Exhibitions
Fondazione Cesare Pavese regularly hosts exhibitions and installations of national and international artists in the deconsecrated Church of the Saints James and Christopher. The Church also boasts a permanent collection of 5 large size paintings by Ernesto Treccani inspired by the novel The Moon And The Bonfires. Admission to all events is free.
Permanent exhibition
To live is to begin
On the occasion of the 70th anniversary of Cesare Pavese’s death, in 2020 we launched a call for artists to celebrate his quest for life and constant search for identity. The 20 shortlisted art posters – inspired by Pavese’s sentence “The only joy in the world is to begin. To live is beautiful because to live is to begin, always, at any given time” – are now permanently displayed in the Foundation hall.
Past exhibitions
7 September 2023 – 30 June 2024 Pavese ospita Calvino
First editions, unpublished and original material celebrate 20th-century Italian literature and in particular the relationship between Cesare Pavese and Italo Calvino, who was mentored by the former at Einaudi publishing house during the period 1945-1950.
8 September 2022 – 7 April 2023 Paolo Spinoglio, Sei di sangue e di terra
A tribute to the artist whose faces “smile without eyes”. Twenty years after his death, this exhibition displays a series of essential sculptures and chiaroscuro drawings of female figures put in an imaginary dialogue with Cesare Pavese’s verses.
25 June 2022 – 28 August 2022 Silvio Tomasoni, Dialogo in punta di matita
Double location for an exhibition that celebrates two great masters of the Italian literature from our land – Cesare Pavese and Beppe Fenoglio – in a series of pencil portraits by Silvio Tomasoni. Set between Gorzegno and Santo Stefano Belbo, it is meant as an invitation to discover Alta Langa and Valle Belbo.
21 May 2022 – 19 June 2022 Paolo Galetto, Cicladi a/r
35 watercolors and 3 large-size canvas painted on the road during a journey to the Cyclades in the late summer of 2019 re-create a dialogue between art, literature and Nature recalling the Greek mythos, so loved by Pavese.
15 April 2022 – 15 May 2022 Edoardo Hahn, Suite pour l’invisible
A site-specific photo exhibition of images that seem to appear from nothing: primary shapes, interlocked spaces, shadows, lights, hidden objects, optical explosions, where danger remains invisible, yet present. An investigation on the limits of photography.
19 February 2022 – 31 March 2022 Angelo Magliacane, La storia delle Langhe nelle cartoline d’epoca
A collection of vintage postcards to explore the history of the villages of the Langhe region, acknowledged along with the landscapes of Monferrato and Roero as one of the UNESCO world heritage sites.
16 October 2021 – 12 December 2021 Giovanni Bonardi, Figure auliche
Paintings and sculptures with a deep spiritual connotation, revealing the essence of people and things, our personal history and that of mankind. In this solo exhibition, Piedmontese artist Giovanni Bonardi condenses millennia of concrete, mythical and spiritual experiences, whose symbols go beyond visual, intimate and religious perception.
10 September 2021 – 10 October 2021 Concetto Fusillo, Fascinazioni mitologiche: D’Annunzio e Pavese
Sicilian painter Concetto Fusillo presents a visionary journey across art and literature, past and present, investigating the two great writers’ fascination for mythos. An invitation to explore our Mediterranean nature – where the vineyard, the pine forest or the sea become symbols of a common and ancient identity – as a way to understand who we are and which visions we can share. The exhibition was specifically designed for the Pavese Festival 2021
16 October 2020 – 22 November 2020: Fernando Garbellotto, Spazi d’esperienza
26 September 2020 – 11 October 2020: This must be the place
A multidisciplinary installation on body and movement in a changing world. Performance, video, photography and writing: four languages and four artists engage in a dialogue on running, movement, choices and imagination. But also on the interconnection and mutual relationship between mankind and nature, thought and matter, abstract and concrete, life and death. Works by: Valentina Cei, Davide Fasolo, Silvia Pastore and Jimmy Rivoltella.
4 September 2020 – 23 September 2020: Tina Cosmai, La luna e i falò. Cesare Pavese, l’infanzia il paesaggio il ritorno
A black and white photographic journey inspired by the places and landscapes of Pavese’s last novel, The Moon and the Bonfires. Images from Cosmai’s imagination – triggered by the vision of Pavese’s land – are superimposed on the scenery creating a surreal and metaphysical effect. All pictures are shot at wintertime, to enhance the strength and the essence of the landscape: a bare, genuine land.
5 December 2019 – 24 January 2020: Nina Haab, Il molteplice ridiventa uno
Swiss artist Nina Haab explores the theme of memory and the meaning of remembrance; changing and fading identities; historical changes; the fine line between truth and memory, imagination and dream. For Haab defining the truth is not that important: what fascinates her is to understand the internal mechanisms that guide our interpretation of what we perceive as true.
15 November 2019 – 1 December 2019: Massimo Bertolini, Radici condivise
Through his sculptures, also inspired by literary imagery, Tuscan artist Massimo Bertolini investigates the expressive potential of various beloved materials: bronze, marble, iron, weathering steel, wood and polychrome terracotta.
31 August 2019 – 22 September 2019: Massimo Ricci: Segno e racconto
Sign and storytelling are the two sides of an ideal hill where Piedmontese artist Massimo Ricci’s painting has been walking for a while. The sign represents the language. The storytelling represents his vital need to look for the essence of things.
