2023 // Sundial / Site-specific Installation / Lungau, AT
The composition is based on centric figures, recurrent shapes developed from the centre and two main axes (north-south, east-west). Geometry is the key to understanding the circadian rhythm through light and shadows and relating it to time. In this way, an ephemeral structure becomes a naked-eye observatory.
Sundial is a gesture in the landscape that works as a natural device, including the phenological observation of heliotropic characteristics of vegetal species. Different species of heliotropic flowers in bloom create a vegetal clock. Slowly tracking the sun’s path across the sky, these flowers are believed to use heliotropism to improve pollination, fertilisation, and seed development.
Sundial has been featured in a beautiful article by Ludovica Proietti for Elle Decor Italia - Architecture, 'EPHEMERAL ARCHITECTURES OF SUMMER 2023 TO REDISCOVER THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MAN AND NATURE, A selection of temporary artworks, destined to disappear after a short period of time, which invite us to reflect on how to highlight new ways of conceiving nature, building space and interacting with it'
Sundial is a site-specific installation realized for Supergau Festival 2023 exploring the relationship between the human body and landscape. Precisely oriented in the space of Lungau’s landscape, it works as an astronomical naked-eye device, observing the sun's circadian cycles and the heliotropism of flowers. It is a precarious architecture investigating the themes of ephemerality, matter, time and uncertainty.
“Our research refers to primordial architectures recalling human presence in the landscape. It moves from the existing examples of archaeoastronomical structures - ancient human attempts to measure space and time - to artefacts built with elementary gestures in the landscape. Both typologies of creations focus on the vacuum: architecture is just a fragile outline that alludes to the presence of man, the landscape instead appears as an immutable presence.”
“Che cosa c’entra il design con i destini? Forse sarebbe meglio abituarsi a disegnare l’oscura incertezza piuttosto che presumere il disegno della certezza.”
“What does design have to do with destinies? Maybe we should get used to designing obscure uncertainty instead of presuming to draw certainty.”
Ettore Sottsass, Metafore, 1972-79
Commission Type: Temporary Public Art Commission
Design Team: Maetherea (Cristina Morbi, Aurora Destro)
Client: Supergau Festival and LAND SALZBURG Department of Culture, Education, Society and Sport
Location: Mariapffar, Lungau, Salzburg, Austria
Partner: Botanischer Garten der Paris Lodron Universität Salzburg
Photos and Video: Giulia Maretti Studio
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