892-1966) commissioned the Val di Susa painter Ettore Olivero Pistoletto (1898-1982) to produce a series of graffiti depicting the various phases in the old wool trade. The works were designed to show an ideal connection between the modern industry and the craft-based manufacturing of past centuries and evoke the genuine and manual origins of processes that were by then mechanized but had not (and still have not) lost their human side, ie. the importance of skilled labor.
Between 1948 and 1952 those graffiti were replaced by larges canvases. The “Sala Quadri” (Picture Room, open to the public on an exceptional basis for the 2018 FAI Spring Days) thus took on its current aspect. The ten paintings in it are considered Ettore Olivero Pistoletto’s masterpiece: art as a craft to be learned (the “Sala Quadri” is an effective “history lesson” in fact), art as transformation of material and nature (the venue itself is an invitation to ponder the relationship between the community and its surroundings), art as expression of civilization, and art as a place where Homo Faber and artist come together.
Casa Zegna will be putting on a temporary exhibition of reproductions of the graffiti that Ermenegildo Zegna commissioned from Olivero Pistoletto at the end of the ‘20s.
By popular request, there will also be guided tours of the Zegna Wool Mill showing how wool is worked nowadays.
The program has something for small children too: free workshops, of Montessorian inspiration, entitled “Storie di feltro and di mani” (Stories of felt and hands).
Casa Zegna’s participation in the FAI Spring Days will also be marked by the reappearance of Daniel Buren’s “Le Banderuole Colorate”, an art work produced for the “All’Aperto” contemporary art project, on the terraces of the Zegna Wool Mill.
PROGRAM
Saturday 24 and Sunday 25 March
– Casa Zegna, historical archives and museum, can be visited with or without guides
from 10.00 to 18.00
– guided tours of the “Sala Quadri” and Ettore Olivero Pistoletto paintings
from 10.30 to 18.00
– guided tours of the Ermenegildo Zegna Wool Mill (by reservation only and for adults only), a unique opportunity to see the whole textile production process guaranteeing quality and excellence.
tours start at 10.30; 11.30; 14.00; 15.00
– workshops for kids (aged 4-12, reservation only) “Storie di feltro e di mani”
open on Saturday from 14.00 to 18.00 and Sunday from 10.00 to 18.00
– the “ALL’APERTO” contemporary art project installations can be visited without a guide.
(Info: www.fondazionezegna.org/allaperto)
All the visits and workshops are free of charge. Booking is obligatory.
Visitors are kindly asked to make a donation to FAI Fondo Ambiente Italiano.
INFO AND BOOKING
tel. +39 015.7591463
Throughout Oasi Zegna, and especially around Trivero, the Consorzio Turistico is offering special menus (don’t miss Alpen Stube at Caulera – building designed by Luigi Vietti – or Agriturismo Oro di Berta, a restored factory, at Portula di Trivero).
HOW TO REACH CASA ZEGNA
A4 Milano-Torino motorway: exit at Carisio and follow signs for Cossato, Vallemosso, Trivero.
A26 Genova-Gravellona Toce motorway: exit at Romagnano Sesia and follow signs for Coggiola, Trivero.
