Icehotel 365, a new adventure starts!

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Day 1

Again up in the north, old friends, old memories but many surprises.That’s what keeps us alive. The new adventure is called Icehotel 365.

The main difference is that this Icehotel will not melt, it will be kept alive by the solar power, so the guests and visitors can enjoy the arctic nights even during the beautiful summer. It’s a huge challenge, and it is an honor to be called to be part of it. me and my collegue Marjolein Vonk, a stylist from  Amsterdam, will build a Luxury suite.

Second time we work together, last year it has been a great experience, and we hope to repeat it! We sent in our design, and now it’s time to touch a bit of snow and ice. We planned to use many blocks of ice and snow, it will be a suite filled up by tons of frozen water, giving to the guest the feeling of being rocked by the moon.

Our room is not ready to be sculpt by us, so we decide to spend the first day helping out Roland who has to build some benches and other interiors for the Icehotel365. He will mainly use old wood, and he needs some help to get this wood from his family house, which is a bit to the south. We make a fire, having a tipical swedish fika and then load the trailer. On the way back we stop because we found a beautiful missisipi style boat, and we got some ideas….We go back to the Icehotel and we plan the next day, which will be our first working. The first 2 snow blocks are on their way to our suite.

….to be continued…

Giorno 1

Anche stavolta a nord, vecchi amici, vecchi ricordi ma molte sorprese mi attendono.Ma sono proprio queste cose che mi tengono in vita. La nuova avventura si chiama Icehotel 365.

La differenza principale è che questo Icehotel non si scioglierà, sarà tenuto in vita dall’energia  solare, così gli ospiti ed i visitatori potranno godere delle notti artiche anche durante la bella estate. E ‘una sfida enorme, ed è un onore essere chiamato a farne parte. Io e la mia collega Marjolein Vonk, una stylist di Amsterdam, costruiremo una Luxury Suite.

Seconda volta che lavoriamo insieme, l’anno scorso è stata una grande esperienza, e speriamo di ripeterla! Abbiamo inviato il nostro progetto, ed ora è il momento di toccare un po ‘di neve e ghiaccio. Abbiamo programmato di usare molti blocchi di ghiaccio e neve, sarà una suite riempita da tonnellate di acqua congelata, che regalerò al cliente la sensazione di essere cullato dalla luna.

La nostra camera non è pronta per essere scolpita, così decidiamo di trascorrere il primo giorno aiutando Roland che deve costruire alcune panchine e altri interni per l’ Icehotel365. Userà prevalentemente legno vecchio, e ha bisogno di aiuto per trasportare questo legno dalla sua casa di famiglia, che è un po ‘ più a sud.  Accendiamo un fuoco, sorseggiamo un tipico caffè svedese e quindi carichiamo il rimorchio. Sulla via del ritorno ci fermiamo perché troviamo una favolosa barca stile Missisipi, e subito iniziamo a fantasticare su progetti futuri…

Torniamo all Icehotel e programmiamo la giornata successiva, che sarà il nostro primo giorno di vero lavoro. I primi 2 blocchi di neve sono in viaggio verso la nostra suite.

…to be continued…

 

From the Alps to the Ocean

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I have been partecipating to many different sculpture events all around the world, but in the Landart field I am rather a “rooker”. So I am trying since few years to get the chance to be invited to some good international landart festival. Finally, an invitation arrives: and it is for a really good exibhition in France, next to the Gironde estuary, where is ending into the Atlantic Ocean.

I want to make an ambience, to let feel to the visitors the power of the nature, combined with an “house size” dimension which we are used to everyday.

To make this, I collect 3 trunks that were planted around 40 years ago, between some holidays houses, in a small village in the Italian Alps. In those years the tourism building boom starts, and unfortunately we still have  some  ”monuments” to remind it to us; so those trees are perfect for my pourpose. I start to cut them by a chainsaw, and make some wooden planks out of them. Every trunk will become a door or a couple of windows, and as well, the hinges that will support their own windows or door.  I load up my car, inside and on the roof, and I am ready to drive 1000km direction Bordeaux.

