The Procedure.
To Livigno
To Its Mountains
to its blue sky
to its starry nights
to the Milky Way
to the Great Bear
which in August at night
you can nearly touch
with your hands
Sunday 16 July 2000.
The snow has long since melted. Val Federia's green meadows show stones which have been guarded, protected, dragged and moved by livigno's winter and which now are returned to us by the summer heat, aged by one year, yet still rich in that confidence, the certainty of living much longer than man. Patient stones, sentries of the valleys, reference points for passers- by. Cumbersome stones in the pastures, too, stones like knots in a comb which must be eradicated to allow the irremissible cycle of life to continue.
«Stones worn down by the wind are my words for you»
Monday 17 July 2000.
An
incomplete and modified geometry, a precarious balance: new structures entering the
surrounding enviroment and modifying the potential of shape and place. Is it art?
Sculptures, no doubt, offering a home not only to the surrounding elements but also those
people who set their eyes upon them.
Sculptures in spaces, sculptures interpreted in a different way by each person passing.
«What is immaginable is also possible »
Tuesday
18 July 2000.
The valley
has been deprived of its stones. The. raw material is ready. the stones are waiting. The
people glance and think: Well at least the invironment has benefitted by removed all
the stones from the meadows in a 200- meter long area. It would have been done,
anyway.....'But only here, in this valley, could such an artistic event, based on a
seasonal necessity, have been thought of, planned and achieved. Livigno is once again in
the limelight and gives birth to an art form where an urban perspective is perfectly
combined with a poetic vision of nature.
«Buildings made of stones have an archetypal value: you get the feeling they reach your subconscious, by reminding you of your childhood, as if they contained something which belongs to mankind as a whole. »
Wednesday 19 July 2000.
The artists are at
work. They know they need a lot of patience, strength and skill.
They know that the valley will be home to these sculptures for the whole season. They know
their works of art will be admired and judged by tourists and by the inhabitants and that,
they will have to endure the wind, jealous of its space, and the water, jealous of its
earth. They will be lit by the lightening of the summer storms. they know they will either
be admired for a long time or destroyed in a split second. They will be neither fixed nor
protected. No mechanical or electrical tools will be used to build them. It will be a fair
challenge, nature against nature.
«Colours are natural and they are all different from one another »
Thursday 20 luglio 2000.
The fifth day of work. The artist's. work is being carried out on the spot and the landscape shows evident traces and marks. This is not the traditional space of an art gallery or a museum, but the immensity of nature: open spaces, hills, mountains, fields, rivers stretching out endlessly and enchanting valleys.
«It was Gerry Schum in 1969 who coined the phrase 'Land Art' to mean a collection of works by artists operating directly upon the territory. »
Friday 22 July 2000.
It is hard
work. Artists are beginning to feel a little tired, despite being well looked after by the
hotel staff, admired by a constantly increasing number of enthusiasts and refreshed with
local food. The turning point has now been reached. The borderline between what there was
and what will be is being crossed. Stones are still stones, yet a new context is there, or
at least you can percieve it.
We come closer to the stones, we watch them and try to interpret them: somebody can see a
tower, or an elephant, somebody else cannot see anything at all but they listen. They
listen to the chisel striking, they look around and think what a good decision was made in
choosing Livigno. 'No doubt they are a little crazy' someone whispers, pointed at an
artist who is about to pile one heavy stone upon another, ' lets come back tomorrow!
says someone else, ' I wonder what it will be?.'
«If you're handsome they throw stones at you, if you are ugly, they throw stones at you...»
Saturday 22 July 2000.
It has already been reported in the newspapers for some days. 'How beautiful are the stone scupltures in Livigno!' The six teams, each of them made up of an artist and two helpers, watch one another at a distance. Glances of mutual understanding and satisfaction are being cast. The participants and the event are by now well known. It is a very special moment and everybody hopes they will experience it again next year. The stones will either stay there or be moved, covered by snow in winter, and that white mantle will protect and keep them warm until springtime once again makes them the protagonists of the season.
«How beautiful are stone » Ciccio Ingrassia whispered to himself in Fellini's 'Amarcord' , whilst staring into space and meditating upon life.
It is the last day and it is a great pleasure for us to be able to say th
at this first event of such artistic expression has been born. Therefore, as is the case with anything coming to life, it must be given a name in order to be remembered and appreciated and to give it the position it deserves. It will be called..........
«Once upon a time there was a rock which ever since its creation had been influenced by the purest essences of the sky and the extraordinary flavours of the earth, by the strength of the sunlight and the delicacy of the moonlight, until it got magically impregnated with all these elements, like a ball. Fertilised by the wind, it became a little stone monkey....».
