The artwork was created in an area of intensive farming, with some portions occupied by small illegal structures that are typical of the outskirts, such as shacks and sheds for the storage of building materials. A long time ago the area was characterised by extensive marshlands.

The area is part of the European Union’s Natura 2000 network, and has for many years been designated as a Site of Community Importance (SCI) called the “Wetlands of the Florence and Prato Plain” (“Stagni della Piana Fiorentina e Pratese”; Natura 2000 code IT5140011; EU Habitats Directive 43/92/EEC). The area was recently redefined as a Special Area of Conservation (SAC) and a Special Protection Area (SPA) for the conservation of wild birds (EU Directive 79/409/EEC; amended in 2009 under EU Directive 2009/147/EC). 

Despite these international recognitions, this territory still includes some plots of land that are periodically artificially flooded for hunting. It is a situation that represents an affront to our public heritage. Over the years, this type of highly impacting activity has dramatically impoverished the territory’s faunal community and turned the area into a veritable “ecological trap” for migratory birds, which should be protected as a requirement of the aforementioned EU directives.

The artwork was conceived as part of this context and consists of a new wetland area that provides a first “stopover enclave” for birds. The work’s title is taken from the Italian expression lanciare un primo sasso (literally “to throw a first stone”), which points to the significance that the artwork seeks to represent: a proactive first step that will engender further positive change. Specifically, it is intended as an initial act of civil rebellion against the unacceptable absence of protection that the remaining part of the territory continues to endure.

The concentric circles represent waves that spread out from a point where a stone has been thrown into the middle of a flooded area. The work, which therefore has a conceptual character, is the “materialisation” in the landscape of the well-known popular saying.

The intervention was designed to act as the driving force for a series of new interventions that over time would lead to the effective protection of this area. The waves originating from the centre and rippling out towards the sides indicate the direction of this action’s progressive expansion throughout the territory. Since the creation of this work, various other interventions have been carried out in this area, including, for example, the Ecotones work-site at Ponte a Tigliano (Prato).

Category

Work-site 

Author

Carlo Scoccianti

Area of intervention

La Bassa – Olmetti, Campi Bisenzio (Florence).
The area is located within the Site of Community Importance (SCI), Special Area of Conservation (SAC) and Special Protection Area (SPA) of the Stagni della Piana Fiorentina e Pratese (Natura 2000 code IT5140011).

Status before intervention

Flat countryside area encircled with embankments. Used as a controlled overflow basin for water from the adjacent channel.

Type of intervention

New wetland constructed with mechanical equipment over a pre-existing area used as a flood-control basin. The artwork is characterised as an extensive marsh interspersed with strips of dry land suitable for the stopover of migratory birds. The work was completed by planting aquatic and riparian species thanks to volunteer groups (social art intervention). 

Work status

Completed (December 2012).

Authorities/agencies involved

- Consorzio di Bonifica Ombrone Pistoiese – Bisenzio

- Committee for the WWF Oases of the Florence area

Main bioindicators used to monitor the ecological functionality of the work-site

- Waders: stopover during migration, refuge.

- Great reed warblers (Acrocephalus arundinaceus): nesting.

- Reed warblers (Acrocephalus scirpaceus): nesting.

- Little bitterns (Ixobrychus minutus): nesting.