Una Boccata d'Arte is a widespread, choral contemporary art project created by the Fondazione Elpis in collaboration with Galleria Continua. It aims to be an injection of optimism, a spark of cultural, tourist and economic recovery based on the encounter between contemporary art and the historical and artistic beauty of twenty of Italy's most beautiful and evocative villages. With Una Boccata d'Arte Fondazione Elpis also wishes to make a significant contribution to the support of contemporary art and the enhancement of Italy's historical and landscape heritage, with a view to the resumption of cultural activities in our country.

The twenty beautiful and characteristic villages that have enthusiastically taken part in the initiative will be enlivened in September by twenty site-specific contemporary artworks, mostly created outdoors by emerging and established Italian artists, invited by Fondazione Elpis and Galleria Continua. Twenty artists for twenty villages, in all twenty regions of Italy.

For the medieval village of Avise, Valle D'Aosta, Alice Visentin created the site specific installation Il comizio, la merenda, il canto thought as a gift-project for the village. Starting from the observation that "fanfares, dances, small bands and choirs were once a source of prestige, fervid artistic activity and an opportunity for social aggregation. Reactivating spontaneous vitality, which in the past was the norm and a collective passion, serves to live a happy social life. The silent destruction of spontaneous aggregation must be replaced by expression from below. The festive streets allow society to recreate its social identity or, more simply, to create spaces of shared happiness."

In response to the "silent destruction of spontaneous aggregation", Visentin conceived Il comizio, la merenda, il canto as a project to give back to the village, an occasion for social aggregation, composed of three fundamental acts which also give it its name. 

Il comizio consists of an installation in the Castello dei Signori in Avise, covered with large paper drawings of bands and rallies, stories heard and reinterpreted, popular song texts and long narration sheets. The painting Io ed Anna - which represents for Alice a period of intense shared happiness - and Congresso di strane religioni - eight wooden silhouettes that represented for the artist a possibility of a future during her recent period of isolation - accompany the installation.
La merenda is one of the gifts to the village of Avise to be shared with all the participants at the inauguration. It is a moment of sociability between the inhabitants of the village and the visitors: a Sunday snack which, together with the singing choir, is intended to stimulate local energies to nurture a sense of belonging to the community.
Il canto is a chorus on stage, enacted by "social sculptures": a tuning of many people linked together at the same time. The invited choir during the inaugural event is the Coro Bajolese.

"In the past, dances, small bands and choirs were a source of prestige, fervid artistic activity and an opportunity for social gathering and union. Reactivating the spontaneous vitality that was the norm and collective passion in the past serves to live a happy social life. - Alice Visentin