In 2017, C and C overcame several challenges during the installation of the year’s most photographed sculpture on the Grand Canal.
"Support" per Ca' Sagredo - Lorenzo Quinn
Two giant hands, between 6 and 8 metres high, emerge from the waters of the Grand Canal to support the ancient palace of Ca’ Sagredo. Lorenzo Quinn’s monumental sculpture, unique in the exhibition panorama of the Lagoon City, invites us to reflect on the concrete possibility of achieving a harmonious balance with our Planet, in economic, environmental and social terms. Hands, human being’s oldest tool, symbolise his power to destroy or save the world.
The installation of the works required us to pay close attention to the context in which they were to be positioned. Our team worked closely with numerous public administration offices, particularly the City Council and the Superintendent’s Office, as processing the technical/administrative documents submitted to the public administration was particularly challenging.
To ensure that the hands did not rest on the palace and could not damage it, they were mounted on two platforms designed by C and C to support them at right angles. We studied carefully the poles holding the platforms so that they could be easily removable from the muddy bottom of the Grand Canal.
CONTENTS
To ensure the safety of night-time navigation along the Canal Grande, the work of art had to be illuminated at night. We chose a lighting system that comes down from above and prolongs the effect of daylight, respecting the plastic and material characteristics of the artistic installation and avoiding dazzling the helmsmen.
To make room for the sculpture, some of the gondola stalls in front of the Ca’ Sagredo Hotel were relocated along the Grand Canal.
This phase, together with the installation of the work, was managed with great care to minimise interference with the nearby public boat landing and the water traffic on the Grand Canal – a ‘hidden’ but very challenging aspect of C and C’s intensive work to bring Lorenzo Quinn’s fascinating artistic vision to life.
