Palermo Park & Gibellina Ground

local situation sculpture
tree sets of 60 cm high steel trunk and two solar panels, audio players and loudspeakers.
Technical designer Gregoire Rousseau.

I asked the local people of Gibellina to tell or sing the oldest verses they remember. I recorded and transfered them for the audio players, which were dug under the ground. When the sun shined the constructions became activated and the recordings started to play. These audio constructions symbolize the relation between the people and the ground in Gibellina. The ground has effected lives of everybody. The old verses rise from the ground like the seeds from the ground of Gibellina.

local situation sculpture
3-6 round mosquito nets and video projections of local Interviews, 6-15 m3

The interviewed local people: restaurant owner Antonino Valenti from piazza Marina, librarian of the conservatoire Dario lo Cicero, artist Egle Oddo in the Giardino Garibaldi and novelist Giorgio Vasta in different places in the old town of Palermo. In the interviews I asked local peoples’ relations to different places, which they had chosen in a way or other. The restaurant was inherited, the conservatory is the working place and the park has influenced artists: scene of life has been acted under the branches of the trees. These memories were glued together in long time. The mosquito nets, to which I am projecting those video interviews, signify to me the movement of life. The life of insects or life of the people, who have to find their way, in a way or other. Specially next morning when they wake up under the shelter. Combining these two elements I see the switch of the values: The home becomes movable and memories become a stable entity, which might lead us to new direction. It is important to listen to these memories with patience…