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Artwork Description

“Omelia contadina” was born out of JR’s interest in the difficulties encountered by a large number of small farmers and inhabitants of the Alfina plateau. Alice Rohrwacher explains the origins of the project: “Last autumn, during a walk on the border between Umbria, Lazio and Tuscany, I told my friend and artist JR of my concerns about the destruction of the agricultural landscape, violated by the intensive monocultures with which major corporations are shaping entire territories. I told him, as the daughter of a beekeeper, of the mass death of insects that such changes bring about, and of the struggles of small farmers as they try to stem the tide of speculations, subsidies and pesticides. At one point, we stopped at a crossroads: on all sides, uninterrupted rows of hazelnut trees filled the landscape as far as the horizon. As we looked upon this, we commented to each other that it looked like a war cemetery. On the way back we decided - if it looks like a cemetery, we have to hold a funeral. But it must be a funeral full of life!”. Another performative event by JR and Aliche Rohrwacher, entitled "Processione Omelia Contadina" took place in San Gimignano in September 2020, in occasion of JR's solo show at Galleria Continua of which this work bear witness.