Autogrill Monument is a sublime display of highway fatality in that it inspires awe and terror by its beautiful representation and direct reference to an immediate eclipse of life. The sublime blue cloud represents the particular moment of passing from one state (corporeal) to another (non-corporeal). As a monument, it is a structure to commemorate a person or event—a public memorial. As an improbable monument, it signifies a situation unacceptable for public consumption, therefore implicating the intriguing contradiction inherent in the concept “improbable monument”.

Autogrill Monument underlines the illusion that somehow accelerated travel creates a non-place that can be traversed without the necessity of experiencing it. Autogrill Monument memorializes the unfortunate realization that it sometimes is necessary to experience a point in time and space even if it is considered a non-place. But this necessity is irrelevant for highway travelers focused on the destination and therefore points to its improbability. Although the sublime moment of the Monument’s blue cloud (indicating a highway fatality) ejecting through the 20-meter high column of water could honor life, this constant reminder is unacceptable to our need to depersonalize the highway experience and continue the illusion of the safe highway non-place.

Autogrill Monument as the intersection of road, flesh and real-time data is an improbable proposition because it displays a confluence better left to each individual’s internal contemplation, rather than serve as a public focus point of tragedy. Autogrill Monument serves as a public memorial and offers a communal zone of contemplation and remembrance. Its improbability though questions the notion that the appropriate response to death is to keep its moment a secret and private affair rather than allow the community to use this information in a meaningful way.