I arrive in the “Pole Nature de Vitrezay”, which is a kind of park, with lakes and fields, just next to the estuary. I met all the other invited artists, from France, Japan, Canada, Nederlands, Uk, and of course me representing Italy.  I find my perfect spot, and I start to dig in the ground. After one day “Our first house” is in place. With a beautiful small lake on the background, an open view on the side,it is in the right location.

“Our first house” wants to be a space where visitors can feel the ambience even without any walls or roof. Just a door and windows are enough to let them think that they are in a real house. Where is the limit of inside and outside? Where my house ends and where the rest of the world starts? Is  the little private space of my house more important than all the rest?

Dalle Alpi all’ Oceano

Ho partecipando a diversi eventi di scultura in tutto il mondo, ma nel campo della  Landart sono piuttosto un principiante Così sto cercando da alcuni anni di essere selezionato ad un buon festival internazionale di landart. Finalmente  un invito arriva: ed è per una mostra molto importante  in Francia, sull’estuario della Gironda, dove si butta  nell’Oceano Atlantico.

Ho progettato  un ambiente per far provare ai visitatori la forza della natura, combinata con una “dimensione casa“, a cui siamo abituati tutti i giorni.

Per fare questo, scelgo di utilizzare  3 tronchi che sono stati piantati circa 40 anni fa, tra alcuni condomini di seconde case, in un piccolo villaggio nelle Alpi italiane. Quelli sono gli anni del boom edilizio legato al turismo , e, purtroppo, abbiamo ancora alcuni “monumenti” a ricordarcelo;  quindi  quegli alberi sono perfetti per il mio  scopo. Comincio a tagliarli con una motosega, e fare alcune assi di legno. Ogni tronco diventerà una porta o un paio di finestre;  anche i montanti e le cerniere che sosterranno le proprie finestre o porte saranno fatte con la stesa pianta. Carico la mia macchina, all’interno e sul tetto, e sono pronto a guidare per 1000 km in direzione di Bordeaux.

Arrivo nel “Pole Nature de Vitrezay“, un parco naturale, con laghi e campi, proprio accanto alla foce.  Incontro tutti gli altri artisti invitati, provenienti da Francia, Giappone, Canada, Olanda, Regno Unito, e, naturalmente, io che  rappresento l’Italia. Trovo il posto che più mi ispira per istallare la mia opera, e mi metto a scavare nel terreno. Dopo un giorno “Our first house” è in piedi. Con un bellissimo piccolo lago sullo sfondo, una bella vista sul lato, non potevo sperare una posizione migliore.

“Our first house” vuole essere uno spazio in cui i visitatori possono sentire l’ambiente anche senza pareti o il tetto. Solo una porta e le finestre sono sufficienti per far loro pensare che sono in una vera e propria casa. Dove è il confine tra interno ed esterno? Dove finisce la mia casa e dove comincia il resto del mondo ?

Il piccolo spazio privato della mia casa è più importante di tutto il resto?

Il coraggio di aver paura

Posted on Posted in Senza categoria

L’Aquila. Modulo Abitativo Provvisorio Sant’Antonio. Piastra 4/int.9

 24.08.2016 h3.36 Mercoledì Notte –

Non sentiamo la sveglia, non serve…..mi sveglio di colpo senza capire dove sono, cosa succede. Tutto buio, la lampadina lampeggia, i muri come gomma, il letto sembra il mio martello pneumatico, esco subito di casa e mi ritrovo in mutande. Non credo di aver mai avuto i battiti del mio cuore così rapidi.

Cerchiamo di radunare le idee, velocemente, rientriamo in casa ed abbiamo paura di guardarci negli occhi. In televisione un trafiletto dice: “ scossa di terremoto in centro Italia, sembra nessun danno a persone o cose”. Ritorniamo a letto, ed appena mi si chiudono gli occhi, arriva la seconda scossa che mi impedisce definitivamente di dormire.

