"La Cava"

With "The Quarry" project, I mean to express the force, the worth, the soul of rock in its totality, its thickness, its weight, its appearance as form and as surface. ?A surface that itself is the co-essence of the rock being. ?This project makes us realise that the crust does not want to be separated from the heart of the rock, but rather they exist as a single whole, a unity.?The rock's energy lies in this totality of matter.

?Claudio Silvestrin??

Silvestrin's work for the setting of the Il Casone stand at Marmomacc 2008 reintroduces the theme of the labyrinth so dear to the art world.?The labyrinth takes on symbolic meaning in parallel with religious art: the labyrinth is metaphorically transposed to the floors of certain European cathedrals, where it becomes the representation of the pilgrimage towards God, situated at the centre. The concentric, contemplative motion is moreover already present, winding away, in the apsidal trench of the faithful around the altar.  ?The matter of God aside, as Silvestrin (Claudio Silvestrin, Octavo, page 219) would say, the labyrinth represents, in its own form, the mental journey undertaken by Man towards knowledge. Silvestrin, for Il Casone, is choosing to measure himself against one of the most classic themes in order to prompt each one of us to meditate on the true nature of stone.?On the rectangular base measuring 8 metres by 15, starting from a 3 metre high natural block of quarried rock, a strip of thin sandstone is wound.?The ground floor is supported by adjustable feet tailor-made for Silvestrin's installation. The special finish with continuous grooves on the large slab is achieved through the use of a "ruling" machine.?The vertical panels, with a maximum thickness of around 8cm, are all different: in width and tapering in thickness; some are also of different heights, in the feature called "flying". The panels are also "cropped" directly from the quarry block and then prepared. ?The designer chose sandblasting for the surface workmanship on the outer face; and grindstone was used for the inside of the panel. The traces of the grooves from the workmanship on the inner side have been left visible. The panels are connected by stainless steel gudgeon pins and discreet metal staples. ?In all, around 50 cubic metres of Firenzuola sandstone were used.