Alphorn

Created to mark the 150th anniversary of the first ascent of the Matterhorn Installed on the new staircase of Kirchplatz

We were asked to create a work to commemorate the conquest of the Matterhorn.
We took inspiration from the Alphorn—the historic communication tool, the ‘alpine iPhone’ of the 1800s.
The sculpture portrays it with a bronze shell split in two, just as wooden Alphorns are tradi- tionally built; inside flows the mountain’s voice, rendered as bronze-cast larch branches, within which intertwine the stories of the people who challenged it.
Tiny figures populate the piece: mountaineers captured in emblematic moments familiar to all who frequent the mountains—straining upward, pausing in contemplation, studying the landscape.
These figures, laser-cut from stainless steel, depict in particular the moment of the summit victory as portrayed in Edward Whymper’s famous drawing.
On the very highest point, taken from a still of the film The Great Conquest, stand Whymper and Carrel together, ten years later, to underscore that sharing, more than competition, defines the true conquest.
The design process involved thorough research into historical documents on the Matterhorn’s ascent. For this we thank Turin’s Museo della Montagna with its exceptionally effi- cient library, and the writer Enrico Camanni of Turin.