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…and the water swept everything away
I can’t hear anything anymore, nor can I see — the light has gone out in the whole town.
All I feel is the fury of the water erasing everything it touches, folding cars as if they were paper,
dragging down the street everything that dares to stand in its way.
The cries for help can no longer be heard either…
Darkness has been our guest since tonight.
The concept behind the design of the ephemeral installation for Tile of Spain is the representation of the light that emerged in the wake of the catastrophe in Valencia. A spontaneous light that shines through the darkness engulfing more than 68 towns since that fateful afternoon. Each and every volunteer — the so-called “glass generation” that was said to be indifferent, the father, the homemaker, the companies, the state services… no one waited for a call. Everyone showed up with whatever they had, because that’s who we are — we are the light that does not go out.
This is our well-deserved tribute to all of them: an installation made up of 18 sculptural totems representing human-scale candelabras standing over a sheet of “mud and water.”
The porcelain models of the 18 totems have been selected for their “clay–mud” tones — the color that has stained the entire environment of the affected areas — as well as the grout, which will be the same for all the totems, in a sienna shade.
In addition, the pieces that make up the installation are reusable, and there are plans to relocate them to help repopulate one of the areas affected by the disaster. On one hand, they can be used as sculptures to honor all those affected, the victims, and the volunteers — preserving all the totems as they are, grouping them in a designated place, or transforming one of the newly repopulated areas into a sculpture garden. Another possibility is to use them as seating or tables: the totem designs consist of several prisms offset along a central axis, allowing them to be laid on one side to function as armrest-equipped benches or small tables.
The installation is part of the design and habitat exhibition titled Cre-Action, organized and promoted by Interni Magazine at the Università degli Studi di Milano, as part of Fuorisalone 2025, during Milan Design Week.
Our design is the result of a competition promoted by ICEX and ASCER (Spanish Ceramic Tile Manufacturers’ Association). The Tile of Spain installation will be open to visitors from April 7 to 17, 2025.
2025
Ephemeral installation for Tile of Spain | Selected
2025
