The festival’s title is inspired by a passage from Cesare Pavese’s The Moon and the Bonfires and evokes the idea of a constantly evolving landscape—one capable of preserving memory while generating new perspectives. This concept lies at the heart of the 2026 edition, dedicated to the theme of transformation, understood as a process that retains traces of the past while producing new ways of interpreting the present.
The third edition brings together sixteen artists from Italy, Latvia, Brazil, Uruguay, the United States and Argentina. They are invited to engage with the cultural and environmental layers of the region through original works and interventions created especially for the festival. Exhibitions, installations, talks, workshops, guided tours and tastings accompany the programme, creating opportunities for dialogue between contemporary creativity and local traditions.
The festival opens on 20 and 21 June in Castiglione Tinella, Mango and Neive. Artefora – Centre for Contemporary Art, founded by Ernesto Morales in Castiglione Tinella, hosts the opening events and projects by the winners of the Luigi Candiani Prize. In Mango, a group exhibition at the Enoteca Regionale del Moscato explores transformation as a relationship between nature, community and memory. In Neive, the Tower of the Monastery of Santa Maria del Piano hosts a site-specific installation designed to engage with the history and architecture of the building.
From 26 June, the Tower of Barbaresco hosts Orizzonti Futuri, a section dedicated to artists whose research has developed through direct experience of the local area. During the same period, the Cesare Pavese Foundation in Santo Stefano Belbo hosts meetings, talks and Ernesto Morales’s exhibition Geografie della luce, creating a further point of encounter between contemporary art, landscape and cultural reflection.
From 27 June to 5 July, the festival moves to Castagnole delle Lanze with Lanze in Arte, a region-wide creative workshop that transforms the village into an open space for artistic experimentation. Installations in historic courtyards, workshops, talks and guided itineraries involve residents and visitors in an experience connecting art, community and local production. The programme also includes Lanze Art Residency, an international residency organised in collaboration with the Great Meadows Foundation in the United States. It welcomes American artist Lori Larusso and Argentinian artist Brenda Frank for a period of research and artistic production in the area.
Among the most significant works of the 2026 edition is Cambiante, a mural created by Ernesto Morales on the façade of the Ruscone-Valle nursery school in Castagnole delle Lanze. Inspired by clouds as symbols of constant transformation, the work represents the first step towards the future Advanced Training School for Contemporary Art and Landscape that Artefora intends to establish in the area.
