ÀITASON ~ A triumph of vine branches winds through the rooms on the main floor of Palazzo Chigi Zondadari in Siena with a rhythm that suggests a dance in the ballroom. A multitude o...f intertwined branches climb and expand around windows, balconies and artworks of the collection, as if in a dialectic relationship in which the strength of 18th-century architecture and that of nature confront each other in a symbolic embrace. Àitason is a word of Etruscan origin describing the cultivation of vines on trees, a technique also referred to as 'married vine' in reference to the close bond created between the vine and the tree around which it wraps itself for support. Similarly, I have conceived a site-specific work as a sculptural installation that wraps around and through the interior of the palace to the point of projecting itself beyond its walls. Moreover, in the grand ballroom, vine branches that I have collected in France at the foot of the Sainte-Victoire mountain are covered by a precious golden armour – a second skin, an act of protection but even more of rebirth.   Read more