TERLO NIGHT HARVEST
1) October 01, 2020
2) October 13, 2021
3) September 23, 2022
Temporary installation
Terlo Vineyards, Barolo, Italy

Starting in 2020 Emilio Ferro's temporary installation Terlo Night Harvest comes to life during the harvest in the Terlo vineyard, whose prized grapes are used to produce the prestigious Barolo of the Astemia Pentita winery.

​

The desire to carry out a night-time harvest in order to preserve and enhance the organoleptic properties of the grapes gives rise to the need to illuminate the rows and facilitate the harvesting process. Fondazione Radical Design invited Emilio Ferro to work on a shared concept of experimentation: a project where light could reveal, in an unprecedented way, an intimate and crucial stage of wine production.

​

Night-time harvesting is not commonly practiced but, in addition to ensuring better preservation of the grapes' aromatic qualities, it retains all the charm of certain ancient rituals. Traditional farming wisdom teaches that the plant reacts to thermal stress by swelling the berries during the day and contracting them at night, collecting and concentrating within them the aromatic compounds that make the skin more elastic and therefore the grape cluster more manageable. During transport to the cellar, the berries therefore run less risk of breakage and early fermentation that could compromise the quality of the wine.

​

The ancient gesture of harvesting a cluster of grapes, the slow and repeated rhythm of knowledge passed down through the seasons, the skilled hands that care for nature to transform its fruit into precious nectar. The rows shrouded in darkness and dotted with lights embody the poetry of the Langhe, as if to create a vineyard suspended above the village of Barolo: a luminous island that floats in the night and inhabits the ridge of the hill, only to go out at the end of the harvest.

​

The workers taking part in the harvest become part of the installation itself: the lights needed to give shape to this nocturnal dream are transported in red baskets like those that return full of grapes before the following dawn. Equidistant from each other, the LEDs are positioned between the 32 rows of the Terlo vineyard to give rhythm to this singular harvest of light with their silent presence.

​

An extraordinary harvest: an extreme gesture of care and respect for the rhythms of nature that allows the full potential of the fruit to be captured. The light creeps into the stillness of the night and enhances the regular geometry of the cultivated hill, revealing the poetry of the smallest things.