THE FOUNDATION STONE (2020)

Nothing is indestructible, not even stones. But this crude column is not here to last. It is here to make us think of nature’s power.

In the world, as in Gorzegno and in the whole Alta Langa, houses, streets, amphitheatres, great walls, bridges… all manmade works, destined to collapse, are made of stone. And yet even the ruins speak, tell stories, while stones remain silent and inert until a hand roughs them to give them a consistent shape, a practical use or a symbolic meaning.

For this reason, the “Nàsc – Museo delle Pietre parlanti”, comes out with this first work: a menhir that emerges from the valley of Gorzegno and leans towards the sky, like a pillar that holds up an invisible vault in which all human dreams, hopes, illusions, desires, fears and ambitions are hidden.

Next to the pillar stands a tree, another cosmic symbol that unites the underworld with the celestial one. An expression of life that renews itself incessantly, season after season, the tree gives the world its precious gems that will then become leaves, flowers and fruits.

A bud is exactly at the centre of our monolith, near its heart, to remind us that every human work must be created with respect for nature and guided by feelings of solidarity among all peoples, in the pursuit of an ideal universal brotherhood.