You have probably heard of the Vaia Dragonthe largest wood sculpture in the world of a dragon, destroyed by arson on August 23, 2023 and rebuilt in July 2024, but what do you know about theBear Vaia? Better known as Molveno Bearit is a large wooden sculpture, built (just like the Vaia Dragon and other sculptures in the area) with the wood of the trees felled by the storm Vaia (especially larches) – the one that destroyed many forests in North-East Italy during the night of October 29, 2018.
It was created by the same artist as the dragon, the sculptor from Asiago Mark Hammerknown by the name of Martalarand stands on the Pradel Plateau in Molveno in Trentino Alto Adige, at an altitude of 1550 metres in the Adamello Brenta Natural Park. Commissioned by the Municipality of Molveno and the Molveno-Pradel Cableways, the work (which cost 60 thousand euros) is composed of over 2000 larch rootswhich form a giant bear of 8 meters long and almost 6 meters highand was inaugurated after two months of work in August 2024.
But why a bear? The artist said it must remember the importance of finding a balance in the coexistence between man and bear. This area, in fact, historically crossed by large mammals, is very close to the one where Andrea Papi was killed in April 2023 after an encounter with a bear. Since then, the requests for the culling (with a referendum) of the locals have intensified, as have the responses of accusations from the associations. In short, it is a very hot and debated topic.
At the dawn of the inauguration of the work, a wide controversy broke out on social media, to which Martalar responded: “I would like with this work to resolve the controversies between two teams that are fighting among themselves“. Always with this redevelopment in mind, the Land Art artist wanted the work not to impact the territory, and therefore used untreated wood, destined to deteriorate and eventually disappear.
