Ripensare l’urbano 2011-2023

concrete and corten steel, 302×60 cm each
In the area between ex-Italsider and the industrial district of S. Andrea
San Giovanni Valdarno (AR), Italy

The five Tondi, made by the artist in 1996 for a temporary installation in Corso Italia, have been permanently relocated.
The relocation of the set of sculptures in a new site, singled out by the artist in 2011, in the space that acts as a junction between one of the former Italsider plants in the S. Andrea industrial zone and the new northern access to the town, is without doubt an intervention that will highlight the donated work but also and above all it will be an occasion to regenerate the landscape. Besides, shapes, places, landscape, urban environment and the relationship (a provocative encounter/clash) between the urban space and social life, “urban” and “community”, are the main objects of interest and research throughout Staccioli’s oeuvre. As such, in their new location the Tondi will create an “urban-scale sculpture”, rethought by the artist and, according to his express wish, encircled with Corten steel, material symbolizing the metal works and the consolidated history of the place. All of this fits into a picture of recognizing the civic value of contemporary art in the community system, in a gesture whose aim is to weave together places and their memory, while promoting the themes of work and the town’s economic history.