Catania is a child of fire. Built at the foot of Mount Etna, it was constructed with its stone and is often covered in ash that invades streets, homes, and gardens, enveloping everything of color in black. Often considered an inconvenient presence, a hindrance to those living in the Etna area, volcanic ash can prove to be a resource if we look at it from a design perspective, enhancing it as a symbolic element of the local natural heritage.
A is the new installation developed by ABADIR for the Sicilcima showroom in Catania, a project curated by Makoto Fukuda with the students of the course Exhibition design, which can be visited throughout the month of December in Africa Avenue 42.
With A Christmas is tinged with black as a celebration of the Etna volcano and its strength, which culminates in the phenomenon of the explosion. The installation represents the contrast between the destruction that a cataclysmic event can generate and the continuous transformation of the natural world. The repetition of the term Ashes (ashes) evokes the echo of the roar and the persistence of the dust after an eruption.
"It's a zero-centimeter installation, rather than a zero-kilometer one. The inspiration came from the lava deposits that had accumulated outside the modeling laboratory: after a rainy day, we observed the behavior of the ash as it mixed with water, spreading evenly across the surfaces."
Volcanic ash is composed of particles of different color, nature and size, such as micro-fragments of rock and crystals: this gives it a unique texture, apparently uniform but, on closer inspection, dotted with barely perceptible nuances.
Made with commonly used materials, A combines mixed media such as wire mesh, polystyrene, wooden sticks and a first aid isothermal blanket, as evening falls it lights up with a changing light, wanting to simulate the nuances of the magmatic flow but also the movements of the human soul in the face of the disruptive energy of the explosive eruption, an event that generates in the observer a tumult of strong and contrasting emotions, such as wonder or contempt, curiosity or indifference due to habit, fear or amazement.
