The fabric heart of the Ticino: Bressani’s ex-voto that stitches together time, faith, and humanity

In the sacred silence of the Pavia night, when the Ticino River reveals its most intimate soul, a gesture unfolds that transcends ritual and becomes a universal language. On Saturday, June 1, 2024, at 9:00 p.m., the Madonna della Stella returned to her place of honor on the bow of the Barcè, the ancient rowing boat that for centuries has crossed the waters of the Ticino.

This year, alongside the Madonna, sailed a unique ex-voto: the Kuoridistoffa, a fabric artwork by Maestro Stefano Bressani, an internationally renowned artist from Pavia. This “heart of fabric” is not only an art object but a living message that connects past and future, speaking to communities, traditions, mourning, and rebirth.

A fabric that unites more than it divides

The sculptures of Stefano Bressani are three-dimensional patchworks that tell stories through fabrics belonging to collective memory.

The Kuoridistoffa — measuring 26x26x15 cm — was conceived as a contemporary ex-voto: a symbolic heart offered to the Madonna della Stella and her devotees. It is not only a tribute to faith but a cultural and anthropological gesture that stitches together peoples, territories, and different sensitivities. Within the woven fabrics intertwine the threads of Pavia’s history, the experiences of the rowers, the devotion of entire families, and the spirituality that flows across riverbanks and generations.

The river as liquid boundary and bridge of identity

The route of the Barcè, from the end of Borgo Basso to the Church of Santa Maria in Betlem, is more than a procession: it is a symbolic crossing of time and space. The upstream journey carries deep meanings of return, resistance, and hope.

Bishop Monsignor Corrado Sanguineti, accompanying the statue and reciting the prayer of entrustment, becomes a spiritual guide and guardian of a tradition that transcends faith to embrace the cultural identity of the territory. At the heart of the procession, among the reflections of light on the water and the rhythmic sound of the oars, Bressani’s work vibrates with a renewed presence —

contemporary yet deeply rooted.

A tribute to the deceased members of the rowing associations of Pavia and a symbol of protection for the present and the future.

The ex-voto as the language of the soul

When the Kuoridistoffa enters the Church of Borgo, received and blessed by the Bishop, it completes its symbolic consecration.
From private offering it becomes a collective treasure; from art object, an icon; from textile fragment, a shared narrative. The hands that sewed it — hands of an artist, but also of memory — have inscribed within it an invisible grammar made of emotions, belonging, faith, and love.

Alongside Bressani aboard the Barcè was also Guido Corsato, president of the Battellieri Colombo Association, representing a human heritage that finds new voice in this ritual act.

An art that blesses without dividing

Now the Kuoridistoffa stands as guardian and companion to the Madonna della Stella, placed in the Church of Santa Maria in Betlem, ready to dialogue with every visitor. Its language is universal: it speaks not only to Christians but to anyone who believes in the power of roots, the strength of ritual, and the value of community.

In an era that rushes and fades, a heart of fabric can stop time and remind us that art, when it is born from the soul, unites.

Pavia, its river, its people — every thread of Kuoridistoffa tells a story that belongs to all of us.