Columns of Cultures 

For eight years, Giaime Meloni has been interested in the visual analogy of two symbolic figures: the column and the palm tree. Through iconographic research and image construction, Columns of Cultures shows how these two symbols form the common foundation of cultures within the geographical context of the Mediterranean. This is a true visual obsession aimed at highlighting the importance of connections, flows, and exchanges between peoples as a generative element of the various cultures that make up the unity and uniqueness of the Mediterranean basin. Columns of Culturesseeks to erase borders and emphasize the collective origins and common references of this geographical area.

In this eighth chapter, Giaime Meloni has moved away from the Mediterranean basin to the shores of Lake Maggiore, where palm trees arrived two hundred years ago from Asia as ornaments for the gardens of houses. They have become one of the symbols of this tourist region in southern Switzerland, to the point of being called the Tessin palm tree. Many hotels in the region use this symbolic figure to accentuate the exoticism of the area. Currently, a heated debate is taking place in Switzerland about eradicating this plant, which is considered invasive and non-native. Although it is a plant that has found its place in this region, it is still not considered part of the local landscape.