Sweet Home, 2021

CorTen Steel
350 × 400 × 900 cm

TIMELINE 

A timeline that gathers all events from the origin of the idea to its realization: a story in the making.

Municipality of Suzzara, Park of San Colombano, Po riverbank,

44°59'26.7"N 10°41'46.2"E

Sweet Home is a site specific installation, commissioned by the Museum of Suzzara Prize.
Located in the green area between the main embankment and the Po, in the territory of Suzzara the installation follows the archetypal image of the house and the ark at the same time, merging these two ideals into a single sculpture in CorTen. It is a square-plan structure with a hut roof with a double opening in the longitudinal direction; it does not rest on a pedestal, but directly on the lawn.
The installation will be anchored to the ground so that, with the frequent flooding of the golenal zone, it can be raised according to the flow of water from the river. From time to time, the Po will play an active part in the arrangement of the work which, full after full, will change position, angle and orientation. In this way, the work will become an integral part of the Golenal landscape, establishing a dialogue with it.
The river landscape of the Po offers the possibility of a direct comparison with the reality: in front of the site where the work will be realized are real houseboats moored.
An extension of the Museum
Sweet Home is a true extension of the Suzzara Prize Museum, an amphibious space, an architectural ravine in which people can also board with both body and mind, sharing the contents it carries.
Its place in the landscape
The landscape offers the possibility of a direct confrontation with reality: real houseboats are docked in front of the site of the work. Reality and idea, model and realisation confront each other in this space. Sweet Home is not intended to be a simple reproduction of a boat or a house, but stands as an anti-monumental work that enters into a direct and very close relationship with the lives of the people there.
Biblical prophecy
Sweet Home appears as a residual object, surviving the recent transformations of contemporary society and its patterns of life, which is outlined as a refuge and which raises many questions about the relationship of the element of the river with life itself, with history, with memory, which aims to directly involve those who frequent these places. The appearance of the work evokes a terrible and extraordinary fable that has characterised our western education: the biblical tale of the ark that does not sail but floats in the fury of the universal flood. It is in this last decade, saturated with uncertainties and threats to our survival and the ecosystem, that the tale takes on a remarkable texture. If in the narrative of the Flood it is God who sends the punishment to man, today the biblical apocalypse could be at the hands of the powerful presence of man himself who is the cause of the alteration of the climatic and biological balance of the earth. One of the most feared consequences of climate change is the rise in the sea level: the changes would affect, to give just a few examples, Iceland, Polynesia, the northern countries and Venice, as well as the entire Po Valley, including Suzzara.
The story of Noah, with its prophetic biblical narration, is as if warning man of the impending disaster caused by man's overpowering nature: I will wipe from the face of the earth the man I have created, and with man also the cattle and the reptiles and the birds of the air, for I am sorry that I made them (Gen 6:5-7). Today, only the same man who caused the planet's agony will be able to avert the looming doom with a marked change in living patterns. Sweet Home is certainly not a solution. Its presence with its real functionality stands in the river habitat as a presence that speaks to those who do not stop at the simple, stereotypical approach to art. The functioning of Sweet Home is also a cultural function that wants to invalidate all traditional expectations and mercantile constructions of the art of the many and too many 'masters'.
CC BY-NC-ND
The author grants others the right to reproduce Sweet Home anywhere, subject to the CC (Creative Common) licence, which protects those wishing to reproduce the work from the concern of infringing copyright, subject to the specified conditions. The CC BY-NC-ND licence allows the work to be reproduced according to the instructions provided in the project tables, provided that no modifications are made, no commercial purposes are served and that authorship of the work is always attributed
The timeline
A timeline collecting all the events from the origin of the idea to its realisation: a history in the making. Municipality of Suzzara, San Colombano Park, Po River Embankment,
44°59'26.7 "N 10°41'46.2 "E

Sweet Home, 2021

CorTen Steel
350 × 400 × 900 cm

TIMELINE 

A timeline that gathers all events from the origin of the idea to its realization: a story in the making.