24.08.2016 h7.00 L’Aquila

La sveglia suona: io e la mia compagna, in vacanza con me nella sua città d’origine, siamo svegli da ore e non serve parlare per capire che, per ovvie ragioni di sicurezza, la nostra gita sul Gran Sasso è rimandata.

25.08.2016 h8.00 L’Aquila

Venerdì mattina finalmente carichiamo gli zaini in macchina, saliamo in Funivia e, giunti all’Osservatorio Astronomico, partiamo per l’ascesa, destinazione Corno Grande, da salire per la Direttissima: la “Normale” è infatti definita dai più noiosa e molto lunga, così accettiamo la sfida. Bellissima e divertente, impegna mani ei piedi, non difficile, fino ad un certo punto. Eppure, nonostante le difficoltà iniziali, salgo in vetta e la vista mi ripaga dalla paura vissuta.

26.08.2016 h8.30 Rifugio Franchetti – Gran Sasso

Il giorno seguente, decidiamo di salire al Corno Piccolo, per la Via Normale, dato che la Ferrata Danesi senza imbraghi ci è stata sconsigliata. “Potete salire tranquillamente” ci dicono.

Ravaniamo in discesa fino all’attacco della Normale: un sentiero ripido,ma camminabile. Dopo pochi metri inizia a salire in verticale e le gambe non bastano più, ci vogliono anche le mani. Penso con terrore alla necessaria discesa, per il ritorno. Ho paura della verticalità, sento muoversi le pietre al mio tocco, il pensiero di una nuova disastrosa scossa non mi abbandona. Mi fermo. Flavia invece prosegue:ha un conto aperto con il Corno Piccolo, e con il suo passato. Deve farlo, deve arrivare in vetta, per Lei e per chi non c’è più. Non sono tranquillo, ma devo lasciarla andare, siamo venuti fino qui per questo. Dopo circa mezz’ora la sento arrivare e tutto diventa più sereno.

Ci vuole coraggio per aver paura.

 

perron maurizio bc16

Is the winter finished?

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Last day of the ski season: me and my girlfriend  decided to celebrated with a very short climb up, and an even shorter coming down together with my Dutch colleague and friend and then getting quickly ready for the city.

In this days the biggest city of Northern Italy is getting sparkling of designer, artists , architects and creative people ( as Arne always says…). I cannot miss it!!!

We take the train and by evening we are in Milan, ready to explore this 2016’s edition of the Salone del Mobile  and, what we like more, the  Fuori Salone.  Monday morning me and Marjolein we have a rendez-vous with a baby coming right from the north. We arrive in Lambrate, Via Ventura, and we saw our baby: an ice block, weighting 750kg, harvested 3 weeks ago, in the Thorne river, in Sweden, arrived right here for an installation of our friend Pieke Bergmans.

What we gonna do this time? no chainsaw, no chisel, no modelling, no shaping….we just have to place it and wait untill it will melt. Easy eh? It looks easy, but actually we have to list it up and place it in a middle of an alluminium bassin, on an alluminium table, without scratching it of course, and without any forklift….we plan to do it in 2 hours.

At the end, we started at 9 am , and we finished at 17 pm…..but is done, which is the main thing, and Pieke is happy that we did it while she was busy installing her light sculptures which are really imprassive and fragile.

We can celebrate it with few beers and a very nice dinner invited by our friend Pieke.

The morning after is my day off, so I start in the early morning: metro, destination Rho fiera, so visit the enormous salone del Mobile. I have a meeting at 12 with a Luxury Design Brand, so before I take a look in some stands, take some contacts and leave some catalogues. My meeting went well, maybe an interesting collaboration in the future, and I decide to go back to the Fuori Salone.I am so curious to see how is looking our baby, and I have to say it is pretty good, but a bit inclinated. Then we all get out and take a walk in Ventura , which is one of the most interesting part of the Fuori Salone. Nice people, nice installation and presentation of young and new designers. Soon unfortunately is time to run to the train and go home. But, just before going, an old friend from Holland just land in Milan, so is time again to celebrate. Sorry to leave, but i have to…

Short but full little break….a very nice way to escape a bit from the routine, after the long cold ( to be true not really)  season.

to be continued…

 

 

 

What’s next?

