09/01/2023 | Partner: Regione Valle d'Aosta
Art is worth a trip and even a village
In the Lys Valley, a 20-minute drive from Perloz Town Hall Square, there is a small, one-of-a-kind village: Chemp.
Its story is that of the tenacious and unconditional love of an artist towards a symbolic and ancient place. One day, Giuseppe Bettoni, known as Pino, a well-known sculptor in the Aosta Valley and beyond, finds himself walking along these ancient streets. He observes the stone walls of the houses, the windows overlooking the valley, the time-worn steps. He breathes the magic of an ancient place where the hands of man have created, with great respect, a simple but wonderful environment, in contact with the surrounding nature. The village in front of Pino’s eyes is, however, almost abandoned, inhabited only by some elderly people.
Pino, who is an artist, sees in Chemp a work to be saved and that’s what he does. Little by little, together with his wife Paola, he first buys a house, then another one, and he begins a slow but inexorable project of architectural and artistic recovery. He restores the old houses dating back to the 18th and 19th centuries and gives life to the ancient village. The main activity was agro-pastoral, so Chemp’s architectures respect this precise vocation. Each building brought together the residential part, the “mazoun”, the kitchen with a large fireplace, the “péyo”, and the bedrooms with an area dedicated to agro-pastoral activities: the hayloft, the barn, the cellar. The families also owned a “gra”, a room dedicated to the chestnut drying house. In the center of the village there are also the remains of the ancient community oven with the date 1790 engraved on a stone. The evocative chapel dedicated to the Presentation of the Virgin at the Temple bears on its roof ridge its date of creation in 1678, accompanied by the sacred IHS monogram.
Pino not only arranges what already exists but intervenes in a creative way by filling up the corners of this beautiful village with many statues in wood and bronze: a baby in a cradle, a woman with her chickens, the shepherd leading his flock, a girl intent on playing with her kite, the Little Match Girl, and he also includes the clochard that sleeps on a cardboard bed, almost as a provocation.
He creates an artistic path where the statues, which are as alive as they are carved in wood, guide the visitor in the ancient dimension of the village. Pino’s project is fascinating and many other artists choose to build a piece of Chemp’s history with him and donate their works – mostly, but not only wooden sculptures – to the village.
A stroll through Chemp is a magical journey into the past. The evocative valley and Bettoni’s poetic statues awaken the love for nature and art, as well as the desire to revive our most beloved and ancient places by giving them a new soul.
Partner: Regione Valle d'Aosta
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