In recent years, mountains have returned to the center of Italian cultural discourse—not only as landscapes, but as archives of identities, practices, and memories. Mountains to be narrated, valued, and “listened to.” At the same time, they are territories shaped by rapid transformations: intensive tourism, new infrastructures, major events, and emerging economies that coexist, often uneasily, with deep-rooted traditions and ways of life.

It is within this tension that "Mountain Echoes" takes shape, the project by artist Yuval Avital presented in Valtellina ahead of the Milan Cortina 2026 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.

The work is the result of several months of field research, during which Avital travelled across Valtellina with microphones, a camera and a video recorder, collecting hundreds of recordings of everyday life: sounds of nature, craftsmanship and production, and the voices of residents of all ages and professions. A process grounded in direct listening and encounter, rather than distant representation.

The collected material has taken shape as three large-scale anthropomorphic sound sculptures, within which speaker systems broadcast a polyphonic, layered composition.

Selected by the Lombardy Region as part of the Culture Games, Mountain Echoes will open to the public on January 23–24, 2026 as a distributed route across the municipalities of Sondrio, Tirano and Bormio—a journey that moves from the capital of Valtellina to the high mountains, unfolding through three distinct artistic experiences, each rooted in a specific architectural, urban and social context. The presentation of the sculptures will be accompanied by multimedia exhibitions that contextualise the artist’s research across the territory, framing the project as a process rather than a finished object.

The project traces a precise transition for the Valtellina territory, moving from local experience to a public, shared narrative conceived for wider circulation, foregrounding cultural, environmental, identity-based and symbolic elements.

Remaining in the background are the material conditions shaping life in the mountains today: seasonal labour, growing real-estate pressure, the depopulation of smaller towns, and the transformation of landscapes through new infrastructure—dynamics that daily strain an increasingly fragile balance between local economies, the environment and contemporary life in these areas.

In spring, the entire installation will be transferred to Milan, bringing the echo of the mountains into an urban context. At the conclusion of the project, the sculptures will become part of the Games’ cultural legacy, with the stated aim of leaving a lasting mark on the public perception of the Lombardy Alps.