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The ice is starting to melt……well, actually not too much ice this winter, but the very few ice we had, is starting to melt, and is time to look forward.

Now is time to think to new projects… time to fish for new ideas, which is really difficult when you have to….time to make new maquettes.

The maquette making is always funny and risky in the same time. I start with an idea, a drawing, and when i have the piece of wood in my hands, my chisels are like drived by some kind of instinct. Even if I am trying to make something totally new, at the end, the final result has always some remind to  my old shapes, my background. Of course, is a new idea, but some textures, some movements that i like….for me impossible to forget! And the maquette is the real original work. The big monument, even if I have sometimes to adapt to big scale, is always a copy of the maquette.

In this moment I am working on some projets for the next summer, all around the world.

Next time I will tell you where I want to go to make them!

…to be continued…

 

 

 

What is happening now

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Our Planet is made by a lot of water, let say water is the most part of the Earth. For us is normal, we are used to see rivers, lakes,rain….but if you really think about it, it’s amazing that most part of our life is made by water.

Water is made by one part of Oxygen and two part of hidrogen. When The temperature drop down, the molecular are getting closer and closer, as all the othe other material when know.  But when the temperature is near to the 0, well, the water start to be crazy and completely out of any law: it starts to expands!  And of course, because it expands, the frozen water ( from now called “the ice”) is lighter then normal water. Because of this, many fishes, little organisms and icesculptors can survive. Imagine if all the lakes and rivers and sea will become a huge big block of ice: any animal will die casted in the ice. The ice is one the strongest insulator, and it let all what is under his protection survive.

During  freezen, the molecules of the water  start to stay still, almost like when you are very scared of front of the most dangerous thing. They are still alive, thye can breath, talk silently, think….but not move. And they stay like this for days, months…sometimes even ages……can you imagine????

to be continued….

 

Back home

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I am definetely back home.

I left the arctic and now I am ready for the southern winter, in the italian alps. So, no more northern lights, no more reendeers, no more 2 tons iceblock.

But, here we have the sun, we have the mountains and …….and……and we have no snow!!!!! Is a bit tragic to live in a small village up hill, in the middle of a huge skiresort, ready to welcome troups of tourists, and no snow! The most precious material is missed. My eyes are still filled up by all the white I got up in northern Sweden, that I cannot believe in my hometown everywhere is grey and green. So, a short refresh for those of you who are living in the Alps, just to remind you the colour of this wonderfull material. And don’t mind…..it will snow…..for sure. We don’t know when, nobody knows, but it will.

I think, we think, on the 4th of january, in the morning.

to be continued….

 

 

Icehotel n°26, day 14 till the end

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We finally are sad and happy in the same time.

Sad because all our friends left for their houses and even if the Icehotel is starting to be filled up by tourists, we feel a bit lonely. At the restaurant no more line, in the night, the bar is so silent…..

Happy because finally we have all the tools for us!!!! and is amazing….

So, no excuses anymore. Now we have to do some serious work. We have now our snow platform where we will build the bed, and the trees are alsmost completely shaped….it looks like we have not much to do, but we have a loooot . The final touchs are always the most important and most dangerous, and we have to be so focused on what we are doing.

Vonk: and now you listen!!!!

The conclusion of such an important project it can be sometimes a bit electric and is so easy to jump as springs and start a fight. Luckly, me and my collegue we had just a small “fight”, to be true not a real fight…..we prefere to call it “misunderstanding”, but we solve it and we even found a better solution for our doubt.

Last night in Jukkasjarvi. We cannot imagine a best way to celebrate it, than crossing the river and having a beautiful Japanese dinner cooked by our wonderfull collegues, in Arne’s house, in Poikkjarvi. We even saw a little Aurora tonight, sooo perfect!

