Il Bacio

Broken branches gather into two human profiles, leaning towards one another without touching.

Italian artist Marco Martalar created Il Bacio (The Kiss) from timber damaged by Storm Vaia, which devastated forests across northern Italy in 2018. Installed in the historic centre of Molveno in Trentino, the sculpture places the physical memory of that event within an everyday public setting.

Martalar does not disguise the material’s condition. Knots, fractures, uneven limbs and weathered surfaces remain visible. Viewed closely, the sculpture appears fragmented and porous. From a distance, those individual pieces resolve into two monumental figures.

The narrow space between their faces is essential to the encounter. The work does not depict the kiss itself, but the anticipation immediately before it. Its meaning emerges through this combination of material and gesture: wood marked by environmental destruction has been assembled into an image of closeness, recognition and repair.

Rather than erasing the history of the fallen trees, Il Bacio gives that history another public form.