Pensar con le mani
On the building of the old olive press, Simone Carraro paints an illustrated manual of country life dedicated to Zeno Fiaschi, the Riparbella farmer who became an icon of radical architecture.
The theme of the work
A tribute to Zeno Fiaschi and to a way of life built on rural self-sufficiency, practical know-how and the resources of the land.
The full title is “Pensar con le mani – manuale illustrato di pratiche extraurbane” (Thinking with your hands – an illustrated manual of extra-urban practices). The work is painted on the building that once housed the town’s olive press and is dedicated to Zeno Fiaschi, a Riparbella farmer who became an iconic figure of radical architecture after meeting Alessandro Poli of the Superstudio collective.
For Poli, Zeno embodies the archetype of a way of living based on complete and ingenious rural self-sufficiency, able to make wise use of everything the land has to offer.
The painting unfolds as a sequence of allegorical figures and scenes of country life, punctuated by the plants and animals of the coppice woods and by farm tools; the colours echo the Etruscan finds unearthed in the area. At the centre a vine rises from the ground, wraps around the wall and branches out towards two large figures: on the right a woman representing the three stages of farming, sowing, harvesting and processing; on the left a man dressed in leaves, an allegory of life in the woods.
The wild man, archetype of those who, like Zeno, choose a life of conscious self-sufficiency and practical knowledge.
— The figure on the left, after the ancient maskWork details
- TitlePensar con le mani – manuale illustrato di pratiche extraurbane
- ArtistSimone Carraro
- Year2026
- PlaceVia di Piazzetta, the old olive press
- ProjectLa Collina delle Fiabe — work 15 of 18
Where it is
Via di Piazzetta
The mural is on the building that once housed the town’s olive press, in Via di Piazzetta in the old town.
The route · work 15 of 18