WITNESSES

Silhouettes dismembered, shattered, wounded and splintered by the war, stand to represent so many soldiers, about to leave for the front or standing ready in their battle lines. Only a few of them remain whole, immune to the destructive fury of the War. The missing parts are placed in the ground to signify that nothing of what was endured will be lost, at least as long as Remembrance does not fade in the Memories of those who can read the scene with emotion. 

 

 

LETTERS

 

Huge rectangular slabs are placed horizontally on the ground, in no pre-arranged order. Great pages of history, on which are placed letters sent from the front by the soldiers of the Great War to their families.

I've still in my nostrils the smell of grease on a red-hot machinegun. I've still in my hears and even in my brain the crunching of snow under my boots, the coughs and sneezes from russian lookouts, the sound of dry grass swept by the wind on the banks of the Don. I've still in my eyes the stars of Cassiopeia wich hung above my head every night, and the bunker props above my head every day. And when I think about it all I feel the terror of that January mornng when their gun Katiuska first let off its seventy-two rocket-shells….

Mario Rigoni Stern. The sergent in the snow, 1953

HOPE

 

12 human arms in bronze, which are raised to the sky (positive message), with hands that tightly hold a sheet of paper with some writing, or offer up a flower, a dove or other symbols.

The most beautiful sea
hasn't been crossed yet.
The most beautiful child
hasn't grown up yet.
The most beautiful days
we haven't seen yet.
And the most beautiful words
I wanted to tell you I haven't said yet. 

Nazim Hikmet

MERCY

 

Four Greek crosses are placed two on top of each other, riddled with bullets. The prevailing meaning of the composition is Mercy. In fact, it faces Mount Ortigara, which in the course of the Great War, especially in June, 1917 sadly became a Calvary for thousands of soldiers of all nationalities.

"I have searched for you, 

and now you have come to me, 

and I thank you". 

Giovanni Paolo II. 1920-2005

PEACE REDISCOVERED

 A series of Chestnut beams positioned to form a cage encloses a space concealing a dove. A prison open to the sky, a narrow space to squeeze into to enjoy the vision of Liberty and Peace.

THE PATHWAY

 

The “Pathway to Silence, Doorway to Memory” is a proposal to increase the appreciation of an area of extraordinary historical and environmental interest, located on the Altopiano dei Sette Comuni in the high Valle Campomulo (near Campomuletto).
This area is preserved in its integrity and all its beauty, with stretches of conifer woods and pastures furrowed by paths and glades, where boulders of off-white limestone lie scattered, smoothed and shaped by water and wind.

The peace and tranquillity of the place cannot mask the tragedy of the Great War, which ninety years ago spread death and destruction throughout the Altopiano. The attentive eye of the visitor can still espy, among the firs and little valleys, the signs of the War: emplacements, dug-outs, shelters, trenches, former graveyards…

“Pathway to Silence, Doorway to Memory” was inspired by the force that emanates from this place.

WELLCOME!!!