In Arpaise, a municipality in the province of Benevento, man and nature have embraced in the name of art. It’s not only a metaphorical image, but a physical and emotional link all the participants in last Sunday’s artistic performance have felt. On the site of T.A.N.A. – Terranova Arte Natura, 70 people planted as many trees of 7 local Samnite species as a new representation of Michelagelo Pistoletto’s sign-symbol of the Third Paradise. As mentioned in one of our previous articles, Marco Papa and Tiziana De Tora, founders of T.A.N.A. and Rebirth/Third Paradise ambassadors, reproduced the trinamic sign on the ground thanks to the collaboration of landscape architect Giorgio Ferraris (himself a Rebirth ambassador). Ferraris digitally elaborated and scaled the sign of the Third Paradise through an aero photogrammetric survey carried out with the use of a drone, and traced the symbol with a topographic instrument. The initiative drew the curtains on the Happy Earth Days 2018 – Festival of Arts for the Earth and its programme of artistic residencies.
The performance of 11th November was a collective action which saw the participation of artists, curators and critics, but also families and supporters of the project in general; they all literally ‘put their hands in the earth’, assisted by the curators Papa and De Tora and other Rebirth/Third Paradise ambassadors from other Italian regions. The result is a 30 m long and 120 cm wide walkable and ‘perceivable’ path in the shape of the Third Paradise within the T.A.N.A. compound.
“We are tired but happy, – said Papa and De Tora about the installation of the ‘vegetal’ Third Paradise – like roots. It was very sweet to see the enthusiasm with which children carefully put their hands in the ground holding the plants in their arms like babies. Mums and dads, friends, artists, ordinary people, talking about ‘us’ and thanking each other for being there. T.A.N.A was an actual den (in Italian ‘tana’, editor’s note) for everybody, one place and one time, slow, radiant and cosy. This has been our first harvest: the happiness of a shared action. It doesn’t take much to understand that doing is very different from doing together. And that when you do good, it lasts”.
The project of artistic reforestation is not concluded. The two ambassadors’ next objective is #Ilboscodei700, which they introduced to us: “70 trees, 70 people, 70 shadows, hand in hand, projected towards the future. And we’ll go further! Adding a 0 to the 70: the next objective is #Ilboscodei700, the soldiers of the air! 700 trees for 700 people. We are also renewing the adoption campaign with the same formula, a tree for T.A.N.A. We believe in it!”
