Built with wood resulting from Storm Vaia, which hit northeastern Italy, destroying millions of trees, the Drago di Vaia (Dragon of Vaia) had become the symbol not only of rebirth, but also of the disasters of climate change. An arson incident has burned a symbol and its meanings
by Marco Muggiano
This is a posthumous 'like', because the Dragon of Vaia no longer exists. The hand of madness set fire to it recently, burning the work, but first and foremost everything that it symbolized.
In fact, the Dragon was created by the artist Marco Martalar in Lavarone, on the Alpe Cimbra (Trento), with wood resulting from Storm Vaia, which massacred forests in October 2018, destroying a huge green lung. It was an extreme weather event that affected all of northeastern Italy, causing the collapse of millions of trees and the destruction of tens of thousands of hectares of alpine coniferous forests.
With that wood, the artist had built a work that was six meters high and seven meters long. To make it, he had used three thousand vines and two thousand logs, branches and splinters recovered from the crashes of the storm. In a short time, the tallest wooden dragon in the world had become an attraction, as well as a symbol of Lavarone and the post-Vaia rebirth. A message to raise awareness about climate change and the ephemeral data of nature, it was inscribed in the current of Land Art: that is, those works built with natural materials from the place itself, destined to degrade, Martalar had chosen not to treat the wood, so as not to interfere with the processes of disintegration. A process that was accelerated by the cruel hand of one who was not able to wait for the inexorable but fascinating effects of time.