Italian design family plans free art trail on a Piedmont hill, opening September 2027
A family behind a group of historic Italian design brands is planning a free public art trail in the hills of Piedmont, in north-west Italy. The Art Newspaper reported the plans on 6 November 2026, with the site due to open in September 2027.
The project belongs to Fondazione Vezza, a foundation set up by Sandra Vezza and her son Charley Vezza. It will be based in Monforte d'Alba, a town in the Langhe wine region about 60 kilometres south-east of Turin. The area is part of the Vineyard Landscapes of Piedmont, a site on the UNESCO World Heritage list, which the United Nations recognises for its cultural and natural value.
The heart of the plan is Colle San Pietro, a wooded hill. Over roughly ten years, the foundation intends to develop a public art trail through its woodland. The route will take in the ruins of the monastery of San Pietro, an early medieval religious complex first cited in 1014, according to the foundation's website. The foundation describes the woods as a rare example of spontaneous landscape in the Langhe, meaning land that has grown up on its own rather than being planted or managed.
Each year, the foundation plans to invite one international artist to make a permanent work on the hill. Each piece will respond to the site's woods, paths and buildings. The first two artists are Kathleen Ryan, born in Santa Monica, California, in 1984 and based in New York, and Alessandro Pessoli, born in Cervia, Italy, in 1963 and based in Los Angeles. Their large works will be made for the site and will open the trail in autumn 2027.
The Vezzas will fund the works, which will stay on the hill permanently. The site will be free to enter. Flavio del Monte, formerly director of institutional relations at Massimo de Carlo gallery in Milan, will oversee the project. Supporters include the Comune di Monforte, the local council of Monforte d'Alba, the Comune di Milano and Gagosian Gallery.
The opening year also matters for the local calendar. The foundation invited Pessoli and Ryan to mark the opening in 2027, when Alba is named Italian Capital of Contemporary Art. Alba is a town a short drive from Monforte.
The Vezzas are not new to design. In 2022 they founded the Barolo-based Italian Radical Design Group, which aims to preserve and promote historic Italian design brands. That same year the group acquired Memphis Milano, the 1980s post-modern design collective known for its bold furniture and objects. In 2012, the family bought Gufram, a brand founded in the 1960s that is known for pop art-inspired furniture. Pop art was a movement that borrowed imagery from comics and advertising.
The foundation calls itself "contemporary art off the beaten track". For visitors, that means a walk through a wood and a medieval ruin, with new works appearing along the way over the next decade.
