Limbo

Limbo is a site-specific proposal for the Carrara marble quarries, highlighting centuries of extraction by exposing the raw voids of the mountains. A rusting corten steel platform casts a shadow over the quarry, guiding rainwater to carry its color down the slopes—turning absence into a slow, bleeding witness.

A 3-meter-long high-resolution print mounted on curved dibond forms a 360° panorama around the viewer’s axis, composed from over 100 seamlessly combined photographs.

A 3-meter-long high-resolution print mounted on curved dibond forms a 360° panorama around the viewer’s axis, composed from over 100 seamlessly combined photographs.

A 3-meter-long high-resolution print mounted on curved dibond forms a 360° panorama around the viewer’s axis, composed from over 100 seamlessly combined photographs.

A complete 3-meter-long relief plan of the abandoned Carrara quarries, reconstructed from hundreds of individual archival drawings.

A complete 3-meter-long relief plan of the abandoned Carrara quarries, reconstructed from hundreds of individual archival drawings.

A complete 3-meter-long relief plan of the abandoned Carrara quarries, reconstructed from hundreds of individual archival drawings.

A 1:30,000 scale, 30 kg paraffin model meticulously handcrafted based on archival maps and excavation plans from the 15th century. It represents the ongoing process of Carrara marble extraction from the 15th century to today.

A 1:30,000 scale, 30 kg paraffin model meticulously handcrafted based on archival maps and excavation plans from the 15th century. It represents the ongoing process of Carrara marble extraction from the 15th century to today.

A 1:30,000 scale, 30 kg paraffin model meticulously handcrafted based on archival maps and excavation plans from the 15th century. It represents the ongoing process of Carrara marble extraction from the 15th century to today.

1:1000 scale, 3-meter-long model made from foam, gypsum, corten steel, and rainwater.

1:1000 scale, 3-meter-long model made from foam, gypsum, corten steel, and rainwater.

1:1000 scale, 3-meter-long model made from foam, gypsum, corten steel, and rainwater.

Limbo is a proposal for the Carrara marble quarries—landscapes deeply wounded by centuries of extraction for the art and architecture industries. The work doesn’t try to cover the damage, but instead opens the wound further—exposing the raw, bleeding body of the mountain.

The intervention is a shadow—both literal and symbolic—cast across the void carved out by human hands. A platform made of corten steel hovers between what has been taken and what remains, emphasizing the absence both above and below.

Corten steel, under constant exposure to air and rain, forms a rust-colored skin. The platform is subtly tilted to guide rainwater toward a single point. There, it gathers the rust’s color of oxidized steel. From there, it flows toward the edge of the quarry—bleeding down the mountain in a slow, continuous stream.

The work becomes both a wound and a witness, a quiet protest etched into the landscape.

The shots from an archive of 1932 are compared with an expedition along the exact same pass created by miners almost a hundred years ago.

Archive access granted by Massimiliano Lucchi.

Project:

Francesca Giantin & Daria Khozhai

Year:

2019

Archive access granted by Massimiliano Lucchi.

Special thanks to Hope Ives Strode and Francesco De Pasquale (Mayor of Carrara city).

©2025

©2025

©2025