14 October 2023 - 14 January 2024
Episodes of Contemporary Mosaics – a project that sees design and mosaic interacting and communicating with one another to produce new and unique objects used for interior spaces – will take place during the VIII Biennale of Contemporary Mosaics, held in Ravenna from 14 October 2023 until 14 January 2024.
The project – curated by Maria Cristina Didero, the first Italian curatorial director of one of the most important design fairs world wide, Design Miami – is conceived for the noble spaces of the Palazzo Rasponi dalle Teste and is supported and organized by the Municipality of Ravenna – Department of Culture and Mosaics, and by MAR – Art Museum of the city of Ravenna.
Aiming at enhancing traditional and contemporary mosaic production and crafting skills and capabilities of the territory of Ravenna, the project commissioned six designers and artists, selected by the curator to create objects to be realized in mosaic.
Industrial design, digital technologies of 3D printing and molding of the supporting surface, skills, and sensibilities typical of mosaic craftsmanship, and stone and glass tesserae converge with ingenuity to offer outcomes of great charm and originality.
The projects designed by Arthur Arbesser, Atelier Biagetti, Cara | Davide, Lanzavecchia + Wai, and Gio Tirotto are realized in mosaic by the workshops of Anna Fietta, Gruppo Mosaicisti of Marco Santi, Pixel Mosaici, Koko Mosaico, and Barbara Liverani, with the participation of WASP in the production of supporting surfaces printed in 3D in PLA (bioplastic obtained from corn starch). The design by Marco Guazzini is realized by CaCO3 in collaboration with Bencore and Upgroup for the riapre la strada ad un percorso del mosaico particolarmente significativo e dalle molteplici e diversificate potenzialità production of the shaped alveolar alluminium supporting surfaces and the works in marble.
The exhibition showcases several works by great authors, such as Alessandro Mendini e Gaetano Pesce, who have written the history of international design and crossed the Ravenna of Mosaics between the late eighties and the first half of the nineties. Episodes of Contemporary Mosaics reopen the way to a significant mosaic path that shows limitless and varied potential.
The project, thus, represents a moment of reflection on the possibilities and opportunities to employ such high craftsmanship techniques in contemporary manufacturing.
With this exhibition project, the mosaic finds its application in the world of contemporary industrial design. Despite its long history and the variety of artistic declinations, this technique presents a true challenge in adapting to the composite requirements of product design, in particular, in its serial conceptions. The intrinsic nature of the mosaic, however, offers the possibility to replicate objects that will never be identical: each one is made unique and invaluable by the intervention of the mosaicist. Confronting the characteristics of a secular technique, six projects have approached the mosaic medium with the will and intention to create functional and replicable products of contemporary taste for everyday use. At the end of the exhibition period, the works, ready to tackle serial production, will enrich the design section of the collection of Modern and Contemporary Mosaics of the MAR museum.
Exhibition: Episodes of Contemporary Mosaics
Place: Palazzo Rasponi dalle Teste
Organizing institutions: Municipality of Ravenna – Department of Culture,
MAR – Art Museum of the city of Ravenna, Foundation
Curated by: Maria Cristina Didero
Sponsors: WASP, Bencore, UpGroup
Period: 14 October 2023 - 14 January 2024