The exhibition path at Fabbrica della ruota (Wheel Works), a former wool mill now turned museum, is a part of the eco-museum of the Italian province of Biella and the site for the Textile Industry Documentation Centre. It was born on the occasion of an exhibition called On the Woollen Thread, curated by Philippe Daverio, and featuring staging by Studio Azzurro. Spread over three locations, the exhibition is about the history of wool and of its manufacturing in the Biella area.  It includes the permanent exhibits at Fabbrica della ruota and two temporary paths, located at the Local Territory Museum in Biella and at the premises of Pria Works, with a video installation called Always Starting from Scratch.

Inside the Fabbrica della ruota, looms, warpers, carding machines, shuttles and sacks of wool look like they stopped working just a few minutes ago. If it is true that places have memory and that objects can say something about those who used them, Studio Azzurro’s staging collects and tells these stories as images and sounds emerge from machinery. This choice makes it possible to appreciate cultural heritage in its complexity, without reducing it to single objects or episodes or cultural history.

The exhibition path winds among machines in a continuous interaction between the physical and the virtual. Divided into two bigger sections, this exhibition commemorates the history of Fabbrica della ruota through four video installations on the ground floor; the upper floor describes the relationship between the Biella area and the wool industry through five video installations about places, people, and working-class statements.