LE GENTI – The People
Project Architect Roberto Guarnieri.
Subject: Group of anthropomorphic figures on a base on a flat surface. Materials: marble, stone, wood, earth, terracotta, copper, aluminum.
Dimensions: maximum height 5 meters, “stand” with “lake” 16 x 18 meters, rotating diameter 28 meters.
They look at us and welcome us without fear, but with respect. Just like the people around here have always done with wayfarers. The people that used to cross the Mugello and stop could appreciate the honest contact with these people full of humanity. People that used to populate these areas, that used to feel them as their own and belonged to them. These figures are their archetypes or their spirits. The statues that are looking at you are you, citizens of Barberino, that is to say your souls. The travellers and drivers who are concentrated on driving but catch a glimpse of you and perceive the very best essence of Mugello and its people.
Elementary symbols of children, adults, old extracts of different kinds of materials such as aspirations and the consistency in various stages of life. Artisan skills that transform an ideal project into the final execution of a live work of art. Each element of this group bravely looks in different directions, without any kind of fear as it is firmly fixed to this ideal, the sharp stones of the Apennines. With the help of the wind, the rain and the sun time will shape the profiles, with the same thing that happens to us as the seasons of our life go by.
They will not be destroyed and deformed just like plastic bags, they will be modified by the freezing frost and by the scorching heat. They were born as perfect figures, created by the artistic talent and completed by the artisan skills with so much care and passion. Those who believe that these objects are silent forget the language of the elements that they are made of: the substance of the wooden souls, the hard plastic with various levels of resistance of stones, the smoothness of the scales and the pliability of the clay that is transformed into terracotta with heat. So many different languages that communicate using primary and direct implicit sensations. So many interpretations due to the frame of mind of the observer, the immediate user of common stimulations, that appear from different corners and compete towards the creation of different sensations. They are not Gods or their simulacrum, we are far away from the islands of the Pacific. We are on the hills that separate, but for some unite, Tuscany to or with Emilia. They personify the highlanders but also the citizens that are now mixed with the ancient inhabitants of these areas.
They carefully observe those around them. Connected with the rest of the village in a point that, from above, looks like an eye or a belly button, while new constructions appear, regulate and distribute those arriving and those leaving. There are some looking towards the ancient Apennine passes, those indicating the motorway, those observing the soft hills moving down towards the valley and those admiring the new lake. For all they are discordant routes and roads, but all identical and possible destinations.