Fabio Viale's Marble Sculpture Installation at Galleria Poggiali

Italian sculptor Fabio Viale has displayed 18 tons of stone chippings and marble sculptures in his ongoing exhibition ‘Acqua alta High Tide’ at Galleria Poggiali in Florence, Italy. The exhibition sees the display of two separate installations, ‘The bricole (dolphins)’ and Stone ‘Emergences’, both of which prompt us as humans to reflect on our relationship with nature.

The installation entitled, ‘Emergences’ “illustrates the process of decay and reconstruction, of fall and redemption, reminding us of the inevitable tragedy of the future that returns everything to dust”.

Upon entering the space, one may not know exactly what they have been confronted with – a pile of jagged stones? However, upon further inspection, visitors begin to recognise the curved fingers of a hand or the smooth surface of a leg that emerge from a vast pile of stone clippings.

Shards of limbs, vessels, and several shattered statues cascade down from the ceiling, before they lie on the floor, completely covering the 15-metre length of the gallery interior. The installation is a transposition of the performance that took place at the Gioia marble quarry, where Viale threw several marble statues downhill “repeating a mechanical gesture that has been performed for thousands of years as a part of the quarry process Ravaneto”. During the fall the sculptures were partially destroyed, in some cases gaining chipped edges while in others, limbs were completely mutilated. Viale then collected whatever remained, touching them up in preparation for a monumental display.

The project is linked to Viale’s passion for quarries, embracing the idea that the Ravaneto can be used as a sculptural and creative tool. After its passage down the hill, “the sculpture now shows itself to be authentic, having become a metaphor for human experience: life with its incidents and accidents scores the surface of the artefact while absolutizing the essence”.