Roots in the Wind, Head in the Earth installation

The installation Radici al vento, testa nella terra [Roots in the Wind, Head in the Earth] was created following Storm Vaia, which devastated the woods of Veneto, Trentino Alto Adige, Friuli Venezia Giulia and Lombardy in October 2018; an extremely violent meteorological event that transformed the landscape and revealed the fragility of the territory, leaving an open wound. The artistic installation is intended to convert the gash in the landscape into a sign, into an experience that prompts people to seek a new relationship with nature. Radici al vento, testa nella terra has been created with wood fallen from the destroyed forests of the provinces of Belluno and Trento. As Michele De Lucchi explains: “The work recomposes with different natural woods – red fir, beech, larch, white fir, ash, birch, linden and hazel – the figure of a tree that, with its trunk, branches and roots, flies suspended in the air above a stretch of water that references the sea clumsily overheated by the effects of atmospheric pollution. The work conserves the memory of a tipping over: the roots have surrendered to the wind gusts of the storm; they are raised, dragged by the leverage of stem and branches, and are exposed to the air, outside the earth, as we had never seen them before. We have witnessed an atmospheric phenomenon of extraordinary scope caused by the raising of the water temperature of the Mediterranean: climbing upwards, the heat moved a huge air mass, producing currents that were then channelled into the valleys of the Pre-Alps and the Dolomites, with great power and an unusual direction. A force that overwhelmed ancient trees, pulled out by the wind like twigs”.