​Summer 2009
Castlenuovo Calcea, Italy
​
Mare Nostrum (Latin for “Our Sea") was the ancient Roman name for the Mediterranean Sea.

During a stay in Castelnuovo Calcea, Piedmont, Italy, in the summer of 2009, I discovered an old shovel and a bottle of 1985 Barbera that was too old to be drunk. From these two objects was born the permanent installation of “Mare Nostrum.”

From the hill of Ca d’Ru, I observed a 360-degree landscape of identical rolling hills, working vineyards shaped by the hand of man, and the sea that only 5 million years ago covered it all.

The shovel is a totem of all that work – the iron dressed in a collage of newspaper, a symbol of the culture. I let the poured wine evaporate in the sun.

During the process, I used the remaining wine to imprint on paper plant maps of this place now disappeared. The eight cards in the series recall the four cardinal points and the names of the winds.