Calendar

Data da definire, 2026
The 12th labour. The encounter with the shades.
It is the most radical of the twelve labours. This time Hercules does not simply have to face a monster: he must cross the threshold of Hades, enter the realm of the dead and, above all, manage to return.
The last trial is a journey to where strength is no longer enough. It is a confrontation with what has no body, with what remains, with memory, absence and shadow.
Martin Rindlisbacher, Roberto De Luca and Francesco Micieli will take on a performance project entitled:
Parola-Segno-Immagine = Suono
Domenica 13 settembre 2026
The 2nd labour. Killing the Lernaean Hydra, with Giuseppe Buffoli, Carlo Dell'Acqua and Clara Bonfiglio
Hercules has passed the first trial. But labours, as we know, do not end when you think you have solved a problem. The second is perhaps even more insidious.
At Lerna the Hydra awaits him: a creature that seems to multiply at the very moment one tries to destroy it. For every head cut off, more grow back. Strength alone is no longer enough.
On Sunday 13 September, from 3.30 pm, at the Civico Museo Parisi Valle in Maccagno, Giuseppe Buffoli, Carlo Dell’Acqua and Clara Bonfiglio will take on the second labour.
Three artists, three interventions, three ways of facing a problem that, instead of letting itself be solved, keeps generating new possibilities.
During the day, Francesca Petrolo’s intervention will also be completed...
Domenica 9 agosto 2026
Technical session No. 3
The restoration involved cleaning, consolidating and reassembling the object.
The surfaces were treated with a borax-based gel for the controlled removal of deposits, preserving the original material.
The deteriorated parts of the wood were consolidated with vinyl resin to restore their cohesion and stability.
Losses and discontinuities were then filled, restoring the continuity of the surface.
Finally, a piece of wood from the second toe of the left foot was put back and glued into its original position, after checking that the fracture surfaces matched correctly.
Domenica 21 giugno 2026
7th labour. Capturing the Cretan bull. With Francesca Petrolo, Ermanno Cristini and Cesare Biratoni
For the Fatica Inutile event of 21 June, the series devoted to the twelve labours of Hercules reaches the seventh trial: the capture of the Cretan bull. In mythological tradition, the bull sent by Poseidon to Minos becomes an uncontrollable force, a sacred animal turned into a threat, capable of devastating fields, cities and borders. Hercules is called not to kill it but to master it, facing it without mediation and without help.
Domenica, 24 maggio 2026
The 6th labour. Dispersing the Stymphalian birds, with Silvia Scanavini, Claudio Benzoni, Massimo De Caria and Gino Lucente
The project L’Arte è una fatica inutile continues its journey through the myth with the sixth labour: Dispersing the Stymphalian birds, scheduled for Sunday 24 May 2026 at the Civico Museo Parisi Valle in Maccagno.
This is neither a staging of the classical tale nor a narrative updating of it. The myth is taken as an operating structure, a field of tension in which practices, relationships, actions and drifts can emerge.
Artists taking part in the event: Silvia Scanavini, Claudio Benzoni, Massimo De Caria, Gino Lucente.
Domenica 1 marzo 2026
11th labour. The golden apples of the Garden of the Hesperides
Heracles’ eleventh labour leads him to the golden apples of the Garden of the Hesperides, a precious wedding gift from Gaia to Hera, kept in a secret garden at the far western edge of the world. These apples were no ordinary fruit: they were symbols of immortality and beauty, protected by a hundred-headed serpent, Ladon, and watched over by the Hesperides, the nymph daughters of Atlas.
The apples of the Hesperides
Domenica 1 febbraio 2026
Technical session No. 2
The second technical session devoted to the care of the hero involved Elena Astolfi, Francesca Petrolo and Franco Sartori in preparing the cleaning of the wooden object. The meeting focused on carrying out a first cleaning test and on planning the next intervention, to be shared with the artists of the community.
Domenica 14 dicembre 2025
The 3rd labour. The Golden-horned Hind
Susanna Baumgartner
Among the labours of Hercules, the Golden-horned hind marks a moment of transition: from heroic action to moral reflection. It is no longer a matter of defeating an enemy or overcoming an obstacle by force, but of measuring oneself against limits, against the need to hold back the destructive impulse in order to give value back to life.
The hind, an animal sacred to Artemis, is a symbol of purity and intangible beauty. Its golden horns and bronze hooves do not merely signal something exceptional; they allude to the sacredness of nature and its resistance to being possessed. In trying to capture it alive, Hercules thus faces a different trial: not the assertion of his strength, but control over it.
Domenica 2 novembre 2025
Technical session No. 1
The technical session is a suspended time, devoted to work and listening. Restorers, curators, technicians and artists gather around the work as around a living body: they observe it, question it, record its silences and resistances.
It is not yet the time of the actions or labours to come, but of approach: a space of waiting and attention, where the gesture is prepared and knowledge is built through a shared gaze.
Domenica 12 ottobre 2025
The 5th labour. Cleaning the Augean stables in a single day
Diana Dorizzi creating Pleres on the face of Ercole
Ercole has started moving again. From the silence of Tenuta Petrolo he has been transferred to the Civico Museo Parisi Valle: not a simple trip, but a change of state. After centuries of stillness, the wooden body has set off again, crossing space as one crosses a new time.
Once at the museum, Ercole became a field of investigation. An assessment of his state of conservation, a surface cleaning, the setting up of a restoration workshop: not just technical gestures, but the start of a collective reflection on what it means to “care” today. Around him a process has opened, a visible worksite, where restoration is also an act of relationship, a shared practice.