SMACH BIENNALE 2025

The SMACH Biennale 2025 (opening July 12th, for full program click here) presents 10 artworks that respond to CU, the keyword of the 7th edition of the open air exhibition.

For the seventh edition of the SMACH Biennale, we have chosen a Ladin term that refers to an object: the ‘cu’. It’s a stone used to sharpen the scythe to cut the grass in the meadows. The ‘cu’ speaks of materiality; imagination; craftsmanship; technical evolution; the universality of forms and basic needs; and tools found all over the world. In the alpine pastures and meadows of Val Badia, there are still a few people who mow by hand, sharpening their blades with the whetstone. Paolo Vinati, a documentary filmmaker and ethnomusicologist, interviewed one of them.

The whetstone, conveys multiple themes and stimulates numerous reflections: human and technical evolution; the art of craftsmanship in continuity with the remotest times; the universality of certain tools and gestures; the transmission, or loss, of cultural heritage; the present, past, and future.