The Star of Dante is an environmental installation by Felice Limosani, developed under the scientific direction of Professor Stefano Mancuso. It consists of 50 thirty-year-old oak trees (Quercus Phellos), each seven meters tall, planted to form the shape of a star. The work is a tribute to the city of Florence on the occasion of the 700th anniversary of the death of Dante Alighieri (1321–2021). It draws inspiration from the word “stelle” (“stars”), which closes each of the three cantiche of the Divine Comedy: Inferno: “and then we emerged to see the stars again” - Purgatorio: “ready and willing to rise to the stars” - Paradiso: “the love that moves the sun and the other stars”. The installation is visible only from above, during takeoff or landing at Florence’s Peretola Airport, thus reversing the traditional perspective: not the gaze from Earth toward the stars, but a constellation on Earth looking up at the sky. A visual and conceptual oxymoron—like the ice in Dante’s Inferno. Conceived as a form of living landscape architecture, the work evolves over time. As the oaks grow, they will gradually transform the star into a forest, evoking the “dark wood” where Dante finds himself at the beginning of his journey.The project is also an ecological device: over the course of 50 years, the trees are expected to absorb up to 234 tons of CO₂, contributing to the regeneration of the urban environment and aligning with contemporary reflections on sustainability and the Anthropocene.
