Villadeati and Widespread Art: When a Hike in Monferrato Becomes Much More Than a Walk
Walking in Monferrato also means knowing what is happening in its villages
by Simona Gotta - Monfreedom Guide There are days when a hike begins simply as a way to follow trails, cross hills and reach a small village, but then the territory adds something more. An exhibition, an art installation, a church opened for a special occasion, a tasting, a concert or a cultural initiative can completely transform the meaning of the day.
That is exactly what will happen on Sunday, when the Monfreedom Guides will be walking through the area around Villadeati, in Lower Monferrato.
At the moment, the village is one of the locations of Germinale – Monferrato Art Fest, the widespread contemporary art festival involving numerous villages across the provinces of Alessandria and Asti, turning Monferrato into a kind of open-air museum spread across villages, churches, castles, Infernot, towers and spaces normally used for completely different purposes.
This year’s edition has a particularly evocative title: “Di marne feconde, un mare”. It is difficult to imagine a theme more closely connected to this territory.
“Di marne feconde, un mare”: contemporary art begins with the geology of Monferrato
Those who follow our blog will know that we recently told the story of the sea that no longer exists, the ancient sea that millions of years ago covered these lands and left traces in the marl, fossils, Pietra da Cantoni and in the very shape of the hills.
Germinale starts precisely from here. The underground becomes a kind of archive of memory, and artists are invited to interpret the relationship between what we see today and what lies beneath the surface. Marl, made mainly of clay and limestone, becomes the starting point for exploring transformation, nature, time, landscape and identity.
The festival involves numerous artists and many exhibition spaces distributed across the villages of Monferrato, with installations, exhibitions, performances, artist residencies and interventions created specifically to interact with the places that host them.
One of the most interesting features is precisely this widespread distribution of art across the territory: instead of entering a large museum and moving from one room to another, visitors travel between villages, historic buildings and different landscapes, encountering art inside places that already possess their own identity.
Villadeati: light enters the Church of the Holy Trinity
In Villadeati, one of the most interesting interventions can be found inside the Church of the Holy Trinity, located in the oldest and highest part of the village.
The church we see today is mainly connected with 19th-century transformations, although a religious building already existed on the same site in earlier times. It is an intimate space, set among the streets of the historic centre and overlooking the surrounding hills.
Here, the artistic duo Boscolo / Rossetto created “Tre passi dalla luce”, a work based on the relationship between light, space, reflection, sound and the presence of the viewer.
This is not an artwork to look at for a few seconds simply to decide whether you like it or not. You need to enter the space, move around, change your point of view and allow enough time for the light and reflections to alter your perception of the architecture.
Inside the church, a luminous figure gradually reveals a pattern of reflections suspended in space. Light is treated almost as a three-dimensional material and interacts with reflective surfaces and a sound component made of resonant tones and suggestions that also evoke water.
The reference becomes particularly meaningful here, in a Monferrato whose geological origins are linked to ancient marine environments: once again, contemporary art enters into dialogue with a story that began millions of years ago.
A rose window that changes the relationship between inside and outside
One of the central elements of the project is the rose window of the church.
The installation uses light to alter its perception and create a different relationship between the interior of the building and the village outside. During the day, the play of light interacts mainly with the internal space, while changes in natural light also affect the presence of the façade.
What makes the work particularly interesting is that it is not perceived simply as something placed inside a church. Instead, it interacts directly with the architecture.
This is exactly what makes contemporary art so fascinating when it leaves traditional museum spaces: a building with its own history can suddenly be seen through completely different eyes.
When Monferrato becomes a widespread museum
The idea behind Germinale is particularly well suited to a territory such as Monferrato.
Here, places of interest are not concentrated in a single city but scattered across dozens of small villages. Castles, Romanesque parish churches, Infernot, towers, churches, old public buildings and agricultural landscapes already form a natural network.
Introducing contemporary art into this structure means inviting people to move around, discover villages they might never otherwise visit and explore places usually excluded from the main tourist circuits.
To see an artwork, you need to reach a village, park, walk through its streets, perhaps enter a café, stop to look at the view and speak to someone who lives there.
The artwork almost becomes a doorway into the territory itself.
The inhabitants themselves can become part of the story
Villadeati has also been involved in artistic experiences where the story is told not only through buildings and landscapes, but through the people who live in the villages.
