Rotas

More than just a company, Margraf is a team of “visionaries” who have chosen to defy the rules of marble. A perfect pairing of innovation and craftsmanship shapes stone materials and creates new 3D coverings, parabolic forms and monumental works. In dialogue between material and ingenuity, rather than taking the place of craftsmanship, innovation creates exceptional works of art that add a unique, highly distinctive touch to their surroundings.

Rotas is a majestic new piece by Fabio Viale, who is a real magician with materials. Like a modern-day Michelangelo, he is capable of “breathing life into marble” and transforming it into breathtaking works such as this giant wheel with a diameter of 3 metres, which was made from a single block of Margraf Bianco Carrara.

Viale took more than two years to shape the colossal sculpture, first using Margraf’s futuristic cutting machines and then finishing it by hand. He had to be extremely meticulous and precise during the carving process in order to avoid cracks and unwanted curves. Weighing 6 metric tons, the sculpture is so perfectly round that it can be rolled down the sidewalk.

The symbolic design represents the way in which the art of racing revolves around the spirituality of humankind and the constant pursuit of progress. The tread on the marble tyre was sculpted with the utmost attention to detail: carefully crafted signs of wear can even be seen in the surface. In the centre, the finely carved spokes call to mind neoclassical arches and columns holding up a rose window inspired by Gothic churches and cathedrals.

Rotas was commissioned in 2020 by Ugo Colombo and given to the city of Coral Gables (near Miami, Florida), where it now adorns the entrance of a new Jaguar Land Rover dealership.