11. SUSTAINABLE CITIES & COMMUNITIES
Claudio Beorchia
Working title: Pedestands
INTRODUCTION
My artwork wants to celebrate the spirit of solidarity of a community through an installation created with the direct participation of the people who live in the area. The project aims to be a metaphor of the fundamental role that communities have in contemporary societies, elevating people to the true protagonists of the installation.
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The artwork consists of a few dozen ceramic artifacts (with structural elements in concrete and metal), placed on the lawn in an area of the park. The ceramic artifacts are made and decorated by the people of the community. Each artifact reproduces, in a stylized, free and funciful way, the footprints of each participant. Together, installed close together on the lawn, the ceramic artifacts become sort of pedestals, representing the central role of people and the importance of an united community.
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ARTISTIC STUDY
For the conception of my project, I focused above all on the idea of community, understood as the fundamental nucleus of people on which societies can build a sustainable and solid future. If there is a community, and if the community is sensitive, aware and solid, it will be able to understand and face any challenge. It is around the root of the word sustainable that I have focused on my project.
Its Latin etymology - sustînere - refers to the meaning of "hold fast", both literally and figuratively. Even today, sostegno in Italian has several meanings and uses: it means "to be next to someone when he is in difficulty", "to offer support", "to help", "to raise". With my project, I want to highlight these meanings to manifest the importance of helping each other, offering support, being one next to the other. The artwork is intended to be a kind of small collective monument dedicated to society, devoid of any kind of rhetoric or monumentality.
Basically, the installation can be seen as the creation of a set of pedestals that elevate people as protagonists in the work of art and in the context. The artwork is really finished when people put their feet on it. My project wants to support the community, offer people a solid common base on which they can stand up, be together, close and united. Art becomes a crucial factor in supporting society. The work, in its horizontal design that develops on the lawn, wants to fit discreetly into the park. It does not want to be the main character in the room.
The real protagonist of the park is the public: the people who choose to stay there and walk through the artwork; the people who observe and interact with the installation. The installation actually wants to have a playful dimension, it will suggest an audio-visual interaction with the public in the park. People are encouraged to step on these pedestals, put their feet on these ceramic footprints and walk on the entire installation. On a visual level, the pairs of colored footprints located on the lawn also refer to colored butterfly or insect wings.
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Photo: Sketch by Claudio Beorchia
DESIGN
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Learning on the lawn appears as an installation of a few dozen ceramic artifacts, arranged and attached to the ground through a concrete and metal base glued to the artifacts. The artifacts are arranged together in pairs, but without a specific order; as a whole, they generate a substantially circular shape. The ceramic artifacts have the shape of footprints. Each participant creates and decorates a few artifacts, each slightly larger than their foot. Under each artifact, the concrete and metal base will be attached so that the artifacts can be installed in the ground. Participants will decorate their artifacts according to their taste and expressiveness. I therefore imagine very different shapes and decorations, but with a formal context in the overall installation. Also in this decision there is an allegorical message behind.
Individuals in a society each bring their sensitivity, their knowledge, their own thoughts; together they give life to a rich and varied society, but cohesive and united. The ideal place for installation is on the lawn, in a flat area a few meters from the road from which it is possible to see the artwork. The call to observe and walk through the artwork takes place through some artifacts placed between the road and the installation, which give life to a kind of short path. The installation of the artwork takes place during a public act: each participant installs their own pair of ceramic artifacts within the lawn area designated for the artwork.
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The artwork has a size of 3-4 meters in diameter and it is installed in a flat part of the lawn in the park.
• It is composed of a few dozen ceramic artifacts, placed in pairs, designed and made by people from the local community who are involved in the project.
• The artifacts reproduce in a stylized, free and imaginative way each participant's footprint.
• The artwork wants to have a playful dimension and suggests a sonic interaction with the park public.
• Artifacts can be seen as pedestals, and people who interact with the installation are the real protagonists of the artwork.
Claudio Beorchia
Claudio Beorchia is an Italian interdisciplinary artist.
He studied design and visual arts at the University of Venice and at the Fine Arts Academy "Brera" in Milan. He has a Ph.D. in Design Science - Department of Design and Planning of Complex Environments at the Doctorate School at Iuav University in Venice.
His works of art have been exhibited on several occasions in Italy and abroad
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"I try to see and represent the world in different revealing and more meaningful ways. I do it through processes of intuition and insight using slides and variations in the point of view of units, clichés, elements of urban space and landscape. I do not set boundaries for choices. of language and materials. I always look for expressive synthesis and formal efficiency, lightness and irony. "
