La Biennale dello Stretto’s exhibition is not simply a project to house objects of art and architecture, but the re-invention of a place.
It is an ephemeral but powerful intervention that re-attributes permanent meaning, identity and dignity to Forte Batteria Siacci.
A few actions to put it on stage, make it known through the sharing of thoughts, ideas and feelings, and lay the groundwork for its return to life, so that after this Biennial there may be a hundred, thousand other occasions.
The sand covering the floor of the “entrance aisle” compensates for the unevenness of the stone cladding, original from 1888, the year the Fort’s construction was completed, and creates an invitation to share the space.
The imposing corridor almost takes on the size of a dry dock, concentrating the focus on a single perspective, that of reflection and confrontation (the stage for talks), before dispersing into the rooms intended for the exhibition of the projects collected through the international Call to Action, the Challenge ti Action aimed at architects under 35 – and the artists’ works.
Forte Batteria Siacci becomes a spontaneous promenade through time. Through the transformed space, it takes on a secular monumentality: its new dimension is celebrated through civic function.
If it is true that places exist because of the people who inhabit them, then Fort Batteria Siacci will also be remembered for La Biennale dello Stretto and the people who animated it because that is now its memory.