ACQUA E PIETRA

The new theme of The Italian Stone Theatre is Water and Stone, where water, and its fluid nature, interacts through a wealth of aesthetic and perceptive aspects with the solidity of stone.
This age-old affinity between two opposite states of matter – solid and liquid – that have always interacted in the natural formation of rocks, as revealed by geology, and in their transformation by man can be seen in the amazing architectural features that have been shaped by these materials and that history has handed down to us.
The countless functional and formal opportunities offered by stone that give shape to places, buildings and furnishing objects have accompanied our everyday life for thousands of years. They are now re-introduced even more powerfully thanks to the use of new machinery that transforms and processes stone materials and to the creative insight of architects, designers and artists.
To express the fruitful relationship between liquid and solid materials, and in keeping with the previous experiences in experimenting started with The Italian Stone Theatre, Marmomac has set up a special setting that places a vast surface area of water in the centre of the space of Hall 1. It is surrounded by exhibitions of design, architecture and art, which are linked by “on water” routes, where interaction takes place between various innovative experiences specifically designed for this 53rd edition.

LIQUIDO SOLIDO LITICO

The ‘Liquido, Solido, Litico’ exhibition installed within the scope of The Italian Stone Theatre – sets off from the central theme of the Hall – water – to analyse its ancient bond with stone in greater detail: two natural elements whose destiny is to model each other. Water, whose perpetual cycle of flowing down towards the sea erodes rocks and stone, which holds and embraces shapeless liquid in its cavities.
Mankind has also become involved in this relationship: since ancient times, people have carved the hardest and most resistant material to make hollow, sloping and smooth objects to contain, channel and flow water that simply cannot be gripped in our hands.
This event experiments with new forms and functions of products in stone intended for use with water through implementations characterised by innovative numerical control machining operations. The exhibition is spread across three islands where nine projects, created by well-known designers and produced by Italian companies of excellence in the stone industry, are installed.

PERCORSI D’ARTE

The “Percorsi d’Arte” exhibition seeks to investigate how machinery can be used in the artistic processing of stone materials. In recent years, with the spread of numerical control technologies, industry and small businesses in the natural stone sector have installed increasingly high-performance systems. Even for art workshops, initially reluctant to introduce such devices, the use of these new tools seems now to be viewed as an interesting opportunity for renewal. A group of international artists, sharing an experimental research path in the use of new technologies, has created a series of works designed and implemented entirely with software and computer-controlled machinery. This exhibition seeks to stimulate the rethinking of artistic activity associated with this topic. All the works were created starting from blocks having the same dimensions (180x80x30 cm) in order to encourage the enhancement of the material while limiting the production of waste.