W18S

BY ETTORE FAVINI AND ANTONIO ROVALDI
2012

SECOND PRIZE "PORTALS OF SCOMPIGLIO" AWARD #1

The project W18S by Ettore Favini and Antonio Rovaldi for Scompiglio punctuates the landscape with precise signs (the stone and its durability), moments of physical and mental pauses, becoming an integral part of the landscape, with a deep respect for the nature and for the walker that passes it. The 18 chapters of “Walden; or, Life in the Woods”, are inscribed on slabs of stone, their numbering indicating various possible paths within the Tenuta Dello Scompiglio estate, suggesting to the walker/reader a starting point for a poetic diversion that is absolutely personal and different every time. According to the direction from which they come and in which they are going, the visitors are free to follow the line already marked by the portals, or to lose themselves in the woods or in a more open clearing. We like to think of an environmental work of art as a collection of signs deposited on a piece of ground, where, only by physically moving into the space itself, is it possible to build a broader picture of the landscape and not limit the vision to single point of view. Walk.

Ettore Favini e Antonio Rovaldi

Ettore Favini was born in Cremona in 1974 where he lives and works. He puts the environment at the centre of numerous projects, both as subject and as the means of examining its relationship with man. The fruition of his work becomes a way of reappropriating public space. Historical and individual memory is at the centre of a path that moves from autobiographical inspiration to universal themes, such as time and existence.

Antonio Rovaldi was born in Parma in 1975. He lives and works in Milan. His research moves around the relative themes of perception of places and landscape, bringing together the different media used, such as photography, video, sculpture and drawing. The dimensions of the distance between the places, the physical and mental crossing of these, whether real or imaginary, are the constant subjects of the artist’s exploration. In 2012 the site-specific work W18S by Rovaldi and Favini was selected from the three winners of the Portals of Scompiglio Award #1 and created within the grounds of the Dello Scompiglio estate.