Naturality

The central theme of The Italian Stone Theatre 2019 is the naturalness of stone, or the fact that this material, used by humans to shape their habitat, belongs to the biosphere.
The many different components of organic and inorganic matter and the natural transformation processes that they underwent have produced an incredible variety of stone types that have characterised different places and spaces, hinting at a relationship between geo and bio-diversity that links the mineral world to the vegetable and the animal worlds. In the past, when it appeared in its natural rocky, rough-hewn and non-polished state in architecture, it used to be called “live stone”.
Its unique, unrepeatable diversity in physical and mechanical properties, structure, texture and appearance is the true richness of this material, which became one of the main and most noble instruments used by humans to achieve technological progress and express their creativity over the centuries.

Natural Things

The rich and variegated panorama of products populating our homes or social venues involves the use of many different materials: artificial, natural or mixed.
The growing variety of materials, combined with the expanding skills of companies in imitating the finest natural materials with chromatic and tactile effects, makes recognising natural authenticity increasingly difficult.
Against this confused background, stone – the natural material par excellence – can become an element of genuine and physical connection between man and nature.
The exhibition aims to rediscover this atavistic relationship through eight new design projects developed by eight renowned designers boasting experience with natural stone materials and produced by Italian companies of excellence in the sector.

PERCORSI D’ARTE

The Percorsi d’Arte exhibition seeks to investigate how machinery can be used in 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. Five international artists who have experimented for some time with numerical control stone processing technologies will team up with leading Italian companies in machinery, software and tools sectors to create five works focusing on the theme of natural stone.
The exhibition seeks to highlight the relationship between artistic expression, technology and the natural stone.