Arte Sella is an international exhibition of contemporary art which began life in 1986. It takes place in the open, in the fields and woods of the Sella Valley (Borgo Valsugana municipality, in the Province of Trento). Since 1996 the Arte Sella project has been laid out along a path in the woods on the southern slope of the Armentera Mount. The ideal route, named ARTENATURA (“Art in Nature”) which has taken shape in this way is designed to enable visitors to observe the works of art and at the same time to enjoy the natural site itself with its different types of woods, rocks and monumental trees.
The idea of the exhibition is not just to display works of art but also to show the creative process involved in them: the works are followed day by day in their development as they are created and the artists are called upon to express their respectful relationship with nature from which they draw inspiration.
The works are usually three-dimensional since they are created using stones, leaves, branches and tree-trunks; occasionally man-made objects, materials or colours are also used. When the exhibition closes, many of the artworks are left to decay, thus becoming part of nature’s life-cycle; others are put on show in museums, art galleries and exhibitions in Italy and abroad.
In the last few years Arte Sella has expanded to the nearby Malga Costa (Costa shepherd’s hut). This unusual but attractive building has been the setting of several exhibitions, events and creative workshops which have attracted considerable interest and have rendered the shepherd’s hut an effective experimental and exhibition area.