Guarene, a beautiful village to live

Italy celebrated gods villages, those who are a tourist destination but are also the custodians of tradition, cultural specificities, souls and stories. And so that these villages, as well as being beautiful, are also to be experienced and so that they have a future, the project promoted by the Confindustria Technical Culture Group in collaboration with the Touring Club, which, after Spello, in Umbria, makes a stop in Guarene, in the hills of the Roero.

An important stage, a meeting of many voices that are building a future for the villages and for Italy: institutional voices, of culture, of the economy. The President of the Piedmont Region Alberto Cirio, the Mayor of Guarene Simone Manzone, then Maria Cristina Piovesana Confindustria Vice President for Environment, Sustainability and Culture, Mauro Gola President of Confindustria Cuneo, Antonio Alunni President of the Confindustria Technical Culture Group, Giuliana Cirio Director of Confindustria Cuneo, Franco Iseppi President of the Italian Touring Club. And then the actors with their choices of cultural and social rebirth, Patrizia Sandretto Re Rebaudengo President of the Sandretto Re Rebaudengo Foundation, Giuseppina Amarelli President of Amarelli Licorice Factory, Roberta Ceretto President Cantine Ceretto, Bartolomeo Salomone President Ferrero, Pierluigi Vaccaneo Director of the Cesare Pavese Foundation, Paolo Verri Ocean Race Executive Director, Emiliano Cerasi Chief Executive Officer Sac.

All gathered for a meeting and a round table on the subject in a symbol of the rebirth of a village, Palazzo Re Rebaudengo which brought the avant-garde of contemporary art to the small town of Guarene thanks to Patrizia Sandretto and Agostino Re Rebaudengo as the first headquarters of Sandretto Re Rebaudengo Foundation in its mission of supporting and promoting contemporary art and artists.

Palazzo Re Rebaudengo, in the central square of the town, enveloped by the autumn fog, which along the road only allowed a glimpse of a few vineyards and the silhouettes of the hills, in an ancient atmosphere, is a place that attracts curators, artists and visitors from all over the world thanks to the exhibitions, the residency project of young curators, the art park with installations to be discovered in the woods and vineyards. Art and vision that dialogue with the land, places, people. And, to return to a new identity of the villages, a country that remains a country but interfaces with the world.

“In the mid-nineties we bet on Guarene certain that contemporary art would bring value to this country – he says Patrizia Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, President of the Foundation -. We started with exhibitions, inviting artists and curators, continued with creative workshops dedicated to children, the young people of these places have become our cultural mediators. We have strengthened the dialogue with the village with works installed in the historic churches of the town and with the Art Park on the hill of San Licerio, born in 2019, always open, with works always available, and which last October, among the vineyards , welcomed a new exceptional sculpture by the French artist Marguerite Humeau, together with three thousand dwarf willows planted thanks to the collaboration with Asja Ambiente to contribute to the fight against climate change ».

The example of the Foundation is that of many who attended themeeting of Confindustria which wanted to trace the lines of a new patronage, with the examples of the Ferrero Foundation in Alba – as told by its president Bartolomeo Salomone – which in honor of the motto Work Create Donate carries on the support project for elderly employees for a new way of conceiving and living the third age, as well as projects for study, training, scientific study, cultural events (last week it hosted a concert by Uto Ughi). But it is also the example of the Ceretto family, represented in the room by Roberta Ceretto, who recalled the commitment to promoting the art of the cellar, and thus that of Amarelli family whose company museum in Rossano is a place of historical and cultural memory of the places, and also of the family Foundation Cerasi which he restored and opened to the public Merulana Palace smell.

These are the examples that give voice and heart to patronage, and that also tell of how only the meeting of forces can lead to a result, the commitment of the private individual in his desire to “give back to the community” what has been received, the commitment of public, administrations, mayors who struggle every day to give their countries a role and a future – they are as many and committed as the young mayor of Guarene, Simone Manzone, who in the room spoke not about his work, but that of his team, not to forget that the future is made through a network and thanks to the commitment of every single person who lives in a community.

Guarene with the castle now a grand hotel, a restaurant – La Madernassa – known throughout the world, with its vineyards, local products, pears, truffles, with its gaze on the hills and the Tanaro river that unites the Roero with the Langhe. Take care that it is Orange Flag, Green Ear, Nice village to live and also – from now on – Italian Cultural Presidium, as well as part of the Unesco World Heritage Site. In short, Guarene which is one of the places capable of offering more and more beauty to those who live there and those who visit them, in a fruitful meeting between citizens – considering “Temporary citizens” are also visiting tourists, with the happy intuition of Paolo Verri, manager of major events and urban development. Villages and internal areas that need, however, first of all infrastructures, services, work, specific attention, as was mentioned several times during the conference. Places to promote that cultural humanism, as the President of the Touring Club recalled, Franco Iseppi, in which “the I is realized in the union of the we”.