Now we are deeply proud of our luxury suite, and we can’t wait to make our presentation to our friends, collegues, guides and showed up people.

First the presentation of Natsky, Shingo and Rise ( the best neighboor )  and , as always, they are so nice. Then is our turn. We wait all the people inside our suite, we are sitted on our swings , and when they enter we have to say they are all impressed. They never saw ice swings in the Icehotel, and this was actually our mission: try to tell what is our vision and idea of luxury. Nothing about owning, of being able to buy the best things. But we think is all about being able to do whatever we want. Like building a treehouse, spend time in it ( maybe sleep in it) and even spend time on a swing.

This is our luxury: going back and feeling like a king just for those simple and basic emotions.

To be continued…..maybe

 

 

 

Icehotel n°26, day 12 & 13

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The final rush for the finishing of the Suites of the 26th Icehotel. Probably one of craziest time i saw in my life.

Corridors full of scaffoldings, weelbarrels, wooden planks, people running and trying to cleanup a bit, and people steeling everything!!!!

Not really everything….you can leave your camera, wallet, money of pc, nobody will touch them….but the tools!!!! NEVER leave a tool without both eyes on it!! It could disappear in one second. And the ice asweel, maybe you have the perfect block in front of your room, even with your name on it, already cutted and will perfectly fit in the place where you need it…..gone. Somebody took it for maybe to make a small piece to support the bedframes. We are working at the entrance of the corridor, so everybody has to pass there. When our collegues are coming to pour suite they look like homeless, they are looking for something, but of course, they don’t want to tell us. So they start look around, with a fake no interest and then , after a long breathe, they ask: do you have……NO, OUR ANSWER IS NO.

To be continued…

Icehotel n°26, day 10 & 11

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Sunday, the church day. well, normally, but in this little small world apart which is the Icehotel, sunday is the recovering day. Recovering from the hard work in cold climate, resharpening of the tools  to be ready for the next iceblock, and of course recovering from the weekend party.

So we had a calm sunday morning, just too good to be true, and we planned to do some soft and easy chiselling on our iceblocks. We tried to get the shape, do far from the final one, and give to our trees some life.

A beautiful sunday reindeer meal welcomed us at the restaurant, and we really appreciate this tipical nordish food, especially when we really missed it!

and then we go to church!

Yes, we went to church. I have been many times to Jukka’s church, but just for visiting. This time we decided to go during the formal function, and what a surprise!! Because of us, the Priest did the mess in swedish and in english aswell. After the function, fika and cookies were ready for us. And the biggest surprise….the Priest is a woman!! I am so sorry, but my italian catholic background let me think that it was impossible to have a woman priest! Luckly, I left background many years ago, but still is amazing to see how the things you learn in childerness are almost unforgettable.

Monday is always a great day. We have been rather organized, and we gave the rough shape to all our trees. We are really ready to cast the snow in the middle of the suite, to build up the socle where the bed will be build

To be continued……

 

Icehotel n°26, day 8 & 9

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Finally our luxury suite has all the ice blocks that we need inside. We placed almost 16 tons of thorne river’s ice and after “supergluing”them, we started to shape them. So, the trees are starting to look like trees and not anymore like big ice blocks. We try to reach the seeling with some of the branches adding fiew small pieces of ice on top…..and then is weekend!!!

The weekend started with a party hosted on the other side of the river by an old friend who had a lot to do with Icehotel in the past, and whom I personally met in Sydney in 2007…..yes, this world is definetely a very small ball! The day after, between one chisel and a chaisaw, we had the chance to try some of the Icehotel activity for turists….and we choose the dogsledge. Great!!! So silent, smooth, and nice to ride a sledge on the frozen river…actually we really hope is frozen!!

