Casting the Tempo is a sonic and sculptural intervention that takes shape from an imagined element: the painted organ inside the church, visible from the entrance and through the bell tower windows, yet never actually existing. An imagined organ becomes a sonic presence, reactivating the musical memory of the church. The musical composition was created specifically for the space and is based on a process of sonic translation: the sounds produced by the looms of the Antica Fabbrica Passamanerie Massia in Turin and by the rice-processing machines of Tenuta Margherita in Desana were recorded and transformed into a score for organ. These sounds, traces of centuries-old forms of labour, become musical material and resonate within the nave of the church. A series of loudspeakers, placed along the perimeter of the space and oriented outwards, diffuses the composition towards the churchyard and the surrounding landscape. The sound propagates with a restrained intensity, almost like a call: a discreet echo inviting visitors to approach the heart of the church, still inaccessible due to restoration works. The public is thus invited to pause at the threshold of the building and listen to the composition, experiencing sound as an invisible presence traversing the architecture.

The project unfolds in two acts. The first is dedicated to the diffusion of sound within the church. The second focuses on the bell tower, where the artist introduces a series of sculptural textile elements. Banners and textile forms accompany the ascent along the central staircase of the tower, creating a visual path that gradually leads upwards. As one leaves the ground behind, the material seems to lighten and disperse, until reaching the top of the bell tower, where the gaze opens onto the horizon of the rice fields. Here, the visitor encounters sound once again: the same organ composition returns as a sign of continuity between the different spatial levels.

“I would like textile and sound to echo one another, both in their sculptural and chromatic dimensions. The organ score is based on a range of sounds linked to industrial production—textile manufacturing and rice processing. Through this, I aim to explore the contemporary relationship between humans and machines, between landscape and production.” Within the project, textile becomes a metaphor for the external landscape—the world of rice fields and cultivation—while sound refers to a more interior, spiritual dimension, connected to the repetitive gestures of labour and its rhythms. The textile surfaces are constructed from a photographic mapping of the surrounding rice fields. Using aerial drone footage, the artist processes the images through a subtractive approach, treating them as if they were blocks of matter to be sculpted. The result is a system of visual glyphs and patterns that translate the agricultural landscape into abstract forms, bringing together light, colour, and structure.

One of the main sources of inspiration for the project is Angelo Morbelli’s painting Per ottanta centesimi!, held at the Museo Borgogna in Vercelli. The work—one of the most significant examples of Italian Divisionism—depicts labour in the rice fields with a wide framing and a high horizon line, emphasising spatial depth and the relationship between body, work, and landscape. This approach to representing territory becomes, for Margherita Raso, a visual and methodological tool for investigating the relationship between colour, light, and environment in the creation of the textile works.

Founded by Cistercian monks around 1123, the Abbey of Lucedio is located in Trino, a few kilometres from Vercelli. The complex is one of the most significant architectural testimonies of the region and a site deeply tied to the history of rice cultivation. Here, an agricultural and communal system developed that helped shape the landscape and economy of the entire area. With Casting the Tempo, Margherita Raso activates a dialogue between this historical heritage and the present, intertwining sound, textile, and architecture into an experience that invites visitors to listen to time and landscape unfolding together.