Discovering the works of land art

In a land where nature dominates with peace and slow rhythms, Land Art has found fertile ground to develop during the three editions of the TERRENA festival, where the landscape has become the subject and the matter of art works.

It is possible to find them all by following an itinerary that crosses the countryside, waterways and small towns, tracing a connection between them. It starts with a path that unites the three works created for the third edition of the festival, dedicated to Dante Alighieri, on the occasion of the 700th anniversary of the death of the great poet.

The artworks, inspired by the three cantiche of the Divine Comedy, aim to enhance and investigate some of the lesser known aspects of this land, and are located in Sant’Agata sul Santerno, Conselice and Alfonsine.

From the main route, it is possible to make some detours to reach the places where the works of the past editions show the signs of the transformation due to time passing and the continuous changes of nature, visible until their natural decay (San Patrizio di Conselice, Fusignano, Bagnara di Romagna, Villanova di Bagnacavallo, Lugo and Massa Lombarda).

All the places, past and present, are ideally and physically connected by the “Semi di Terrena”, symbolic sculptures made in July 2021, during the workshop led by artist Felice Tagliaferri. The sculptures outline a path, a geographical-artistic map that is itself a large widespread installation of Land Art.

Choose your favourite means of transport, enjoy this mostly flat land with little physical effort, among seasonal scents and colours and just follow the directions of the map available at this link.

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PRACTICAL INFO

INFO

  • Interests: Culture, knowledge of the territory, art
  • Duration: 72 h
  • Lenght: 76,2 km (32,2 km without detours)
  • Target: Groups, Friends, Couples
  • When: All year round

ITINERARY

FIRST STOP: ALFONSINE (Parco Millegocce) 23.3 km

The itinerary starts with the artwork “UNCIELO”, created by artist Francesco Arena inspired by Dante’s Paradise and placed in Parco Millegocce, a great place for healthy walks, not far from the Alfonsine town centre. The work represents a piece of sky fallen to the earth. Due to its fragility, it loses its state of grace and transcendence and accepts immanence without resistance. It is a different sky, now within man’s reach, a sign of transformation and regeneration.

Here you will find: 1 “Seme di Terrena” that identifies the work UNCIELO by Francesco Arena.

Inauguration of the work UNCIELO by Francesco Arena – Parco Millegocce – Alfonsine

FIRST detour on the route: ALFONSINE – FUSIGNANO – VILLANOVA DI BAGNACAVALLO (16.1 km one way)

In Fusignano, in the Bosco delle Lucciole, you will find the work by Enrico Minguzzi, entitled “P.02”. The artist, during the 2018 edition of the Terrena Festival, inserted extraneous, geometric, fractal-like elements into nature, with the intention of modifying the natural stability of the image, subjecting it to a shift in balance. The forms are ideally self-generated by nature itself, which has taken care and continues to take care of disposing of them, establishing a closed cycle in which nature generates proliferation – nature restores nature.
Here you will find: 1 “Seme di Terrena” that identifies the work P.02 by Enrico Minguzzi.

From the Bosco di Fusignano, moving east and crossing the Senio River and the Naviglio Canal, you will arrive at Villanova di Bagnacavallo. In the public park, near the Ecomuseo delle Erbe Palustri (Ecomuseum of marsh grasses) stands an installation that represents the intention to give new life to the original work created in 2018 by Spanish artist Joan Farré, “La Ca de Mazapegul”. Made with natural and eco-sustainable materials typical of the Lamone river, its shape recalls the headgear of the mazapegul, an elf from the popular tradition of Romagna. A work designed and built for children.
Here you will find: 1 “Seme di Terrena” which identifies the work LA CA DE MAZAPEGUL.

SECOND STOP: CONSELICE (Urban Wood) 11.3 km

From Alfonsine, going through the relaxing countryside, you will arrive in Conselice. In its Bosco Urbano, where the original valley environment of the territory is recreated, with wetlands and woodlands, you will encounter “Pane e libertà”, by the artist Elena Bellantoni. Inspired by Dante’s Purgatory, it explores the themes of dignity and work. The installation is the result of her reflection on cantos I and XXXI of the cantica, in search for freedom by always respecting yourself without ever betraying yourself and the satisfaction given by knowledge as food for the soul that allows access to paradise. The work also refers to the well-known uprising of the “mondine” (rice weeders). At the end of the 19th century, Conselice stages painful and tragic events that caused the killing of local workers. The fight for bread in those years encouraged the birth of workers’ guilds, which then led to the birth of modern trade unions.
Here you will find: 1 “Seme di Terrena” that identifies the work PANE E LIBERTÀ by Elena Bellantoni.

