The
umbrellas started to appear in this area for the first time on a stretch
of road leading to Castelnuovo Garfaganana (LU) in 1990. They were put
up during the night as a visual surprise for the motorists waiting at
the traffic lights for roadworks for the new bridge that had been dragging
on for months.
They
did not stay there for long as ANAS the department responsible for the
roads tore them down within days. They
were recovered, repainted and once again put back up during the hours
of darkness. Once again the men from ANAS decided that this kind of art
was not be allowed next to the road and this time they were destroyed.
A
new set of umbrellas where prepared and this time put up on the side of
the mountain where they could not be taken down so easily by the men from
ANAS.These stayed in place for a couple of years until a landslide finally
took them away. From then on other umbrellas started to turn up in the
area in towns like Lucca, Castelnuovo and of
course, Barga.
More
than 500 were installed. Some were for particular moments, like Halloween.
One by one these umbrellas succumbed to the ravages of time and climate
and of course, the onslaught of visitors taking home a little "part
of Barga" with them when they leave.
In
the late 90's the umbrellas started to move further afield. 100
were exhibited in an installation in a rice field near Turin. These
were then moved to the other side of Italy for an exhibition in Vercelli
and then on to Cassis in France.
The
last anybody saw of the original 100 umbrellas from the rice field installation
was in Zug in Switzerland where they were joined together to form cells
or spores. Rumours say that at the end of the exhibition, these umbrella
balls were taken outside of the gallery and set free to roll away with
the wind.