SAARV

2019

audio-video installation
live performance

in collaboration with Annalisa Zegna
sound by Kreggo

commissioned by Fondazione Pistoletto, produced by Hydro for Arte al Centro 2019

Saarv is a video and sound installation that creates a liquid and immersive environment in which to experience the potential of water, within a process of generation and destruction of form. The flow of images shows the creation of landscapes from small elements taken from the environment, through the enlargement and amplification of details subjected to the metamorphic action of water.

The installation is part of a larger project related to water resources, environmental issues, and climate change. Specifically, the research was developed around the Cervo Torrent, Saarv in the Piedmontese dialect, a stream that runs through the city of Biella and that has shaped its territory over the centuries from a morphological, geographical, cultural and economic point ofview. The choice to focus the research on the torrent comes from a personal interest of the artists concerning the transformations of the Biellese context, the industrial events and the social developments of its recent history.

The project is based on a research methodology that goes through various phases. Starting from the direct exploration of the specific area, it elaborates a poetic and imaginative representation of the territory itself, anchored to reality but directed towards possible speculative narratives. The artistic intention is to transform real and concrete data into new imaginaries, alternative worlds, and potential futures.

“At the beginning of the third millennium, the planet finds a new balance following the continuous environmental and climatic transformations. Living beings are adapting to the present conditions.
Humanity is implementing strategies to combat water shortages. In particular, a new sector of science is concerned with developing ecosystems suited to life also through the recreation of river environments and now extinct river basins. The research is based on the study of natural elements collected and preserved through freezing in protected specific archives. The different samples permit to construct hypotheses on the original morphology and course of the rivers. The materials are analyzed through experimentation in a liquid and controlled environment.”