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Torre Maggese
Italy
2023
Germination
Fallow
Ancient Meadow
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Ephemeral Public Art Proposal
Client: Collywood, Art on The Top
Organizer: YAC
Design Team: Maetherea (Cristina Morbi, Aurora Destro, Giorgia Mazzetti)
Outcome: Finalist
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Torre Maggese is a site-specific installation conceived for the landscape of Colli Bolognesi. It investigates the themes of agroecology, rest, time and seasonal cycles.
The archetype of the bell tower is the traditional way of measuring fieldwork time in the fields. Sunrise, sunset and the sound of bells were the agricultural timescapes.
The Tower (Torre) acts as these traditional architectures, recalling the human action shaping fields, interweaving nourishment with the cycle of agriculture.
Torre Maggese explores the practice of fallow, Maggese, in Italian.
This project generates from the concept of rest, the counterpart of action, and the forgotten side of growth.
The art piece is archetypical, symbolizing repose, pause and otium. It is an ephemeral architecture, which can be mounted, dismounted and moved to another field.
When Torre Maggese appears in a landscape, it means that the soil around it is resting. The artwork acts as a nourishing presence. An ‘ancient meadow’ of fodder crops (piante foraggere) will grow around Torre Maggese. People will disperse the seeds in the field around it, leaving a polyphite meadow as a trace of this seeding ritual.