The Regional art collections

The art collections of the Autonomous Region of Valle d'Aosta, which since 2012 have been housed in the Gamba Castle in Châtillon, are the result of the region's far-sighted cultural policy. Since the mid-20th century, namely through prizes, acquisitions, gifts and commissions, the regional administration has ensured that its collection has been constantly implemented, orienting its choices in the direction of the representation of the Alpine landscape, in particular that of the Aosta Valley, and the figurative culture of the 20th century, both Italian and European. The heritage thus collected has within it some particularly important units, expressions of artistic episodes that took shape in the Aosta Valley. This is the case of the paintings acquired at the 1984 auction of works by the Casino de la Vallée, which passed through the notorious 'Grand Prix Saint-Vincent for Literature and the Figurative Arts', established by SITAV in the immediate post-war period and curated by Luigi Carluccio. The same applies to the cycle of works by Mario Schifano, created on occasion of the master's artistic residence in Aosta in 1988 and the subsequent exhibition Mario Schifano. Verde fisico curated by the Turin-based critic Janus (Roberto Gianoglio). Janus was the creator, in collaboration with the Exhibition Office, of more than 100 exhibitions held in Aosta between 1986 and 1995, which earned the Region the inclusion in its heritage of a fair number of works, as had been the case for Gino Nebiolo's 1977 project, La Valle svelata. 10 artisti in Val d'Aosta involved in illustrating as many aspects of the Valley in the manner of 19th-century English travellers and as it was to be for Sur le versant de la peinture. 11 peintres à Turin in 1998. It was also in 1988 that the Region took part in the XLIII Venice Art Biennial with a dedicated marquee displaying works by renowned artists cast using the lost wax casting technique by DeltaCogne of Verrès, with a single obligation for the artists: to leave the Region a copy of each work, hence the presence of sculptures by, among others, Pomodoro, Cascella, Ceroli and Palladino. The substantial Regional Photographic Fund deserves a separate discourse, created starting around 1990 thanks to the call to the Valley of the major Italian photographers of those years: Mario Cresci, Luigi Ghirri, Gabriele Basilico, Mario De Biasi, to name but a few. Twenty-one artists who were asked by the Region to explore an aspect of the Valley, a work that was part of the broader projects that were spreading across the country at the time, namely, landscape photography for the knowledge of Italy's heritage and people, at a time when the profound landscape transformation of the entire national territory was taking place. In the wake of this tradition is the recent campaign of new acquisitions, which secured Gamba Castle works by living artists, and the site-specific and site-related intervention that led to the creation of Orbita by Massimo Uberti, a sign of the museum's contemporary vocation.