Roman Signer, Horloge

For the next chapter of the contemporary art project ALL’APERTO (curated by Andrea Zegna and Barbara Casavecchia), Roman Signer will realize in Trivero (Biella) a grand “time-sculpture”, as the artist defines his work.
Entitled Horloge (2012), it will be Signer’s first permanent public project in Italy.

Horloge is a four metre high structure recalling an oversized station clock, with an enamelled dial and no hands, that every quarter of an hour marks the time with a long puff of high pressure steam, as if it were an ironic grandfather clock.
Horloge will be located in via Roma, in front of Lanificio Zegna’s main entrance. The concept for the project unfolded during a walk the artist took on top of the factory’s roof, dominated by the presence of a high chimney and ongoing emissions of vapour from the plant working underneath. Signer thus decided to use that trail of smoke to establish a connection between work time and free time, and also between Trivero and his homeland landscape of Canton of St. Gallen (delimited by Lake Constance and the Rhine Valley), where the hills are studded with the brick chimneys of the local
lace factories. With its clock movement puffs, Horloge wants to surprise the viewer but also simply and quietly mingle with the town pace, where the daily existence is still marked by the sound of the factory sirens and the bells of the chiesa Matrice.