Installations
Red forms, moving water, messages for strangers.
Baci Sospesi changes its body as it meets a place and the people who live there. Sea wind, a hollow tree, a paper mill and the skills of artists and craftspeople have each changed what could be built.
The red forms remain distinct and irregular. Their openings receive paper messages, offered to people their authors may never meet. Water stays close, and free public access is fundamental.
A shared grammar, different bodies
The red forms stand for individual people in relationship. Each keeps its irregular shape and its opening. The opening receives a message and lets the surrounding place remain part of the work.
Materials change with the site. Marine plywood and a nearly invisible steel structure respond to sea wind in Passoscuro. Wood, crochet and a net above the river grew from a living tree and Carla’s practice in Pioraco. In Leiria, co-creation with Abílio Febra produced a sculpture and three red benches beside a historic paper mill.
Moving water connects these places to the project’s origin and to the sound of the audio portraits. It holds life and movement together with the Mediterranean memory of borders and danger.
Passoscuro
Italy · 2020. The first permanent installation, beside the sea in the Municipality of Fiumicino.
Pioraco
Italy · 2021. Wooden and crocheted forms among trees and above the river, followed by a permanent museum adaptation.
Loughborough
United Kingdom. A temporary installation during a business retreat; its messages later travelled to Passoscuro.
Leiria
Portugal · 2025. A permanent installation by Barbara Sbrocca and Abílio Febra at the Museu Moinho do Papel, beside the River Lis.
Bring Baci Sospesi to another place
An installation begins with a place and a conversation. It needs local knowledge, permissions, materials, funding and people who can make and care for it. The artistic direction keeps the project coherent; the people involved bring knowledge that changes what becomes possible.
Write to Barbara about a site, the people who could become involved and what your community can bring to the project.