Inauguration of the work “PANE E LIBERTÀ by Elena Bellantoni – Parco Urbano – Conselice

SECOND detour on the route: CONSELICE – SAN PATRIZIO DI CONSELICE – MASSA LOMBARDA (9.7 km round trip)

A few km from Conselice, in the hamlet of San Patrizio, along the Canale dei Molini, 200 mt from a XV-XVI century mill, in 2019 the artist Oscar Dominguez proposed an environmental art installation in dialogue with nature, its mutability and aesthetic beauty, which is entitled “Alma al viento”. The work has now been almost completely incorporated by the surrounding nature, and it will be stimulating to look for its traces. The artist’s outdoor works are large installations in unusual environments, in search for the materials of the local land between land art, environmentalism and spiritual naturalness. Oscar physically and metaphorically takes possession of the places where his sculptures are created and engages in a close dialogue with the surrounding urban and architectural space. The theme of the balance between the sky and the earth, between emptiness and fullness, makes the installations light and integrated into the surrounding environment, as if they had always been there.

Here you will find: 1 “Seme di Terrena” which identifies the work ALMA AL VIENTO by Oscar Dominguez.

The detour continues towards Massa Lombarda. Look for “Alberi murali”, the mural work created by artist Andreco as part of the 2019 edition of the Festival, at the Circolo Polisportiva Massese. The painting has an arboreal theme with the aim to reinvent the very idea of nature and leaves a permanent sign in a non-natural place as a warning and a reminder to look for our own nature, and give it space. The work has been created in collaboration with young local people, through a participatory lab, a real public art workshop to teach new skills to the participants.
Here you will find: 1 “Seme di Terrena” which identifies the work ALBERI MURALI by Andreco.

THIRD STOP: SANT’AGATA SUL SANTERNO (Grande parco Vatrenus)

The work “Traghetto” by Pasquale Ninì Santoro, inspired by Inferno, is also inspired by the Byzantine past of the town that hosts it: Sant’Agata sul Santerno. Sources testify that there was an ancient duty to pay on the Santerno river, that a ferry shuttled from one bank to the other, representing one of the main sources of income. The work, conceived as a moment of transition from one particular condition to another, is inspired by Charon’s boat in Canto III of Inferno. The ferry therefore becomes, at the same time, a metaphor of passage and a tribute to the city, installed in the Grande Parco Vatrenus, right next to the Santerno river.
Here you will find: 1 “Seme di Terrena” that identifies the work TRAGHETTO by Pasquale Ninì Santoro.

Inauguration of the work TRAGHETTO by Pasquale Ninì Santoro – Grande Parco Vatrenus – Sant’Agata sul Santerno

THIRD detour on the route: SANT’AGATA SUL SANTERNO – BAGNARA DI ROMAGNA (8.3 km one way)

In the garden of the romantic Rocca Sforzesca in Bagnara di Romagna rises the work by Daniela Romagnoli, entitled “Madre terra – Popoli”, created for Terrena 2018.
The sculpture generates from the cedar trunk rooted in the garden. They are children and they are here naked, they have no prejudice, they are innocent, they just want to be together, they are looking for each other… yellow, blue, green, red, they don’t care what colour you are! From the earth comes diversity and the earth itself gives balance to this diversity. By mixing these colours something wonderful can be born! Together we can! Each child shares the same soul as the log from which they are separating, and the log represents one mother, Mother Earth, from whom we all come!

Here you can find: 2 “Semi di Terrena” One work of art identifies the work MADRE TERRA – POPOLI by Daniela Romagnoli, while the other work of art, not far from the first, along the ancient walls in via G. Matteotti, identifies the place where, in the context of Terrena 2021, the artistic workshop “Semi di Terrena” was held. Led by artist Felice Tagliaferri, it resulted in the creation of the symbolic sculptures that can found in all stops of the itinerary, with the aim to identify the past and present places of the Festival and to draw a connection line between them.

FOURTH detour on the route: SANT’AGATA SUL SANTERNO – LUGO (7.5 km one way)

From Sant’Agata sul Santerno, it is very easy to reach Lugo, which hosts two places where in the past original Land Art works were created.
The first one is located at Parco del Loto and it is the wooden installation by artist Andreco, currently under restoration, entitled “Forma Sensibile”. It is a reflection on the relationship between the built landscape and nature. It is a new vision inside the Parco del Loto, capable of making the invisible visible, bringing out the beauty of natural processes, giving nature the role of an alchemist of the present time able to learn from the past.
Here you will find: 1 “Seme di Terrena” which identifies Andreco’s work FORMA SENSIBILE.

In the same town, Parco Golfera hosts Laura Rambelli‘s permanent installation titled “La guardiana delle acque e le lucciole” (2018). Terracotta lotus flowers on iron stems emerge from the park lake to recreate the shape of a snake, a symbol of life regeneration. In the evening, the stems light up, recalling the fireflies that populate our countryside in the summer.
Here you can find: 1 “Seme di Terrena” that identifies the work LA GUARDIANA DELLE ACQUE E LE LUCCIOLE by Laura Rambelli.

Fountain Map realised by Ciclo Guide Lugo

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