The project “Visagi”, whose name refers in Piedmontese to a person’s face or appearance, brought portraits of local residents into the streets and public spaces of several villages, turning them into a kind of open-air gallery.
I find this idea particularly interesting because it prevents small villages from being seen simply as beautiful backdrops.
A village is not authentic only because it has old stone houses, a church or a castle. It remains authentic as long as it continues to be inhabited, lived in, narrated and transformed by people.
Art and photography can therefore remind us that behind every façade and every landscape there are real communities.
For us Monfreedom Guides, a hike does not end on the trail
This is where I want to explain an essential part of the way we guide.
When we plan a hike, we naturally study the route, ground conditions, distances, elevation gain, possible difficulties and panoramic viewpoints. But for us, all of this is only part of the work.
We always try to understand what is happening in that territory at the exact moment when we will be passing through it.
If there is an interesting exhibition, we try to include it. If a church that is normally closed has a special opening, we try to take advantage of the opportunity. If there is a local food event, a tasting, a concert, a village festival, a cultural initiative or an event linked to local history and traditions, we consider how to make it part of the experience.
Because walking for hours through a territory while ignoring what that territory is offering on that very day would, in our view, mean only knowing it halfway.
Monferrato is not simply a network of trails. It is made of people, wine, art, music, food, history, museums, castles, small theatres, associations, producers, festivals and initiatives that change throughout the year.
Part of a guide’s work is also to connect all these elements.
Walking in the morning and encountering art along the way
Villadeati will therefore give us a perfect opportunity on Sunday to put this philosophy into practice.
We will walk through the Monferrato landscape, observe the hills, trails and village, while also knowing that at this very moment Villadeati is taking part in one of the most interesting widespread art initiatives in the area.
Entering the Church of the Holy Trinity and seeing how a contemporary intervention uses light, reflection and sound to reinterpret a historic space adds a completely different dimension to the day.
First we encounter the natural landscape, then the village and its history, then the building itself, and finally contemporary art interacting with everything we have just experienced.
These are not separate experiences, because they all belong to the same territory.
Art and food and wine are not extra elements added to hiking
The same principle applies to food, wine and every other form of local expression.
If we walk among vineyards without knowing which wines are produced on those hills, we lose part of the story. If we cross a truffle-producing area without knowing anything about the culture of truffle hunting, we risk seeing only a wood. If we reach a village during a musical or artistic event and simply keep walking, we may have followed the trail perfectly, but we will not truly have encountered that place.
This is why we try to create experiences where outdoor activities, culture, art, food and wine, and local communities can all interact.
One time it may be a winery, another time an Infernot, and in another village it may be a castle, a Romanesque church, a concert or, as in Villadeati, a contemporary art installation.
The destination changes, but the method remains the same.
Monferrato is fascinating precisely because it continues to surprise
There is a somewhat stereotypical image of Monferrato that tells its story only through vineyards, truffles, castles and traditional cuisine. All of these elements are fundamental and beautiful, but the territory is also far more contemporary than many people imagine.
The fact that contemporary artists can work in small villages, using churches, underground spaces, towers, castles and other buildings as places of experimentation, shows that tradition does not have to remain static.
It can interact with the present.
A historic church can continue to tell its own story while at the same time becoming the place where young artists work with light, reflection and sound. A hill formed from a sea that disappeared millions of years ago can become the inspiration for a contemporary art project.
It is precisely this overlap of times, languages and stories that makes Monferrato so distinctive.
On Sunday we will not simply be going for a hike in Villadeati
We will be walking through a territory that, right now, is also telling its story through art.
And that is one of the reasons why we believe that relying on a guide can offer something more than simply following a route.
A guide should not only know the trail. A guide should know that around the next bend an exhibition has been set up, that a small church is temporarily hosting an installation, that there is an interesting producer in the village or that the local community has organised something that day that deserves a detour.
This is how we understand Monfreedom excursions: we walk to discover the landscape, but we are always attentive to everything Monferrato has to offer at that particular moment, whether artistic, cultural, gastronomic, tourist-related or musical.
Because the best way to understand a territory is not simply to cross it.
It is to know what is happening while you are there and to give yourself enough time to truly experience it.
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