Lapiz Building ’03, 2003

stainless steel, 650×50 cm
Lapiz Building, La Jolla, California

“Environmental impact on sculpture in the city is mainly determined by: structural interferences, dominant materials (details, contrasts); chromat- ic signs such as the colours of the materials (brick, bitumen, grass etc.) or paints; fixed or moving images (screams, luminous signs, boards); the movement of people and things (various means of transport). In addition to this we have: light, the ‘classic’ source of interaction between sculpture and setting, which is considered from its dominant (powerful, fixed, half-light, darkness) aspect, and sound, a component given less attention but equally important consisting of urban noises (engines, building sites, ambulances, bells) or silence.
The choice of material sets up a semantic relation with these factors and it must be resistant and visually forceful. Interrelation is a determining factor in the city and in outdoor spaces. Morphological forms combine in a combination of history and the present, producing the motivational terrain on which a possible idea or formal solution takes shape. The work will inevitably be the result of the relational experience on site, on the site in question. Traces become historical parlance, the very substance of the material on which and with which the sculpture is created.”

M. Staccioli, Minutes from the Ernesto Lusana Architectural Award, 2nd edition, catalogue, Latina, 2002.