Monte Stella is the only mountain in Milan, Italy, designed by the architect Piero Bottoni as part of the QT8 neighbourhood and the city’s reconstruction after World War II. Initally, Bottoni wanted to create a lake in this place. However, during the extraction processes, they found so much rubble from the war - including pieces of clothing, furniture and even human and animal bones - that is has become impossible to remove all these materials. Instead, Bottoni decided to create a mountain on top of these layers rather than removing them.

Today, Monte Steall is a memorial within the heritage-listed QT8. However, its story is not so well-known. Through this exhibition, we wanted the audiences to get to know the ground they are standing on and grasp the history and memory of this site, transforming the way they experience this place through a temporary conceptual pavilion.

Taking inspiration from Bottoni’s text, Ascensione al Monte Stella, and Alexander von Humboldt’s drawings, this installation explores the archival material from the Piero Bottoni archive through a series of texts and speculative collages, telling the story of Monte Stella's heritage in a non-linear manner.