For more than thirty years Arte Sella has been synonymous with art in nature, a unique creative workshop in Italy and in the world, where art has woven a continuous dialogue with the surprising nature of the Val di Sella, a side valley of the Valsugana, in Trentino. Hundreds of international artists have alternated over time, invited to interpret the spirit of the place and to return to look at
the works of art in continuous transformation. The works created by these artists are characterized by the ability to preserve their own recognizable but not alien physiognomy, for a different arrangement with respect to time, which is no longer the rectilinear and conventional history of art, but, perishable, according to the natural mutations of the seasons Vittorio Fagone in 2009.
Since its foundation in 1986, Arte Sella has evolved by interpreting its role as a creative forge listening to nature and placing itself as a powerful tool initially available to a small Alpine community, later to a much wider world, to imagine possible future scenarios and possible dynamics of the man-nature relationship. In the aftermath of the Chernobyl tragedy the need to find a way to restore a new balance with nature was immediately born: at Arte Sella this need has declined, over the course of thirty-five years, through the gaze and vision of more than three hundred artists who, having abandoned the role of absolute protagonists of the creative act, have joined nature, their ally in the creation and transformation of the work. The mutation of Arte Sella's works is continuous, constant and subject to weather conditions and the passing of the seasons.
Arte Sella has thus become an open-air museum that includes a considerable portion of the Val di Sella. There are two routes that can be visited throughout the year, with different times that change depending on the natural variation of the daylight hours. The first route begins at Villa Strobele, one of the many historic houses in the valley, birthplace of Arte Sella and the first exhibitions. With the project of the Arte Sella Architettura which started in 2017, Villa Strobele has become a fundamental place for reflection on the question of living and landscape and therefore, ultimately, to what relationship man and humanity, may have in the future with the places where they settle, and which are crossed by a continuous process of change. Architects such as Kengo Kuma, Eduardo Souto de Moura, Michele de Lucchi.
From Villa Strobele, the Montura path, enriched by a series of benches designed by artists and designers such as Alberto Meda, Aldo Cibic, Matteo Poli and Giulio Iacchetti, encourages visitors to admire the peculiarities of the landscape of the valley. At the end of the route the Malga Costa Area welcomes the visitors. The building of the Malga once dedicated to the mountain pasture, is now an exhibition hall and a meeting place. Around it unfolds an exhibition area that contemplates some of the most monumental works known to the public, such as the Tree Cathedral by Giuliano Mauri, Third Paradise – The Trench of Peace by Michelangelo Pistoletto, Symbiosis by Edoardo Tresoldi, Common Root by Henrique Oliveira, Mountain Trebucco by Arne Quinze , Liquid Landscape by Daan Roosegaarde, Physis by Arcangelo Sassolino, fonda.menti by ivan, Proserpina #A_S4 by Quayola and Sabìr by Velasco Vitali.
Over time at Arte Sella, art in nature, music, dance, photography, poetry and literature have found a place for research and common reflection. Their vision, together with that of the artists who will cross Arte Sella with an increasingly interdisciplinary look, will continue to investigate the complexity of the contemporaneity in which we are immersed.