Weaving

 

Weaving

 

Photos and text by Francesca Romana Rietti

 

Ringkøbing, Tuesday 5^th of August 2026

 

 

The second day of work has been lengthy planned in close collaboration with Vestjyllands Højskole, a reference point of the Danish pedagogical system based on a democratic vision of the leadership and the integration across different disciplines. In particular, in this high-school a great importance is always been given not only to the study of artistic and cultural subjects, but also to the biodynamic farming, forage food and communal cooking. At the roots of this model of pedagogy there is an holistic vision that underlines the importance of the interaction and of the interdependence among different fields of knowledge.

Therefore, all the activities of today took place in the high-school’s indoor and outdoor spaces letting us move from the main room, where students and teachers gathered singing a song in the morning, eating their meals and attending talks, and the huge green area among plants, flowers, orchards, vegetable gardens and greenhouses. Inner and outer dimensions – in spite of any whether condition – are deeply and consistently interconnected.

One might think that everything happened today is the result of serendipity or a consequence of chance, but in reality, it is the effect produced by a deep and ongoing exchange that Antonella Diana and Maria R. Rostved have established each other. Maria is in fact the teacher of the high-school, responsible of the three years pedagogical project “Regenerative Experimentarium” based on the principles of the regenerative agriculture and the permaculture to whom Antonella proposed to build a permanent bio-installation of land-art in the garden of the Vestjyllands Højskole. So today, during the workshop, led by Antonella in collaboration with Simone Perra (artist, musican, technician), we created a sculpture made out of willow branches with their roots: a living structure that can keep growing in the earth. In the previous days, Antonella and Simone prepared the soil by digging the holes in which to plant the branches, drawing the two circular bases of the sculpture and putting at their centers two bars of three meters high. We were divided in four groups (North, East, South, West) and each of us received a very concrete and specific task. We were asked to prepare the compost, to take the willows out of the barrels with water, to split the willows according to measure, to wet constantly the blankets spread on the willows to keep their roots alive. After all this preparation’s process we all start to build for the first time a sculpture weaving branches of willow, a tree that seems so fragile, but whose branches can create an extremely sturdy twine. Physically it has been a hard work under a windy and sunny sky, but it has been a time of laughter and joy. I believe we were given not only a technique, but a sense of trust from an artist who entrusted us with the responsibility of bringing one of her projects to life. At the end she asked us to give the sculpture a name. Among the many the one who received the most of the votes was Pillow. It was the way in which, while at work, many of us mispronounced the name of the willow! Just that? Or maybe also a way to evoke the sense of calm and rest that this community work produced in all of us?

The all day turned around the practice and the concept of weaving and our “willows’ pillow” is the model in action of this way and philosophy of life.

Of the many comments made during the final round, two in my notebook are underlined.

Antonella: «Union is strength».

Ana: «Nadie se salva solo».