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Midland Arts and Culture Magazine | WINTER 2010/2011culptureinInternationally renowned artist makes history in Lough Boora ParklandsJohn K Grande, Writer in Residence, has a chat with Alfio Bonanno, Artist in Residence,at Sculpture in the Parklands 2010.JG: Alfio, it’s great to meet up withyou and to see this new initiativewhere sculpture works with nature asa total integration. Art in nature canopen up new dialogues. What we callpublic art is too narrow a definitionfor an art that engages a public. Publicart can become so generic and sterile.An art that engages community in naturehas an exciting and engaging dynamic.AB: Taking art out to the communityis the point; take it out there, to avillage, a remote community, wheresomething is going to happen with it.Way out you get a response,collaboration and there is a sharedmeaning. When you are gone, thesepeople participate, look after it, andthey make it live.JG: So this is a different kind of art,both in terms of realisation andconception that you are directing yourenergies towards… Initiatives likeFrom Earth to Sky for Sculpture inthe Parklands at Lough Boora, CountyOffaly establish links with history andthe local community. How did youarrive at the concept for the piece?AB: I was really excited when I took atrip into the boglands and looked atthis black landscape. I saw piles andpiles of bogwood just sticking up.This was my language. I felt veryhumble and excited at the sametime. Humans were living in this areaup to 10,000 years ago and so thereis an energy in working with thisancient peat wood material. Thosepieces of wood carry a memory ofthe ancient forest if you can plug intothat. Just think what it will tell you.The peat lands and bogwood, theMesolithic site nearby all represent atime frame where I feel my connectionto the beginning as a human being. Itis a universal thing. I am working withthe forest and with a respect for whathas been here. Of course, the firststep was this bogwood as the rawmaterial. I liked the idea and there isa lot of it here. I found the materialbut how do you work with it? Lookingfor a site, something has to catchyour feeling. Normally it is my bodythat has to react to it; I feel it as aphysical sensation. Walking alongthe path in the Parklands we reacheda small lake that had been dammed.And the running water went into ahole and made a beautiful sound. Icaught onto that. Why look foranother site, when this first feelingwas just right for me? This was enough,so I stopped there and went with it.JG: Sculpture in the Parklands createsthis link between human culture andnature. Can you tell me how youarrived at the original concept?AB: Working with site specific worksin different cultures in differentlandscapes I found it was veryimportant to do structures thatinvolve people – to create a spacethat invites you, out of curiosity, toenter into is the way I work. I havebeen making structures, works thatinvite you to participate. I am notinterested in sculptures that are justvisual. This is physical. It is bigbecause the landscape requires acertain size – we have to get peoplein here. So the scale also involvescertain issues of safety. The workshopsat Bord na Móna have been fantasticbuilding this huge steel structure andthey are creative, good at the workthey do. This was a group effort that20