Floating Karst

The story behind

Karst is a distinctive landscape shaped by the dissolving action of water on soluble rocks like the famous Dolomite’s mountains, Unesco World Heritage.

The development of karst occurs whenever acidic water starts to break down the surface of bedrock near its cracks.
The geological process, occurring over many thousands of years, results in unusual surface and subsurface features ranging from sinkholes, vertical shafts, disappearing streams and springs, to complex underground drainage systems and caves allowing for rapid and often turbulent water flow.

alcarol retrieved pieces of local karst stone partially covered with native mosses and lichens. This skin marked by time has been preserved using a water-like transparent resin, in order to recall the particular environment in which these rocks are submerged through various eras, crossed and eroded by water, and creating at the same time an unusual effect of lightness as if the stones were suspended in a floating instant.

The section planes reveal the amazing shapes and cavities generated by the water, freezing the present instant and endowing the blocks with a new and eternal functionality.