riise

Clay is extracted from different rice paddies across the municipal territory and shaped by hand into cubes, each one polished with the Japanese dorodango technique. Every cube stands for a specific location: together they form a map of the rice fields, translated into matter.

The cubes rest on a glass base holding a shallow layer of water, both display and active component of the piece. Water, clay and open air create the conditions for a micro-ecosystem to develop: the sculpture changes over time, degrades and is colonised, mirroring on a small scale the ecological dynamics of the rice fields.

Riise works as an artistic model of a local ecosystem. Each cube maps a precise point of Rovasenda's agricultural landscape, and the installation as a whole reproduces, on a miniature scale, the relationships that shape it: human cultivation, native materials, water and the living systems that settle in them. A living sculpture that evolves through its exposure to the environment, it invites a reflection on the complex relationship between agricultural practice, natural materials and living systems.