Prompted by a great friend, I have returned to the sight of La Colonna del Viaggiatore.  It really does look like just a pipe.  Or, from my angle, almost so.

My first piece of research shows up in Italian.  Roughly translated (i.e., via Google translates), the following applies to the sculpture Arnaldo Comodoro,

whose language is fueled and enlivened by the ‘relationship between full and empty and contrast technology-poetry’

I can see that.  Now.  A full column, almost.  With just a few empty spots. Together with the technology of the metal column, the poetry of _______?