edoardo tresoldi's ethereal 'monumento' installation rises inside venice's procuratie vecchie

wire mesh colonnade by Edoardo Tresoldi

Italian artist and sculptor Edoardo Tresoldi presents his latest installation ‘Monumento,’ taking shape as an ethereal wire mesh column. The sculpture is unveiled on the occasion of the reopening of Procuratie Vecchie iconic building in Venice, after a sweeping five-year makeover by David Chipperfield Architects. More specifically, the installation is set within the space that contains the monumental staircase of the historic building, inviting visitors to climb up the stairs in order to observe the meticulous sculpture from different perspectives.

All images by © Roberto Conte

Monumento questions the traditional language of monuments

Remarkable changes transformed the third level of the building into the new home of The Human Safety Net, a global NGO movement that seeks to help people living in vulnerable circumstances. For the first time in 500 years, this extensive part of the Procuratie Vecchie is now open to the public. As a result, the installation — realized in collaboration with Carlotta Franco for the development of the architectural concept and with GICO Studio for the design — seeks to further highlight the realization of this new social purpose. With its light yet notable presence, it condenses the past and present in a contemporary narrative, while reflecting a sense of fragility.

The intricate artwork redefines the traditional language of monuments, approaching it with a rather modern reinterpretation. With its delicate body rising among the massive staircase of the Procuratie Vecchie, ‘Monumento’ arouses visitors’ curiosity. As they walk up, the entire structure unfolds, from its base to the summit.

a stripped monument that seeks to express itself

Although different materials coexist, the structure still harmonizes with its context. ‘Monumento’ represents a world that constantly changes and renews the meanings and values to which society aspires in order to reflect its own epoch. ‘Stripping a monument of its own symbolism, what remains is a virtuous and melancholy lyric song, detached and solemn, yet in search of contact because it is born to express itself, to be first an artifact and gesture and then a concept and presence.’ said Tresoldi.

‘With Monumento I use the rhetorical language of the monumental column as a reflection on our time and on the rhetoric of the values our society aspires to; a society that reaffirms the need to redefine the concept of strength, to re-read the role of fragility and which proposes listening and dialogue at the heart of intercultural relations’.