AMare
A fate built on water. The most precious resource, turned into a terrible threat by human indifference
Old Courtyard, Bo Palace, via VIII Febbraio 2 – 35122 Padua | 21 December 2019 – 06 January 2020
“Entire cities wounded by waters and billions of people without water and future. To the sea (A MARE) our waste, from the sea our food. Bitter (AMARE) are the tears of women and men escaping through the sea. If only, simply and diversely, we were able to love (AMARE)”. For Christmas 2019, the University of Padua chose to address viewers through an installation that deals with water, with the sea covering lands and people, with escapes and destinies, with climate and nature, with needs and salvation. With love. The Old Courtyard of Bo Palace was flooded, as to create a big water basin, from which enormous letters forming the word AMARE emerged. Through the scenographic use of architectural lights, the authors of the artistic installation wanted to subvert one of the functions of this same place (collection of rain waters) in order to draw attention on the destiny, almost paradoxical, of the most precious resource for humanity: water. As a result of the dramatic consequences of climate change, water, the primary source of life, becomes bearer of sufferance, death and destruction. A great paradox that underlies others: entire territories are under the risk of sinking due to the sea level rise, at the same time millions of people do not have access to drinkable water nor to safe sanitary facilities. In comparison to the beginning of the 1970s, the number of people forced to migrate because of natural disasters has duplicate. Every year hundreds of people die in the waters of the Mediterranean Sea, obliged to escape desperately from their cities and houses.
The play on words upon which this artistic installation is based “a mare (to the sea) – amare (bitter) – amare (to love)” underlines the multiplicity of contrasting meanings that water can have in the context of the actual global crisis. At the same time, “to love” is the invitation sent to the public through this installation: love and cure for nature and humanity represent the only chance of salvation.
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Editor’s Note: All information published as submitted by the author(s). Minor edits may have been made to increase readability and understanding.
