Disintegration
074Dolomites, Italy
Farmers cultivate land to reside upon the Armentara meadow. They live with nature through an equilibrium of existence without overhauling natural resources. Alpine huts and farmsteads are therefore evidence of human’s way of survival within the arduous condition of the Alpine.
If the creator made seeds that sprout into flora across the land, farmers planted artefacts of huts dispersing along the meadow. These huts encapsulate memories and stories that slowly constitute people’s impression of Armentara.
When the hut germinates, it sprouts into fragments of architectural components such as doors, walls made of circular wood logs, tiled thatch roofs and structural components. The sprouting looks nowhere like the blossoming of flowers, resembling an implosion that prophesies the consequences when the balance is broken. This could be the over development of nature, destruction of tourism to the natural resources
Context:
Armentara meadows whose name derives from the Ladin word “Armënt”. In Italian “Armenti” meaning herd of large domesticated animals. In the extended sense Armentara is hence the place of grazing, situated between 1,600 and 2,000 metres above sea level and below the rock faces of the Sasso di Santa Croce are part of the Fanes-Senes-Braies Nature Park.
Concept:
The artwork presents the shooting of an Alpine hut into a germinated state. When the hut sprouts, the process of growth looks like the Alpine hut is breaking apart. “Disintegration” provokes and questions the visitors, what do one need to take action to protect the elegance in our surrounding environment and history.
Process:
Similar to the construction of a lifeguard rubber boat, the artwork uses silver mirrored PVC fabric to create separate pieces of inflatables. The PVC fabrics are sewed carefully to reveal similar contours to the actual Alpine Huts existing around Armentara meadows.
Construction:
Hand carry from Hong Kong to Italy, the inflatables are inflated in-situ first, and trees existed diagonally across the site are belted with T-Shaped steel bars where steel wires can be tied to suspend the ten separate inflatable pieces to appear in a state of ‘Floating’.
Experience:
The SMACH Biennale 2023 is curated with the word “Sprouting”, a verb declined in the gerund indicating an action already in progress on a visible level or on invisible, microscopic, metaphorical levels. The term has a wide range of applications from botany to molecular biology to the development of the neural system.
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Client:
SMACH
Typology:
Installation
Status:
Completion
Location:
Dolomites, Italy
Duration:
2023
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Project Team:
Anthony Ko
Fabrication:
Inflatables Customisation (Inflatables)
Construction:
Anthony Ko (Set-Up)
Photo Courtesy:
Gustav Willeit (Final Photos), Elisa Cappellari (Process), Anthony Ko (Process)
Videography:
Gustav Willeit
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