Dialogues. Craftwork and devotional images

It’s taking shape Dialogues, the new widespread exhibition project, promoted by the’Department for Economic Development, Training and Employment, Transport and Sustainable Mobility in collaboration with theDepartment of Education, Culture and Identity Policies and edited by L’Artisanà and the Superintendency for Cultural Heritage and Activities. The project stems from an institutional collaboration that brings together different areas of expertise, assets and visions, with the aim of promoting the’Aosta Valley crafts and the region’s historical and artistic heritage through a shared narrative. At the heart of the itinerary lies the popular devotion at Aosta Valley, interpreted not only through sacred images, but also through the more subtle, everyday signs: a cross by the side of a path, a monogram engraved on a chest, an image kept at home, a symbol carved into an everyday object, a family or community memory imprinted on the material itself.

At MAV Museum of Valle d’Aosta Crafts by Fénis, the theme of the Sign accompanies the story of the cross and its many forms of representation, from the crosses placed along paths and at crossroads to the marks engraved on household objects, tools and artefacts linked to rural life. These are not always explicitly religious symbols: often they are subtle, simple yet powerful traces, capable of conveying a culture of protection, of thresholds, of family and of memory. An exhibition that invites visitors to view these handcrafted objects not merely for their function, but for what they have preserved over time: gestures, a sense of belonging, pleas for protection, family relationships, everyday spirituality and the collective memory of a Alpine culture who has made matter, the hand and memory some of his most authentic forms of expression.