The site-specific work IL VELLO D'ORO (THE GOLDEN FLEECE) develops around a centuries-old holm oak, whose structure is still mighty but completely hollow inside due to its very ancient age.

The Golden Fleece was the golden cloak of Chrysomallus, a winged ram generated by Poseidon and Theophanes and endowed with magical powers. It is said that his fleece had the power to heal any wound.

Starting from this suggestion, the artist imagined the golden fleece as a sacred element capable of healing the wound present on the centuries-old tree of the Bisentina Island.

The artist created a shaping of the void that was created inside the tree, on which he then developed a cast made up of various materials: the first part in wire mesh that allowed to give shape to the sculpture, then an intervention in fibreglass that sealed this wound.

The last layer is in pure 24-carat gold, coming from Giusto Manetti of Florence, a historic Florentine company which has practised the art of beating gold since 1602 and which still produces and markets gold leaf.

The impression is both that of a real mantle and that of bark stretched out to protect the tree. The work of art, therefore, communicates not only its aesthetic beauty but also the sense of protection of a centuries-old tree and that therapeutic value of the fleece that heals the wound.

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