In Aurisina, the stone supply chain enters the work of four young international artists, invited to work directly inside marble-processing companies using materials excluded from the standard production cycle. The results of the Residenze e Laboratori transfrontalieri di scultura contemporanea 2026 will be presented on September 10, as part of the eleventh edition of L'Energia dei Luoghi / Festival del Vento e della Pietra. Once completed, the works are destined for the collection of the Parco Scultura di Portopiccolo.
The choice of material is neither a technical detail nor merely a budget constraint. In a region where stone quarrying and processing have shaped the local economy, landscape, and identity, utilizing quarry waste means bringing a tangible part of its industrial origin into the sculpture. Irregular blocks, fragments, and unused processing materials thus cease to remain on the margins of the production process, becoming the starting point for an artistic intervention designed for subsequent public installation.
A residency inside the stone supply chain
The program runs from August 30 to September 10 in Aurisina, a locality in the Carso triestino where stone is an everyday presence: a building material, an economic driver, and a defining visual element of the landscape. The residencies provide participants with direct engagement with this context, moving away from the concept of a studio detached from production. The artists work directly within marble companies, where the material is sorted, cut, and transformed for other applications.
The four participants hail from Italy, Slovenia, Serbia, and Austria. This cross-border dimension aligns with Aurisina's position on Italy's northeastern border, within an area where languages, economic ties, and cultural practices have long crossed national boundaries. The residency leverages this territorial identity without reducing it to a mere backdrop: the local stone and the manufacturing expertise of the companies serve as the material foundation of the project.
Curated by Eva Comuzzi, the initiative stems from an idea by Fabiola Faidiga and Maddalena Giuffrida. The decisive step will be the final presentation: the works are not designed as a temporary workshop exercise, but will join the collection of the Parco Scultura di Portopiccolo. This transfer alters the nature of the experience, requiring artists to engage with durability, legibility in open space, and the relationship between an artistic artifact and a place frequented by the public.
From scrap to a new presence in the landscape
In the debate on cities and inhabited landscapes, the reuse of materials from manufacturing activities is often viewed exclusively through an environmental lens. Here, the focus is more specific, but also more compelling: it is not about automatically attributing ecological value to scraps, but rather recognizing that they possess a shape, a history, and a material availability that can guide the project. Their irregularity is not necessarily corrected; it can become part of the sculptural choice and the visual language of the work.
For public sculpture, this approach has significant implications. The material does not arrive as a neutral surface to be shaped entirely from scratch, but retains traces of cutting, industrial selection, and its previous exclusion from the commercial cycle. Introducing these elements into a sculpture park means bringing visibility to a supply chain that usually remains in the background, behind buildings, squares, cladding, and infrastructure made with the very same raw material.
The project also connects two timelines that are often far apart. On one hand, there is the operational pace of a marble company, with processes and materials tied to a specific function; on the other, the slower pace of cultural engagement and outdoor permanence. The residencies build a bridge between these two worlds without conflating them: businesses remain production sites, while artists find the conditions and materials to develop work destined for another setting.
The urban value of a distributed collection
The Parco Scultura di Portopiccolo is where the journey of the works changes scale. Being placed within an accessible outdoor collection breaks away from the logic of an event concentrated into just a few days and leaves a lasting mark on the area. For those who live in or pass through the area, the sculpture becomes part of the built landscape as a permanent feature, subject to local conditions and to an unprogrammed engagement, unlike that of an indoor exhibition.
This is also an important aspect for local cultural policies. Artist residencies can foster dialogue, training, and experimentation, but they often remain low-visibility experiences once the working period concludes. In this case, the decision to acquire the works for the collection links the workshop to a lasting outcome. On its own, it does not resolve the challenges surrounding public space management or the long-term sustainability of cultural initiatives, but it introduces a model where cultural production engages from the outset with the responsibility of leaving something behind in the host location.
There is also a limitation to consider: the artistic reuse of waste cannot be presented as a comprehensive solution to the environmental impact of the quarrying and stone processing industry. The volumes involved in a sculpture project are inevitably different from those of industrial production. The true significance of the initiative lies elsewhere: in its ability to alter perceptions of residual materials and make the relationship between culture, business, and the local area more legible.
The presentation on September 10 concludes the intensive phase of the residency, but begins the more delicate process of integrating the works into the Portopiccolo collection. It is there that the works will cease to be merely the outcome of a workshop and take on the role of public landmarks: objects born in production sites, brought into a park, and entrusted over time to the gaze of visitors and residents alike.
