Chemp
An abandoned hamlet in Perloz, restored by a sculptor and peopled with his wooden statues
Chemp is a hamlet of Perloz, clinging to the mountainside. Like many Alpine villages, it has a long history of families, hard work, hardship and attachment to the land. It also has a more recent story: that of Pino, a simple and stubborn man who decided to bring it back to life.
A village almost empty
Many years ago, Pino fell in love with Chemp. He loved its high stone walls, its worn steps, its small windows looking onto the courtyards and the light that slips between the houses.
But at the time the village had been almost abandoned for a long while. A few elderly people still went up there now and then. The walls were collapsing and weeds were taking over everything.
Putting the place back in order
Pino did not give up. He bought part of an old house and began to restore it. With his wife, Paola, and his friend Silvano Ferretti, he spent long days tidying and cleaning. They cleared the paths between the houses, pulled up the weeds and rebuilt the walls whose stones had been loosened by water and frost.
Little by little, the village regained its former appearance.
Sculptures in the corners
Pino is a well-known woodcarver, in the Aosta Valley and beyond. He placed his first statues for Chemp himself, in the corners that suited them: at the entrance to the stables, on door lintels, on the threshing floors of the old houses. Here you meet the shepherd leading his flock, the child in the cradle, the old woman with her hens, the little match girl, the young girl with her kite. There is also, less expectedly, a homeless man asleep on a bed of cardboard.
Friends came in ever greater numbers, and from everywhere. Pino invited other artists to carve for Chemp. In this way the hamlet became an open-air museum. The statues blend in with the walls of the houses. Stone and wood, which have always gone together in mountain buildings, stand up to time side by side.
Chemp now draws curious visitors and mountain lovers, won over by the place and by Pino’s commitment.
“A dream carried by the wind”
Pino often says that birds sing where there are people. His wish, shared by the association that grew out of the project, is to hear their song again at daybreak and to see them darting over the roofs. This is what he calls “a dream carried by the wind”.
Who is Pino Bettoni?
Angelo Giuseppe Bettoni, known as “Pino”, was born in Carema, in the province of Turin. He lived in Pont-Saint-Martin until 1984, apart from a spell in Donnas from 1967 to 1972.
In 1984 he moved to Perloz. Today he lives in the small hamlet of Chemp. Since childhood he has had what he calls the “sickness” of wood.
He carves figures caught in the simple gestures of everyday life. Nature inspires him too: he tries to put into his work what it makes him feel.
