On Saturday, 20 September 2025, the PALIMPSEST community gathered at the Museo Acqua Franca in Milan, located within the Nosedo water treatment plant, for a new chapter in the IMMACCHINARIUM project. The event brought artists, associations, and citizens into dialogue, transforming the moment into a hub of collective imagination and creativity.
During the gathering, three artistic proposals—co-designed by local associations in collaboration with artists—were unveiled. These projects will continue to be refined through ongoing dialogue with the community and are scheduled to be realized in the coming months.
The initiative reflects the core mission of IMMACCHINARIUM: to create a shared laboratory where imagination drives new ways of rethinking the relationship between water, culture, and the urban environment.
Cascina Biblioteca – Le marcite / The Irrigated Meadow
Cascina Biblioteca proposes to revisit the traditional Italian agricultural practice of marcite—a centuries-old irrigation technique—conceiving it both as a landscape and as an imaginative infrastructure. Within this vision, the hydraulic machine becomes a tool for shaping the soil and directing the flow of water, where its reflections and movements open up an “other” spatial dimension.
From this exploration, the Cascina Biblioteca community proposed an idea that reimagines the agricultural field as a theatrical stage. In collaboration with artists, they plan to construct a model of a marcita with educational purposes, offering a didactic tool that bridges agricultural heritage, artistic experimentation, and environmental awareness.
Osservatorio per il Paesaggio Fiume Lambro Lucente – “…e il Lambro silenzioso sta a guardare…” / “…and the Silent Lambro Watches…”
Drawing from the Genius Loci of the Lambro River, the project explores identity and memory through the forgotten history of Parco Lambro’s hill—an artificial elevation created from the rubble of the 1943–44 bombings. The Lambro Observatory seeks to shed light on this hidden layer of the city’s past, narrating the intertwined story of the river and the hill while inviting reflection on the relationship between community, memory, and the urban environment.
Legambiente Monza and Maurice Pefura – “La foglia sul Lambro” / “The Leaf on the Lambro”
Legambiente Monza presented the concept ideated by artist Maurice Pefura, inspired by the green area managed by the association at the confluence of the Lambro River and its artificial channel, the Lambretto. Seen from above, the site suggested to the artist the form of a leaf—a “leaf-garden” whose veins become pathways structuring the space.
The proposal envisions the collaborative creation of a “garden of gardens,” bridging river and city, water and land. At the same time, the space becomes a symbolic and functional collective garden for cultivating the social body—a place of care, growth, and continuous nurturing.
Published on: September 29, 2025