And saturday, the great kick in party, with all the artists, the builders and all the Icehotel’s staff. Off course, this has been always an hard job, but we are so diehard and we wont miss it.

to be continued…

 

 

Icehotel n°26, day 6 & 7

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The first week of the construction of the Luxury suites at 26 ° Icehotel is over. I met my colleague Marjolein Vonk, Dutch designer, in the airport and we made the last part of our journey together. Coming from Jouvenceaux, it took me about 20 hours … .I could have been inAustralia !!!! But sincerely, this time of year, Jukkasjarvi is the only place where I want to be. Just landed welcomes us a strangely mild climate, but still below zero. Juhn nis waiting for us, a Swedish guy who has been part of the support team, who are the ones who help us when we have to move heavy blocks or do jobs where more hands are comfortable. He take us to the ICEHOTEL , we take possession of our log cabins, where we will stay for three weeks. Immediately, we can’t wait and we take a ride in the “construction site” to see the status of the work and we see that a lot in delay because of the temperatures. The next morning we go straight into our suite and “draw” to lay the blocks. Unfortunately, the ice is not ready yet, so we dedicate ourselves to the roof, the most uncomfortable job …. We work hard, but in the end we supersatisfied of the result and we start to bring in the first block of ice. The ice has been harvest in February, during which the part of the icy river Thorne reaches its maximum thickness, and is held all summer just to be able to afford to build the suites. We are talking about blocks that weigh about 2 tons, 110cm wide x 80cm high and 230cm … .assolutamente transparent !!!! These blocks must be handled with extreme care, they are very slippery, dangerous and reakly big. We will use about 12 blocks, and to have some fun ‘, we decided to place 3 in a row in height … While we were intent on putting a block in place, suddenly he fells going into a thousand pieces, making a roar that drew all of our colleagues, but above all, leaves unharmed Marjolein which was about 2 meters far … it’s gone well, but unfortunately these are the risks of our job. This week we also had the chance to see the incredible spectacle that is the aurora borealis, for 2 times. It’s one of those things that marks you, and that hardly you will forget. A new week is starting, the most important because we will have to shape our suite, and the first tourists arrived to visit the madness called Jukkasjarvi Icehotel. To be continued…

Icehotel n°26, day 4 & 5

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Finally, the 4th day, we placed our forst big block of ice.

Tchnical data: dimensions/ cm 75 x 100 x 230, weight / 1800 kg, color/blueish

It has been rahter tricky how to arise it and push it into the suite, but we got it. To complete the day we sniced the back wall, so is done.

The mornig after, we start rather early because the plan is complicated: put another big block on top of the vertical one! So we will have almost 2 tons on our heads for the next 2 weeks!! We build a “pallets tower” as support, and with the help of Mats, the big block is up, glued, slashed and we can go to lunch happy.

Aftyer lunch we arise another big block, but we have to be precise and make it very straight….during the levelling, all the Icehotel probably eard the death sound of an hard and heavy cube falling on a fluffy snow base. No problem, my partner Marjolein is saved, noone blessed, let’s take a new one. Luckly we have a big reserve of ice, so we have the permission to make few mistakes.

End of the day arrives soon, and we can really call it a day: 2 trees up, we know how to lift up the others, time for a chat with friends

To be continued

Icehotel n°26, Day 2&3

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Something up there is happening. After a long working day, we celebrate the beginning of this building time with a nice barbecue on the river. Artists, kids, dogs and warm atmosphere in a chilly wind. At the end, when we are all ready to go and rest, we lift up our eyes and we see a tiny little start of a northern light. We go on the frozen river to catch the darkness, but the moon tonight is playing against us. In few minutes the show starts. Many colors, very fast shaking and sliding….a very good first aurora for this season!!

After the aurora hunting night, which means  coming back with frozen fingers, we all meet at the warm bar, which is becoming the meeting point for this year. Few beers, a lot of chat, and many laugh.

Sunday morning is always lazy: slow starting, no tractors running around, and minus 15 degrees on working place. We decide that the roof has to be finished by tonight, so then we can start to concentrate on the important stuff.