The Enchanted Castle

Participating artists: Carla Accardi, Gianni Colombo, Lucio Fontana, Claes Oldenburg e Coosje van Bruggen, Giulio Paolini, Paola Pivi, Marinella Senatore, Grazia Toderi and Gilberto Zorio

This unprecedented project dedicates, for the first time, an entire floor of the Museum to children and young people, displaying the artworks specially for them and involving them in their interpretation.

On the occasion of its 40th anniversary, Castello di Rivoli presents The Enchanted Castle, a new museum experience designed for ‘non-adults’ that places the museum and art at the centre of a process of education and growth, involving the entire community through co-creation activities of the museum journey.

The project is the result of collaboration between the Education Department, a team of teachers, and a group of young people from Rivoli, aged between six and seventeen. The project is curated by Marcella Beccaria, Francesco Manacorda, and Paola Zanini. The Enchanted Castle, opening on Thursday 19 December 2024, offers an opportunity to renew the museum’s institutional mission as a promoter of contemporary art knowledge, through the direct involvement of young audiences.
With The Enchanted Castle, the entire third floor of the Museum is transformed into an inclusive and participatory space. The exhibition path is conceived and designed by young people for young people through co-design activities, creating opportunities for non-adult audiences to approach contemporary art. The Museum, inspired by the idea of the agorà, becomes a place of meeting and exchange.

The permanent collection of Castello di Rivoli is the starting point from which the participants create a unique and constantly evolving display. For the first time, the museum path is a work in progress conceived and built together with the young audience, teachers, and those who share the project. Coordinated by the Education Department, the participants create new interpretation elements, such as wall texts, short compositions, poems, haikus: special keys to understand the artworks for their peers from their own point of view, in a peer-to-peer approach. Collected in ‘interactive boards’, these interventions will be periodically renewed in each room throughout the exhibition’s duration.

The choice of artworks and the exhibition setup focuses on our relationship with space, proposing Castello di Rivoli as a place to inhabit, to live, and which everyone is invited to appropriate starting from the in action experience proposed to the young people. The majority of the works belong to the collection of Castello di Rivoli and are by artists, active from the mid-twentieth century to the present, who have contributed significantly to the institution’s exhibition history. A special guest of the project is Free Land Scape by Pivi, an artwork that is being displayed for the first time in Italy on this occasion. This monumental, immersive, and playful installation offers visitors of all ages an experience where movement and bodily perceptions take centre stage.

The Enchanted Castle stems from the desire to bring children and young people closer to contemporary art in an engaging and active way and reaffirms how art is a learning tool for the development of transversal skills such as creativity, critical thinking, collaboration and active citizenship. Within the framework of The Enchanted Castle, the Museum’s Education Department plans an extensive programme of activities aimed at people of all ages.

The Enchanted Castle places education at the centre of museum activity, serving as a model in museological and museographic fields. The project, refers to the educational approach of radical pedagogy where the term ‘educare’ is understood as a verb, an action, a way of moving in the world and interpreting reality. It promotes the idea of a museum that is accessible, welcoming, and inclusive for all, regardless of age, background, or abilities. It aims to overcome the perception of art as an elitist phenomenon, making it an integral part of everyday life, while emphasising the power of art to influence and shape both the individual and collective spheres, as well as the social life of the community.

For the opening day, on Thursday 19 December the Education Department is organising a party open to all to celebrate with the entire community the participation in the Museum’s projects.

The support for The Enchanted Castle is provided by the Consulta per la Valorizzazione dei Beni Artistici e Culturali di Torino.