Aganis

The project is inspired by the figure of the Agane, creatures from the folklore of Pordenone, linked to rivers — described at times as benevolent and beautiful women, at others as cruel and fearsome entities. They embody the dual nature of the river, which gives and takes away. Through this ambivalent figure, a broader reflection emerges on why the Agane are always portrayed as women, and how, in cultural tradition, nature itself is so often feminized.

Why do we say Mother Nature and not Father Nature, even though we have lived for centuries in a patriarchal society? Some might argue it’s due to the power to give life. Yet, we have long revered a God the Father as the creator. The distinction, then, is not in the generative ability, but in the qualities of unpredictability, mutability, and indomitability that we culturally attribute to both nature and the feminine. God is male and stable. Nature is female and dual. This duality — at once fertile and destructive, nurturing and terrifying — has long shaped the perception of women as unstable, moody, or hysterical. The Agane make this projection evident.

In the vase, their essence is made tangible: one side shows the prosperous breast — a preponderant and constant feature in depictions of the Agane, symbol of beauty, abundance, and fertility; the other side reveals the absence of its twin, evoking lack, negation, and rupture. Through this absence, the sculpture expresses the duplicity inscribed in the feminine archetype.

The aim of the project is to reclaim that instability — not as a flaw, but as a sign of resilience, fluidity, and transformative power. Through the material language of ceramics, the work seeks to restore dignity to a force too often misunderstood: the raw, shifting strength of the feminine, of nature itself.