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Solidarity & Joy

Design Miami

A light installation in Rimini offers hope at the end of 2020

A new public installation on the Adriatic coast offers some light at the close of a very dark year. Italian designer Gio Tirotto and curator Maria Cristina Didero have created 208, a floating light intervention, as a reflection on the time and space in which we find ourselves—and a vision of a brighter future.

208 in Rimini, designed by Gio Tirotto and curated by Maria Cristina Didero. Photo © Riccardo Gallini / GRPhoto

When invited by the municipality of Rimini to conceive this year’s annual Christmas decorations on the ancient Tiberius Bridge at the Piazza d’Aqua, Tirotto and Didero decided—rather than decorate the bridge itself, per tradition—to instead work underneath it. They installed 208 solar-lit LED buoys, a reference to the number of nations around the globe (196 recognized sovereigns and 12 semi or unrecognized), to illuminate the water. The buoys’ movements are intended to recall our ongoing individual and collective perseverance, “a quiet symphony of flashes” to help us look towards “a brighter future, beyond differences and conflicts… an emblem of diversity and at the same time a symbol for inclusion.”

208 in Rimini, designed by Gio Tirotto and curated by Maria Cristina Didero. Photo © Riccardo Gallini / GRPhoto

As Didero tells us, “The project is purposefully open to many interpretations. I hope it reminds us of each other, especially in this moment. Looked at together and individually, they can inspire feelings of solidarity and hope.”

208 in Rimini, designed by Gio Tirotto and curated by Maria Cristina Didero. Photo © Riccardo Gallini / GRPhoto

208 was commissioned by The Rimini Municipality’s Department of Culture, in collaboration with Laboratorio Aperto, on the occasion of the event Welcome! Rimini Creativity and Design Month. The installation will be up through the end of January 2021, and the buoys will be repurposed elsewhere following 208’s completion. ◆

Gio Tirotto and Maria Cristina Didero in Rimini,. Photo © Riccardo Gallini / GRPhoto

 

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