Portals at Belmond San Michele Palazzo, Florence, Italy

Dream of Flight (2018)

Corten Steel, Polished Stainless-Steel

Sandra Muss’ Portals: Dream of Flight is a suggestive site-specific installation for the Belmond Hotel Villa San Michele in Fiesole on the slopes of Monte Ceceri, cited in the Codex on the Flight of Birds by Leonardo da Vinci as the location of his flying experiments. The installation was part in 2019 of the celebration of five hundred years since the death of Leonardo da Vinci. The columns or “portals” were located between the splendid façade of Villa San Michele, attributed to Michelangelo, and the panorama of Florence that can be enjoyed from Fiesole.

Portals: Dream of Flight, is comprised of three large totemic sculptures made of Corten steel cutouts of cicada wings inspired by abstractions that wrap around a rectangular mirrored steel column. They function as representations of nature’s perfection and at the same time they delve into the mental or physical act of soaring to other places.

Sandra Muss has always been interested in the metaphorical threshold that exists between nature’s magical realm and the human presence. Muss’ work revolves between the notions of time passing, life cycles and portals. The journey through these entryways of the mind, whether her own — or, for that matter, anyone else’s — is a representation of the exploration of freedom, in the metaphorical and physical sense.