Artist
Bounty
2010 – ongoing
Workshops, installations, public events
1:1 scale reconstruction of the 18th century British naval vessel, HMS Bounty, starting from its model kit.
The project travels, evolving as it connects to new people and places each time the work takes shape. Through workshops involving schools and inhabitants of the area, parts of the ship are recreated by using waste materials. These workshops transform the project space into a sort of naval arsenal for a few weeks.
The project ends with a party where new parts of the vessel are revealed to the public. The sails are hoisted, the prow “launched” with an opening concert, the flag left to unfurl in the wind, the helmsman turns the wheel…
2010
Mainsail, flying jib
Fondazione Pomodoro, Milan
Some pupils from the Istituto di via Moisé Loria in Milan recreate the mainsail and the flying jib of the vessel H.M.S Bounty on a scale 1:1, using a dismantled scale model exhibited on a coffee table as starting point. Heaps of old newspapers gathered by the children are colored in and assembled to become the sails of the Bounty.
2010
Main topgallant staysail, main top staysail
CNAC, Le Magasin, Grenoble
Two hundred children from Grenoble reconstruct the main topgallant sail and the main top staysail. The new sails are hoisted into the space. Along with the previous sails, they transform the former factory, now an art center, into a festive galleon.
2011
Prow
GAMeC, Bergamo
The students of the Azienda Bergamasca di Formazione (Bergamo Training Institute), along with the public of GAMeC, the Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art of Bergamo, reconstruct the prow out of reclaimed wood and ropes. The ship starts its journey in the space, between the elementary particles of chalk and massive, textile stars. At the launch party people sing and dance to the sound of the Gruppo Folkloristico La Garibaldina.
2011
Pennant
Piccola scuola di Circo, Milan
ph. Vincenzo Cammarata
The long pennant of the Bounty flaps at the entrance of a circus
where acrobats and artists retrace the story of humanity with long jumps and prodigious somersaults.
Anything could happen. A journey around the world in one night, in the sky of the red and white marquee.
2012
Steering wheel and steering gear, cannons, ship’s flag
Summer school 2012, Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, Castello di Rivoli, Rivoli
Alessio, Federico, Giulia and Margherita use their wits to construct the mechanism of the steering wheel while their younger companions get the Bounty’s canons to shoot. The largest flag of the ship is redrawn and repainted. The blue sail that celebrates the battle of Lepanto remains incomplete.
We wanted to turn the castle of Rivoli into the Bounty; leaning the 10 meter long rudder against the wall, attaching the blue sails to the drainpipes, shooting the canons from the cornices, raising the flag on the roof…
2014
Fore staysail, main staysail
Istituto Calasanzio, Empoli
At Istituto Calasanzio di Empoli, three hundred children and teens colored like crazy, assembling and hoisting the fore staysail and the main staysail of the Bounty in the school’s spacious, arched hallways and courtyard.
2014
Map of the Night Sky (Nice)
Collège Vernier, Col de Vence, Nice, France
The top of a mountain becomes the Bounty’s deck and a great darkroom; the night sky becomes the largest and most complicated of the seas. The pupils of Collėge Vernier in Nice make a map of an unknown sky in a closet at their school. A group of daredevils completed it in the heart of the night on the top of Col de Vence. Twohundred-and-fifty-five photosensitive papers are developed using the Rayograph technique. United they become a map of the stars.
2015
Map of the Night Sky (Saint Andrews)
University of Saint Andrews, Saint Andrews, Scotland
Observation of the night sky continues. A group of students from the University of Saint Andrews recreate the Big Bang by hiding 50 photosensitive papers under the sand on a beach in front of the dark Scottish ocean. An expert photographer assists the process, his name is David, but everyone calls him Warhol. We anchor the Bounty at Pitcairn Island and imagine everything from the beginning, history and geography, keeping in mind the tides and shells, the sand and the stars.
2015
Map of the Night Sky (Empoli)
Istituto Calasanzio, Empoli, Italy
The year after constructing the sails, the students of Istituto Calasanzio invent a time machine and a large clock; play soccer with a ferocious tiger and a bendy goalkeeper; write Bounty in large letters and cast it all in the stars. We draw a new map for the Bounty and one could imagine many new routes.