TURBORAGE (2017)

In a famous collection of novels, titled Favole al Telefono (Telephone Tales), Italian writer Gianni Rodari tells the story of a small town struggling with social turmoils.
Titled Il Palazzo da Rompere (The Smashing House), and settled in Busto Arsizio (a small town in Northern Italy), the novel describes a urban community anguished by juvenile violence: hyperactive children smashing everything. Fines do not stop the devastation and laws are useless, because children do not care about them.
Eventually, an accountant suggests the construction of a furnished building to be vandalized by the young. The plan works and the children exit the palace completely exhausted.
Il Palazzo da Rompere curiously foresaw the advent and success of anger rooms, today popping up all around the world; in addition to this, the story is a metaphor of the ways different forms of power absorb even the most violent and irrational force inside or outside society.
Considering the many limitations to the free expression and control of our bodies in contemporary society, we drew inspiration from the novel in order to build a partecipative sculpture.
Turborage consists of one or more pillars of soft cement and the public is free to vent on them with a wooden stick or a baseball bat. Given the softness of the material, each pillar carries the marks of the visitors’ actions, becoming an abstract sculpture.

This project has been developed with the support of Nirox Foundation, PPC, Style Decor, Pratley, MLZ Art Dep, Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa, Tiso Alfredo e Figli S.r.l.