TOart and architecture. A woman climbs the facade with a rope/thread to weave urban and social relationships. We are not in Piazza Cadorna in Milan with the famous Needle, thread and knot, but in Foggia in the final stretch of the Eighteenth-Century Quarters. Once again the architect Carla Gammarota, after the flaming red horse on the corner of Via della Repubblica and Via Diomede created by the students of the Academy of Fine Arts, he imagined a large sculpture for a building in Foggia. This time we are in Piazza Ugo Foscolo, where previously the demolition of the historic building had created much controversy among construction purists.
No regrets though now, after the sculpture was placed Arianna of the visual artist Sergio Ricciuto Conte, from Foggia but now residing in Brazil in Sao Paulo with his family.
In a video message the sculptor, who works on the front of frescoes, mosaics and works of art for public bodies, explained the meaning of his work.
“I am very happy, I won the contest organized by Carla Gammarota’s architecture studio, my work Arianna is contextualised in a three-dimensional space, plays on space, enters and exits and is structured within the playful harmony of a woman climbing on a rope, evoking Ariadne’s thread, a thread that helps us get out of the labyrinths and helps us face the minotaurs”.
The work wants to provoke, the woman tries to tug on the rope, but the thread becomes a button, of relational energy. “Arianna was born as a sculpture, but is formulated as an installation, because the material occupies a space, it makes the work live in the urban space. It is also a work of daily narrative of those who, among the residents and citizens, will have an experience and will dialogue with this piece of color and shape, line, space. I wish you excellent enjoyment of the work, with the hope that Foggia will capitalize on Carla Gammarota’s initiative. The invitation is to cultivate beauty as petrol and fuel for the construction of a future and short moments of eternity that are called memories”.
Well, what’s behind the idea of the contest? The architect, in order to furnish a trapezoidal-shaped exhibition space measuring 12.00 meters in height and with a maximum depth of 1.40 metres, located in the corner of the building between Piazza Ugo Foscolo and the corner of Via Mameli, located three meters from height from the pavement, together with the owner company has considered setting up this void with the creation of a sculpture called “Arianna”, already authorized by the Single Desk for Construction of the Municipality of Foggia through the presentation of the SCIA Certified Activity Start Report
The 3D sculpture depicts a female figure divided into two portions of heights of approximately m. 4.00 and mt. 3.50 and is made of high density polystyrene covered with fiberglass and polyester or polyurea resin which guarantee excellent resistance even in extreme climatic conditions.
The internal structure is made of iron tubing and appropriately modeled. All accompanied by an adequate fixing system suitable for attaching the structure to the plates provided in the floors of the building.
Finally, the sculpture was finished with two-component polyurethane paint with a gloss effect (polyurethane paints contain isocyanate-based resins which make the film elastic and very resistant to bad weather). The two portions are tied to round-section iron tubes of appropriate diameter and covered with material suitable for replicating a rope. The structure is completed by a fake red button in plastic material measuring approximately 100 cm. in diameter with internal LED lighting system. The niche, for its entire height, is illuminated with a suitable electrical system connected to the condominium meters, therefore all costs relating to the consumption of electricity for the lighting of the artistic figure, as set up, remain the exclusive responsibility of the Condominium. Everything is anchored in place and carried out to perfection in compliance with the provisions of the safety regulations in force and to safeguard public and private safety, without the condominium owners being able to oppose it.
The sculpture, although part of the condominium building, remains the exclusive property of the construction company and can never be removed, except with authorization from the owner company, establishing that any ordinary and extraordinary maintenance burden with any various repairs, and conservation during the time of this sculpture, it remains the exclusive responsibility of the Condominium.
