Pensando Leonardo o La Macchina della Pioggia

Pensando a Leonardo o La Macchina della Pioggia, 2019, fotografia e collage su tavola, trittico, cm 100×40

I have always been fascinated

from the theory that in the landscape behind the Mona Lisa one can recognize the Roman bridge in the locality of Buriano in Arezzo. And it is here that the work was conceived in the dry summer of 2017 during a stay in Arezzo, when the banks of the Arno in Ponte a Buriano almost completely dried up. What would Leonardo have done if he found himself in an emergency climate situation? “Thinking of Leonardo or The Rain Machine” was my answer to this question. The work is presented as a hypothesis for a future, plausible and achievable project. To do this, in addition to stairs and a large tub, I imagined using "cloud collection sheets" that must be placed at the top to accommodate the passage of clouds and trap the moisture that will then become water. These networks are already being used to overcome the water problem in some parts of the globe. The work develops this concept through a series of photographic self-portraits taken in Ponte a Buriano and subsequent collage in which I intervened by drawing the missing and useful parts to complete the three scenes that are divided into the design, construction and application of the rain machine.