Anguane's Fountain (2024)

A translucent, alien and ethereal sculpture, reminiscent of a giant amoeba in transformation, emerges from an ancient fountain in the centre of the courtyard in Castel Gardena. The work, conceived by Policarpo for The Parliament of Marmots, is inspired by the shape of a carnivorous sponge from the deep ocean, the Chondrocladia lampadiglobus, and is a tribute to the fluidity of the anguanes: guardian entitites of mountains, forests and waters, associated in some ways with mermaid figures. The work is complemented by an experimental multi-channel sound composition created in collaboration with the vocal research collective COBRACORAL that combines the nonverbal and the verbal, human and nonhuman sounds from animals and landscape. Exploring local mythology and folk oral traditions, the artist weaves together feminism, interspecies relations, psychedelia and myth into an evocative and poetic installation.

Marta Papini