Bellano's Participatory Art Project Transforms Lakeside Village into Cultural Hub

The municipality of Bellano, on Lake Como, is launching a participatory art project to become a Lombard art village, collaborating with ArchiViVitali, a cultural association founded in 2016 by the family of painter Giancarlo Vitali (Bellano, 1929). Mayor Antonio Rusconi aims to use culture for socialization and economic development, inspired by Peccioli's Macca open-air museum. Bellano hosts talks, children's workshops, a revived cinema (opened by the mayor as a volunteer in 2006), and a literary series "Il bello dell'Orrido" with authors like Gioele Dix and Francesco Costa. ArchiViVitali operates from Spazio Circolo, a museum housing the Vitali archive with works by Giancarlo Vitali, his son Velasco Vitali (Bellano, 1960), and documents of writer Andrea Vitali (Bellano, 1956). Two exhibitions are underway: "Un segreto per pochi. Riconoscersi dentro un ritratto" at Spazio Circolo, curated by Alessia Romano, featuring seven young contemporary artists (Marco Bongiorni, Daniele Costa, Luca De Angelis, Adelisa Selimbašić, Davide Serpetti, Maddalena Tesser, Vittoria Toscana) exploring symbolic portraiture across media. The second, "Il ritratto di Bellano," conceived by photographer Carlo Borlenghi (Bellano, 1956) and Andrea Vitali, displays about 400 photographs of residents in streets and shops, accompanied by a book with introductions by Andrea Vitali matching faces to family surnames.