identity despoiled

Type | Sculpture Installation    Year | 2022/2023    Project site | Salerno, Italy

Client | Alborella Art Residency

Studio-Method was invited to participate in the residency and to reflect on Salerno and the Amalfi Coast territory from a material point of view. The main focus was on the interrelation between the territory and the local expertise and craftsmanship present in the area, as well as the key concept of porosity. The latter describes the peculiar ambiguity and intricacy of the relations present in this place, an inclination towards uncertainty and precariousness, overlapping softness and harshness that connotate the interaction between man and nature, as well as the architecture, territory, and social fabric of this Italian region.

The project involved surveying the territory for lost materials and engaging directly with the region's waste flows, resulting in two distinct artifacts that embody this research in physical form: the Constricted Column and the Nautical Artifact.

“The phenomenon of the reuse of antiquity in architecture is a widespread practice in the monumental complexes of medieval Campania, particularly the centres of Salerno and the Amalfi coast. Research has highlighted the extent of the phenomenon of appropriation of the antique from the ruins of the Latium sites. These are cities that built their cultural identity during the medieval period through the plundering of marbles from Rome and Ostia to display them as trophies and symbols of memory. 

“Angela Palmentieri, Il riuso in Campania. Pratiche e ideologia nelle architetture medievali di Salerno e della costa d’Amalfi, 2017”

More information on Constricted Column

More information on Nautical Artifact