Pontedera ’07, 2007

A. wood, cardboard, sand and paint, 25×127.8×81 cm
B. iron, wood, sand and paint, 23x201x140 cm
Mauro Staccioli Archive Museum, Volterra

For the large roundabout in Pontedera, at the end of Viale Asia and grafting onto the SS 67, Staccioli designed a project, never realised, that recalls the meaning of the place name: bridge over the Era river. Hence, the intersection of Corten steel arches, two symbolic bridges across an extended arch of greater width, the river. For the latter, he chose a different material, copper, for the water-green colour tone obtained from its oxidation. The project also presents a variation: the copper arch can be provided with a hydraulic system for water flow. In this way, while on the one hand, the river symbolism becomes more evident, on the other hand, the sculpture is enriched with aquatic refractions and sounds. The project was exhibited on the occasion of the solo exhibition “Volterra. Places of Experience 1972-2009“.

“The project I propose intends to give ‘visual’ voice to the genesis of the very name of the city, ‘Ponte-d’Era’. It therefore wants to be a sign of presentation, an introduction to the city, to its origins. Sculpture-sign, plastic-visual synthesis that offers a reading of the site to the great traffic, the vital junction of the fast-flowing road that connects the beating hearts of Tuscany, Florence, Pisa and Livorno to Pontedera. Two cor-ten steel arches intersect and cross an inverted arch made of copper. The green-blue colour of the material will become a clear metaphor for the river”.

M. Staccioli, Idea di scultura. Rotatoria innesto FI-PI-LI Pontedera est, report attached to the project, Milan, 2007.

© Enrico Fontolan, Bibliotheca Hertziana – Max Planck Insitute, Roma. Sergio Borghesi. Courtesy Archivio Mauro Staccioli.