Edoardo Tresoldi's Site-Specific Installation 'Simbiosi' in Italy

Art meets architecture with Italian artist Edoardo Tresoldi’s site-specific installation ‘Simbiosi’ (Symbiosis), set on a hill at the Arte Sella open-air sculpture park and museum. In Italy’s Trentino Valley, Arte Sella is renowned for intertwining nature with art, exhibiting pieces by international artists and architects such as Eduardo Souto de Moura, Kengo Kuma, Michele De Lucchi, and Ettore Sottsass. Tresoldi speaks to this, bridging nature and architecture through sculptural and emotional ties with Symbiosis.

“Symbiosis is an interpretation of the surrounding landscape through the intentional connections between architectural and natural elements, whose continuous exchange defines the aesthetics, meanings and logics of sculpture,” says Tresoldi.

The 5m tall structure has no roof, completely open to the sky, intended as a place of rest and contemplation. Comprised of wire mesh and local stones, the work seemingly stands in suspension, challenging forces of gravity and weight. Evoking the concept of a ‘ruin’, Symbiosis is defined by a process of organic deterioration and reconstruction, with Tresoldi using architectural elements as a means to interpret elements of the landscape.

Tresoldi describes that Symbiosis, “stands between consciousness and unconsciousness, between the material and immaterial world. A living organism, permeable yet intimate: an emotional communication channel with nature.”

With the stones suspended within the porous mesh, Symbiosis resembles an ancient monument, appearing half deteriorated from afar yet held perfectly in place. Transparency is a motif throughout Tresoldi’s work, with stones integrated for the first time here. By building the sculpture around the archetype of a ruin, the artist expresses themes of human fragility and transience.

Arte Sella was recently severely damaged by a storm, having only reopened last Spring. The hill on which Symbiosis sits didn’t exist before the storm, an expression of the transformative power of nature and deepening the bond between the sculpture and the surrounding park. Tresoldi intends for nature to slowly grow within and around Symbiosis, with the installation becoming part of the fabric of Arte Sella as other works have.