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Prometeo
2025
Photo: 40mirrors/Raffaella Quaranta Sebastian Spiegelhauer
Fire in southern Italy, symbolic and ritual element of great importance, is an expression enantiosemic expression of its culture. If, in fact, fire is used in agricultural areas to burn residues of cultivation and to ‘clean’ the soil, according to an ancient and deep-rooted tradition, its apparent positive effect conceals serious consequences for the soil, such as the loss of moisture, destruction of organic matter, soil erosion loss of biodiversity, air pollution. While it is used in religious rituals as a symbol of devotion and prayer to the saints, on the other its violent destructive force is used destructive force that, every year, at the hands of arsonists, consumes the last shreds of naturalness.
Prometheus is an object that wants to represent the best part of fire, that of the summer sun, which has always cooked figs and tomatoes to make them last over time, a delicious resource for colder times. Its form and function that of a tray for offering food on the table, is inspired by the cannizzi, on which the fruits of the earth are offered, even today, to the sun.
Fire also returns in the material, wood, burnt according to the Japanese Shou Sugi Ban tradition, to make it more resistant, in a natural way, to water and biological attacks.
