Contemporary contextual art, which cares for life in specific places by reinterpreting local values and transforming them into cultural visions, acts as a hinge between the environment, communities, and future perspectives. By critically re-reading contexts and stereotypes, the artist, operating as a kind of social intellectual, works as a catalyst between human and material energies, planting seeds of creativity that may sprout again over time.
The most powerful (and useful) contemporary art is that which stirs doubt and experiments with proposals charged with active thought, following a path of transformation. As in the ‘in-between’ described by Tim Ingold in The Life of Lines, artistic practices engage with the flow of life in the form of ‘correspondence’: A fertile connection between questions and outcomes.
The experience of aperto_art on the border (Valle Camonica 2010-2022) shows how the migration of artistic projects, methods, and experiences can be traced back to the tendency toward cross-contamination typical of much contemporary art. Guided by the principles of relational connection, the growth of contemporary art follows rhizomatic patterns (Deleuze and Guattari), re-emerging in new contexts. Case studies of this attitude can be found in the work of Franco Ariaudo, Hannes Egger, Patrizio Raso, and Cosimo Veneziano, whose projects, first developed within small Alpine communities, later resurfaced and evolved in distant places and contexts.
Contemporary art suggests that the mountains, with their environmental and anthropological richness, are a fertile ground for artistic experimentation, especially within informal, collective, and participatory settings.
