Polychromies of Peace, from Scalvaia to the world

It happened: over fifty people of all ages, from 5 to 80 years old, contributed to create an enormous collective work of art about peace at the Scalvaia sports field. That was probabily the greatest satisfaction from this project born almost by chance, when walking around in the village I saw an enormous grid to be filled with colours in the tiled surface of our "campino". With the arrival of the first volunteers, a minimal initial supervision and word of mouth among those involved, the work took form across the tiles at an impressive speed, and I was the first to doubt about the actual possibility of creating it all in a single day, with uncertain weather and the deadline imposed by necessity. The atmosphere during working hours was light, a kind of widespread hilarity. There was the joy of sharing and the pride of having participated. A feeling easier to imagine than to explain.

The work remained intact for a few hours: that same evening, one of the many storms of this period progressively reduced it to an iridescent stain, then completely washed it away. And yet, seeing it disappear was almost a revelation, a liberation. That idea of the precariousness of beauty, of harmony, was there in front of us, watered down in the patches of rain, in all its poignant poetry.