St. Charles Square, a stage forart

An unusual and evocative screen, that of Piazza San Carlo, in the heart of Turin, a symbolic place of Savoy elegance, bordered by majestic historic buildings that provide an ideal setting for events that combine art, culture and technology. A time of the year, the Christmas season, when it is even easier to reach so many people, citizens and tourists alike, offering them the enjoyment of content that is usually relegated to the interior of museum spaces.

This is the formula that led us to conceive, in partnership with the City of Turin and in collaboration with the city’s main museum venues, the first open-air narrative design festival, now in its second edition in 2023 entitled Fables of Winter – Enchantment of Ice.. An experience that can combine art, music, nature, imagination and technology to accompany the public inside a fantastic journey in the heart of winter.

Taking inspiration from traditional winter tales, the show integrated projections of iconic works of art from city collections with snow and ice effects that immersively enveloped the architecture. A key musical reference was The Winter of Antonio Vivaldi, a tribute to the great Baroque composer that also involved the selection of images, with autograph manuscripts of his compositions, from the National University Library of Turin, alternating with a wide selection of figurative painters and avant-garde artists.

The inaugural edition, titled Dynamic City. An author’s look at two centuries of art in the city, was held in Piazza San Carlo, where for the occasion some 70 images of pictorial, graphic and photographic works preserved in some of the city’s modern and contemporary art museum collections were projected. The square, an open space and meeting place par excellence, is transformed into the beating heart of the city’s cultural heritage enhancement, where art becomes accessible to all and enters into direct dialogue with people.