This ghost-like structure is made up of seven tonnes of steel wiring. The paleochristian church in Siponto, an ancient settlement in southern Italy, was destroyed by a quake in the 13th century. To show tourists what the structure used to look like, Edoardo Tresoldi - a Milan-born artist and stage designer who specialises in wire-mesh creations - put up a wireframe reconstruction on top of the ruins. "I liked the idea of drawing on space," says Tresoldi, 28. "And this was a new way of thinking about transparency. It's not like using glass: in this building you can still feel the wind, hear the sounds from outside… there's no real 'outside'."
Recreating the structure of a building that last stood 800 years ago required months of research. "We had to go through many projects of churches built in the same period and in the same area," Tresoldi explains. "Luckily, back then, buildings were designed following standard rules - according to a golden ratio between pillars, naves and walls. Looking at the remains, we could calculate the church's proportions." Once the design was completed, Tresoldi and his team cut wire mesh sheets into "puzzle pieces", each representing a module of the church. Using hog ring staplers, they assembled the structure on site over 30 days. Italy's Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities - which funded the project alongside the Archaeology Superintendence of Puglia - unveiled the frame in April, and there are no plans to remove it any time soon.
"It is made of steel so, with some maintenance, it can last for a long time," says Tresoldi, who is now working on installation projects in the US. "But the most important thing is that thousands of people are now visiting Siponto's ruins. They're the really important thing here - that's why we made it transparent."
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
