Vigne Museum

Complex and ambitious, the Vigne Museum is a project conceived by Yona Friedman and Jean-Baptiste Decavèle in 2011 which is now taking shape thanks to a partnership with the Livio Felluga winery and the contribution of RAM radioartemobile in the context of the D/A/C (Shared Artistic Designation) project.

Vigne Museum embraces every aspect of wine, from the process of making wine, the story of the vine, its clusters and their transformation into wine, the techniques, the soil and the trees that grace the vineyards, as well as the foods that are part of wine’s ritual. For Friedman and Decavèle, the museum is a bearer of memory. “Wine is one of the most ancient foodstuffs humanity has created,” says Friedman. “It connects us with the past and with history. Wine resonates with the memory of simple acts of sustenance and sharing. Cultivating the vine demands a carefully maintained balance between respect for nature and the satisfaction of humanity’s territorial and survival-related needs”.

In Vigne Museum, the Livio Felluga winery brings together soil, landscape, vineyard and wine in a three-stage elaboration of memory: past (when Livio Felluga bought the land and tended it for many years); present (celebrating Livio Felluga’s one hundredth birthday); and future (the synthesis of the entire process in Vigne Museum for future memory). The installation thus becomes a temporary point of reference where memory connects with the landscape.

Another fundamental point highlighted by Friedman and Decavèle is that this is “une architecture de la diversité”. Vigne Museum is a museum with no doors. Entry is strictly free. Vigne Museum is different in that it is part of an unusual context that brings together a wine producer, D/A/C (a project by RAM radioartemobile, which is more than just an art gallery), an artist and an architect (who are more than just an artist and an architect). The museum is an open space, created from metal circles welded together into three geometrical figures, which will in turn be combined to construct the museum: the triangle (four circles), the cube (six circles) and the dodecahedron (twelve circles).

Decavèle adds that Vigne Museum stands for the architecture of transparency. You can look straight through it. Vigne Museum offers an open view embracing landscape and sky from multiple points of view. The focus on landscape in the work is intense. The vegetation that frames the structure combines with the vines to define the territory and render it unique, along with the people who work its soil. These are the life-giving elements that underpin Vigne Museum. The installation will be located on a hill chosen by Friedman, Decavèle and the Livio Felluga family, from where it will command a 360-degree view that stretches as far as Slovenia, Austria and the Adriatic Sea.

Vigne Museum by Yona Friedman & Jean-Baptiste Decavèle with D/A/C was not conceived to be static. Instead, it is an invitation to reflect and a project in progress whose path will be traced by the actions and interventions undertaken over coming years to imbue the structure with life and content: conventions, other artistic initiatives, presentations of scientific research, debates and meetings.

To inaugurate Vigne Museum by Friedman Decavèle with D/A/C on 20 September 2014, a public convention entitled “Art and Enterprise Safeguarding the Rural Landscape” will be held at the Abbey of Rosazzo in the province of Udine, adjoining the vineyards where the structure is located. The aim is to reflect on the significance of collaboration between enterprise and art for ethical, social and also scientific progress. The convention is part of a long series of round tables – integral to the D/A/C project curated by Pieroni/Stiefelmeier – whose aim is to activate and consolidate partnerships shared by producers and artists on behalf of enterprise, making artists “idea sponsors” for business.

“Art and Enterprise Safeguarding the Rural Landscape” will feature directors of international museums, plant neurobiologists, professors of oenology and of course the leading actors: Maurizio Felluga, Livio’s oldest son, who will present his father and Jean-Baptiste Decavèle will introduce the process under way at Vigne Museum. Yona Friedman will offer a welcome taken from a documentary video directed by Luigi Vitale which describes each stage in the conception and construction of Vigne Museum.

20 September 2014, opening
Vigne Museum
Design: Yona Friedman & Jean-Baptiste Decavèle with D/A/C (Shared Artistic Denomination)
Client: Livio Felluga