ABOUT

Zënza Sëida

Zënza sëida VFG is a non-profit organisation committed to conveying contemporary culture to enthusiasts and the public at large. Its main aim is to valorise, promulgate and produce contemporary art, which it views as a fundamental tool for growth and development, in Alto Adige (Val Gardena).

The association’s activities are targeted not only at a specialised public but at all local residents, participants and interested parties. In accordance with Article 35 of the Third Sector Code, such activities may be carried out for the benefit of the association’s members, their families and third parties.

Insofar as it promotes contemporary art in all its forms, the association seeks to interface the most diverse positions – from the traditional to the not strictly artistic – to legitimise new approaches to artistic experimentation and production. It also encourages theoretical debate to promote creative and intellectual aptitudes and raise awareness of cultural systems and socio-political processes.

Its ultimate aim is to explore and question connections between human beings and the visual and cultural forms typical of their environment, especially in the following ambits:

– Social development, as a key tool for growth and education.
– Research and development, in relation to the development of Ladin culture and development.

– Local crafts and creativity, offering them enduring benefits through the innovation and exchanges resulting from collaboration with artists and curators of international fame.

– Sustainable and long-term investment in tourist development.

– Collaboration with Alto Adige research and training institutions.

– The promotion of music, cinema, theatre and dance.

– Contribute to the local economy

The 7° edition

BIENNALE GHERDËINA 7

all numbers, events, locations and the budget

here the link

Our history

BIENNALE GHERDËINA

A biennial project that consists of an exhibition spread over the public spaces of the Val Gardena, in the Dolomites, and fringe events such as symposia, workshop, talks by artists and conferences, plus related publications.

INTRODUCTION

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 as a region brimming with contemporary culture, since then the Biennale Gherdëina has proved one of the most successful events of its kind in Europe. Over the years it has grasped and supported MANIFESTA 7’s overall vision.

(Rafal Niemojewski, director of the Biennial Foundation)

The project has grown exponentially, acquiring international resonance and affirming itself as a biennial contemporary art event in the most important public space in Alto Adige.

Through the production, diffusion and communication of works created specifically in relation to the region’s space and culture, the Biennale Gherdëina stimulates reflection and raises public awareness by highlighting the richness of the landscape and the culture of the local area, and its ambition is to become another attraction for the Alto Adige region. It aims to do so partly by collaborating with local cultural associations.

Close cooperation between our region’s artisans, sculptors and 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. As it approaches its seventh edition, the Biennale Gherdëina is showing how it can also provide 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 and future, and between various disciplines and ideas.

The artists of the 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 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’.