Rise

Rise is a landmark sculpture commissioned for the Art Park at Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, and Marguerite’s first site-specific work. Installed on the Hill of San Licerio nearby Italy’s famed Nebbiolo grapevines, Rise emerged out of Marguerite’s in-depth study of the site’s surroundings and local figures such as the late existentialist Cesare Pavese, who wrote of isolation and the pastoral, the physical and the psychical. Standing at 3.8 metres high and comprising 160 smelt aluminium pieces fused together, Rise renders large the grapevines’ otherwise unseen male and female flowers, signalling growth, new beginnings, as well as the ‘tree of life’ or axis mundi, that links the earth with the cosmos. The entwined, windswept composition of the flowers refers to their cross-pollination by ancient wine growers – an early example of genetic engineering that reveals the inherent queerness of certain endeavours of natural science. The result of the cross-pollination was the very first hermaphrodite flower, which persists until modern day as the common Vitis vinifera still cultivated at vineyards. Involving wine producers, researchers on alchemic traditions, geologists, botanists, local foragers and specialists in renewable energy and biotechnology in her process, the creation of Rise itself alludes to neural networks, transcendence, and the effects of speed and technology on organic life.