Municipality of Suzzara, Park of San Colombano, Po riverbank,

44°59'26.7"N 10°41'46.2"E

Sweet Home is a site specific installation, commissioned by the Museum of Suzzara Prize.
Located in the green area between the main embankment and the Po, in the territory of Suzzara the installation follows the archetypal image of the house and the ark at the same time, merging these two ideals into a single sculpture in CorTen. It is a square-plan structure with a hut roof with a double opening in the longitudinal direction; it does not rest on a pedestal, but directly on the lawn.
The installation will be anchored to the ground so that, with the frequent flooding of the golenal zone, it can be raised according to the flow of water from the river. From time to time, the Po will play an active part in the arrangement of the work which, full after full, will change position, angle and orientation. In this way, the work will become an integral part of the Golenal landscape, establishing a dialogue with it.
The river landscape of the Po offers the possibility of a direct comparison with the reality: in front of the site where the work will be realized are real houseboats moored.
An extension of the Museum
Sweet Home is a true extension of the Suzzara Prize Museum, an amphibious space, an architectural ravine in which people can also board with both body and mind, sharing the contents it carries.
Its place in the landscape
The landscape offers the possibility of a direct confrontation with reality: real houseboats are docked in front of the site of the work. Reality and idea, model and realisation confront each other in this space. Sweet Home is not intended to be a simple reproduction of a boat or a house, but stands as an anti-monumental work that enters into a direct and very close relationship with the lives of the people there.
Biblical prophecy
Sweet Home appears as a residual object, surviving the recent transformations of contemporary society and its patterns of life, which is outlined as a refuge and which raises many questions about the relationship of the element of the river with life itself, with history, with memory, which aims to directly involve those who frequent these places. The appearance of the work evokes a terrible and extraordinary fable that has characterised our western education: the biblical tale of the ark that does not sail but floats in the fury of the universal flood. It is in this last decade, saturated with uncertainties and threats to our survival and the ecosystem, that the tale takes on a remarkable texture. If in the narrative of the Flood it is God who sends the punishment to man, today the biblical apocalypse could be at the hands of the powerful presence of man himself who is the cause of the alteration of the climatic and biological balance of the earth. One of the most feared consequences of climate change is the rise in the sea level: the changes would affect, to give just a few examples, Iceland, Polynesia, the northern countries and Venice, as well as the entire Po Valley, including Suzzara.
The story of Noah, with its prophetic biblical narration, is as if warning man of the impending disaster caused by man's overpowering nature: I will wipe from the face of the earth the man I have created, and with man also the cattle and the reptiles and the birds of the air, for I am sorry that I made them (Gen 6:5-7). Today, only the same man who caused the planet's agony will be able to avert the looming doom with a marked change in living patterns. Sweet Home is certainly not a solution. Its presence with its real functionality stands in the river habitat as a presence that speaks to those who do not stop at the simple, stereotypical approach to art. The functioning of Sweet Home is also a cultural function that wants to invalidate all traditional expectations and mercantile constructions of the art of the many and too many 'masters'.
CC BY-NC-ND
The author grants others the right to reproduce Sweet Home anywhere, subject to the CC (Creative Common) licence, which protects those wishing to reproduce the work from the concern of infringing copyright, subject to the specified conditions. The CC BY-NC-ND licence allows the work to be reproduced according to the instructions provided in the project tables, provided that no modifications are made, no commercial purposes are served and that authorship of the work is always attributed
The timeline
A timeline collecting all the events from the origin of the idea to its realisation: a history in the making. Municipality of Suzzara, San Colombano Park, Po River Embankment,
44°59'26.7 "N 10°41'46.2 "E
The story of the project from intuition to installation

Video © Videoforart
Photo © Lorenza Carra

Inside Sweet Home
View towards the west side

Project

Inside Sweet Home
View towards the west side

Inside Sweet Home
View towards the east side

Sweet Home under construction at the shipyard

The exceptional transport from the shipyard of Codogno to Suzzara was carried out by "Goitese"

Sweet Home concluded at the ship yard
Photo © Elio Scurdovelli

Sweet Home a dimora
March 2024, with one metre and twenty centimetres of water Sweet Home floats and moves. When the waters of the Po return to its bed, its location will be redefined by the river.
Sweet Home was transported from the shipyard "Nettuno Motobarche" of Codogno to the site of placement in the park of San Colombano di Suzzara
Video © Officinebit.ch
Giorgio Spagna , Nettuno Motobarche, Codogno (IT)
Video © VIDEOFOART
On the water, Al Fadhil and Giorgio Spagna
Video © Officinebit.ch
The cataracts of the sky opened
Video © Officinebit.ch
Giorgio Spagna , Nettuno Motobarche, Codogno (IT)
Video © VIDEOFOART
On board during flotation
Photo © Bruno Melli

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