In the historic, postcard Italian region of Piedmont, there is a modest, picturesque town called Bene Vagienna. And in this town, there is a small grassy park containing a stairway to nowhere, an imaginary fountain and a rather kinky golden pigeon. Welcome to Piazza del Chafleo (Chaffling Square), a new, permanent, site-specific public artwork by Colombian artist Iván Argote.

The work was commissioned by Radis, a public art project founded by Fondazione Arte CRT and dedicated to bringing contemporary art into public spaces across Piedmont, and is the third in a series of four, all curated by Marta Papini. In its inaugural year, Italian artist Giulia Cenci planted aluminium casts of skeletal trees high in the Alps amongst an idyllic woodland path where they echo the silver birches of the surrounding landscape. The following year, Kosovar visual artist Petrit Halilaj paid homage to a derelict school in rural Borgata Valdibà, reviving the forgotten doodles and carvings left on its desks as a metal childlike house, populated by whimsical characters drawn from the imagination of those who once studied here. The fourth and final commission, due next year, will be in Alba, coinciding with the town being named Italian Capital of Contemporary Art 2027.

Piazza del Chafleo is born from an idea Argote has been thinking about for years. Chafleare is a word that doesn’t exist outside his imagination, not quite a verb, nor a concept with a fixed meaning; instead, it’s an invitation for everyone to place their own definition on it – to dream, hug, play, flirt, kiss, drink, protest. Now, chafleare has found a home in Bene Vagienna, where it becomes a piazza in its own right, situated in a grassy clearing with expansive views across the Piedmontese countryside.

“For almost ten years, I have been working on the idea of creating the Piazza del Chafleo,” Argote says at the press launch. “A place whose name comes from an imaginary verb that I hope will gain meaning through the way the space is used. In other words, it is an invitation to imagine the meaning of a new verb through the use of a square. The Radis project created the opportunity for this imagined project to become real: the Piazza del Chafleo will exist.”

The installation is framed by three sculptural elements rendered in pink cement. There is a set of large, Truman Show-esque stairs that lead skywards, inspired by The Baron in the Trees by Italo Calvino, a childhood favourite of Argote’s about a boy who goes to live in the trees – “It’s a way to escape from our society,” Argote says. Nearby, a seated, seesaw-like structure evokes the ruins of the town’s ancient Roman amphitheatre, while an imaginary fountain at the centre of the piazza is filled with mirrored pools of water that invite you to share your dreams. “It’s about creating your own utopia,” the artist explains.

Three circular plaques are dotted around the scene with inscribed messages. One asks, “Do you remember the first time we chaffled here?” Another nods to the local legend of the Miracle of the Roses, in which Beata Paola Gambara Costa, carrying food to feed the poor against her cruel husband’s wishes, saw the bread miraculously transform into roses when he demanded to know what she was carrying. This motif has travelled far as a symbol of feminist activism: “In Chicago the women from the factories in the early 20th century would [organise] huge protests named bread and roses,” Argote tells us. “Meaning, yes we need bread – to be well paid – but we also need to have space and time for culture.”

And then there is the pigeon. Large, gilded and sprawled in a fabulously sassy pose. Pigeons are a recurring motif in Argote’s practice, symbols of the overlooked and marginalised, as well as the everyday creatures we share our cities and public spaces with. In 2024, he brought the bird to Manhattan, installing a giant, hyperrealistic pigeon sculpture – titled Dinosaur – as the fourth recipient of the High Line Plinth commission.

“I like the idea of honouring this figure that is like a companion, it’s been with us for thousands of years and we sometimes take it for granted.” And what about this particular pigeon’s sultry pose? “He’s in a comfortable position. There’s an idea of rest, but also it’s a bit kinky, too. The first time I came here, [everyone] told me that this is where teenagers come to kiss and seduce. So he’s [the pigeon] also kind of cruising.”

The idea of chafleare – the meaning being fluid, personal and open to interpretation — resonates with Patrizia Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, president of Fondazione Arte CRT. For her, art belongs out in the world, in conversation with landscapes and communities. It should be accessible, a part of everyday life, and capable of catching people by surprise. She likes the idea of someone simply “tripping over” a work of art, stumbling upon something unexpected in a place they thought they knew.

At the launch of Piazza del Chafleo, two pigeons suddenly swoop into the square and begin “lemoning”, Italian slang for making out, Argote explains with a grin – or perhaps, chaffing?