Passoscuro
The first Baci Sospesi installation · Municipality of Fiumicino, Italy · 29 August 2020
From a drawing to a public place
The first image of Baci Sospesi placed red forms directly on the sea. They would carry messages for strangers. Salt, wind, safety and environmental concerns changed the proposal: instead of floating forms and bottles, Barbara imagined a vertical sculpture on land, still close to moving water.
Barbara sent her sketch to Valentina, an artist and friend in Passoscuro. Valentina encouraged her to propose a permanent work to the Municipality of Fiumicino. Roberto, an engineer, helped with the structural requirements. Barbara prepared and submitted the project; the approval arrived after only a few weeks.
The materials and the hands
Angelo Montesi, an artist, sculptor and car-body repairer in Passoscuro, recommended marine plywood for the forms because it could withstand salt and bad weather. Barbara drew the shapes; he cut the wood. She sanded, shaped and painted the kisses.
A steel structure had to support thin, irregular forms while remaining almost invisible. Angelo and Barbara measured, bent and adjusted its tubes step by step. Vincenzo built the reinforced concrete base and covered its surface with small stones. Valentina, Roberto, Quinto and other friends helped prepare the area and paint the surrounding walls.
The concept, drawings, colours and artistic direction were Barbara’s. The sculpture’s material life became possible through other people’s knowledge and labour. These contributions belong in the account of how the work came into existence.
What the openings make possible
The installation opened on 29 August 2020. Its openings were ready for paper messages. People could stop beside the sea, leave words and find thoughts offered by somebody else. A voice or message does not have to arrive in the same place or at the same time as its recipient.
Red carries the shared matter of blood: life, feeling and vulnerability. The forms remain individual and irregular within a relationship. Moving water carries the project’s connection between bodies and places, together with the Mediterranean memory from which it began.
Free access is part of the work. A place where somebody can stop, listen and leave a thought without becoming a customer returns a part of public life to common use.
