FUORIPISTA. art, sport and winter
Ahead of the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, gres art 671 presents an exhibition dedicated to sport and snow
Telling the story of winter sports through a perspective that ranges between art, design, architecture and research: this is the goal of FUORIPISTA, the new exhibition by gres art 671 made possible thanks to the contribution of Fondazione Pesenti and Italmobiliare. Set in the context of the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games, the exhibition is a multidisciplinary journey that brings together historical and contemporary works, archival materials, photographs, videos and installations, alongside three new works commissioned specifically for the project. Works that become a lens through which to observe not only the beauty of the sporting gesture, but also the social, technological and climatic transformations that are redefining our relationship with the mountains. “The imminence of the Olympic and Paralympic Games is an extraordinary opportunity to strengthen our mission, presenting art in dialogue with winter sports and continuing the process of creating a cultural hub with an international vision, capable of involving visitors as much as possible on themes of contemporary relevance,” declared Roberto Pesenti, president of gres art 671.
The exhibition route is divided into five sections – Olympics +, Winter Sports, Micro-stories, Artificial Winter, Cryosphere – which guide the visitor through a complex landscape, where snow becomes a narrative structure, an archive of memories, but also a clue to a changing world. From the first Winter Olympics to the construction of artificial snow, from the most well-known disciplines to the hidden stories that redefine sport as a place of freedom and possibility, FUORIPISTA invites visitors to explore winter beyond rhetoric, inside its most human and shared dimension.
FUORIPISTA unfolds as a journey through different centuries and geographies, putting in dialogue historical masterpieces such as Bird Trap by Pieter Brueghel the Younger and a large photograph by Andreas Gursky with more intimate and unexpected narratives. The Cholitas Escaladoras portrayed by Todd Antony, the pioneering experience of Emirati skater Zahra Lari or the skiing communities of Lesotho photographed by Kari Medig broaden the common imagination of winter sports, shifting the gaze from canonical geographies towards plural horizons. The mountain emerges as a real and symbolic space where desire, challenge, resistance and belonging intertwined. On display is a selection of key models from the Blizzard brand between the early 1970s and the late 1980s, belonging to the Heritage Department of Tecnica Group, technical sponsor of the project.
A central chapter of the project is represented by the three new commissions, which mark an important step in the path of gres art 671. MASBEDO tell the story of Andrea Lanfri, mountaineer and former Paralympic athlete of the Italian national track and field team, in a video installation that reflects on inclusion and the overcoming of limits. Studio Folder translates environmental and statistical data from the Olympic Games into a skating choreography, transforming information into gesture. Numechi.studio dedicates two works to IceLab Bergamo, transfiguring the movement of Carolina Kostner into an immersive experience between body, space and temperature. “In this exhibition, for the first time, there are works of art and original research projects produced and commissioned for the occasion by gres art 671,” underlines Francesca Acquati, general manager of gres art 671. “It is an important step in the history of gres, part of whose mission is precisely to support and encourage the production of contemporary art in Italy, investing concretely in the art system and offering artists spaces for experimentation and research.”
Completing the exhibition is a public program, realized with Fondazione Pesenti Ets, which will give voice to artists, Olympic and Paralympic athletes, researchers and leading figures from the world of snow and ice. An opportunity to share testimonies and reflections that restore to sport its most authentic dimension made of relationships, inclusion, community.
