The project
1. A fallen hero
At the centre is Ercole, an eighteenth-century wooden sculpture by Giovanni Maria Franzosini, two metres and ten centimetres tall. For decades it stood under the portico of Tenuta Petrolo in Ticinallo; today it is at the Civico Museo Parisi Valle in Maccagno.
We no longer see it standing, as its maker intended: Ercole lies flat, fragile and ailing, his club broken in two. The hero of strength is on the ground, and that is exactly why he concerns us.
We no longer see it standing, as its maker intended: Ercole lies flat, fragile and ailing, his club broken in two. The hero of strength is on the ground, and that is exactly why he concerns us.
2. The broken club
At a time marked by war, violence and democracies at risk of being lost, a horizontal, wounded Ercole becomes an image that speaks to the present.
The broken club is not just damage to be restored: it is a weapon that no longer strikes. The project takes it as a sign of non-violence, to exorcise the rhetoric of force and to ask what remains of the hero once he stops fighting.
The broken club is not just damage to be restored: it is a weapon that no longer strikes. The project takes it as a sign of non-violence, to exorcise the rhetoric of force and to ask what remains of the hero once he stops fighting.
3. The open workshop
A restoration workshop has been set up inside the museum in full view of the public, led by chief restorer Franco Sartori. Here, caring for Ercole is not only a technical task: it is a collective gesture, slow and patient, that anyone can watch.
Repairing instead of destroying becomes a shared practice.
Repairing instead of destroying becomes a shared practice.
4. Twelve labours, twelve encounters
Around Ercole, twelve events follow one another, one for each labour of the myth. The invited artists do not illustrate the hero’s feats: they shift them, overturn them and translate them into the languages of contemporary creativity. Capturing, killing and dominating become listening, safeguarding and sharing.
See the calendar of events.
See the calendar of events.
5. The strength of a useless labour
L’arte è una fatica inutile is an experiment in collective creation: a community of artists, restorers, scholars and citizens gathered around a fragile body.
No immediate purpose, no victory to celebrate: only the time spent making things together, which builds relationships, knowledge and, perhaps, a different idea of strength.
No immediate purpose, no victory to celebrate: only the time spent making things together, which builds relationships, knowledge and, perhaps, a different idea of strength.
The project is curated by Francesca Petrolo, Franco Sartori, Ermanno Cristini and Umberto Cavenago
Museum opening hours from 6 December 2025: Friday 2.30–6.30 pm, Saturday and Sunday 10 am–12 noon and 2.30–6.30 pm
