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Stefano Tonti’s work deconstructs the Chanukkiah into a structure articulated along two intersecting axes. The Plexiglas —self-supporting, transparent, almost immaterial—serves only to sustain what truly constitutes the lamp: nine colored waxed threads. It is the threads that generate the work; the supporting structure merely enables their presence to emerge.

This strategy overturns the conventional hierarchy between structure and sign. The material that supports recedes from view, while the material that carries the image is brought to the forefront. Along the vertical axis, the threads rise like wicks awaiting ignition, each in a different color, composing the delicate frontal image of an almost drawn lamp. Along the horizontal axis, the same threads intertwine at the base, evoking the form of the traditional Menorah before extending beneath it, across the surface, like roots or traces unfolding into space.

The work’s poetic dimension resides precisely in this double movement. The Chanukkiah is conceived not as a closed and self-contained object, but as a node, a point of passage between what has preceded it and what is yet to come. The threads are simultaneously wick and root, potential light and the memory of a journey. They connect ritual, history and continuity within a single, open-ended form.