Category: Senza categoria

The workshop began with a hands-on phase, involving drawing and collage to design hybrid creatures, followed by the use of Artificial Intelligence as a speculative tool: not to produce images, but to analyse symbols and generate texts and new connections of meaning. The bestiary was thus transformed into a collective ecosystem, presented in an exhibition held on the company’s premises at the end of the day.
Barely Imaginary Beings is a large tent composed of thousands of tiles that forms a permanent symbolic bestiary, a synthesis of the creativity that emerged during the workshop.
The title of the work references Caspar Henderson’s book The Book of Barely Imagined Beings and evokes a sense of wonder at what in nature defies understanding. Whilst Henderson explores the biodiversity of our ecosystem, the workshop invited participants to investigate a ‘symbolic biodiversity’, using Artificial Intelligence not as an end in itself, but as a critical tool to expand expressive possibilities.

The programme alternated between theoretical and practical sessions, introduced by a talk open to all company staff, delivered by Numero Cromatico and Marcello Smarrelli on the collective’s research themes. Of particular note was the lecture by Alessandro Delpriori, a lecturer at the University of Camerino, dedicated to iconology and medieval bestiaries as pedagogical and moral tools, fundamental to understanding the relationship between Human Beings, Nature and Knowledge. Starting from the medieval tradition of filigree and bestiaries — tools capable of transforming the sign into a vessel of values and narratives — the participants constructed a personal and shared symbolic imagery, giving life to a bestiary of ‘barely imaginable beings’.

Esseri a malapena immaginabili (Barely imagined beings) is the result of work developed from the ideas that emerged during the workshop led by the Numero Cromatico collective as part of E -STRAORDINARIO, held on 3 and 4 March 2026 at the Elica headquarters in Fabriano, which involved managers and staff in a creative exploration aimed at connecting the region’s historical heritage with contemporary art and the new frontiers of Artificial Intelligence.

Drawing on the medieval tradition of filigree and bestiaries — tools capable of transforming the mark into a vessel of values and narratives — the participants constructed a personal and shared symbolic imagery, giving life to a bestiary of “barely imaginable beings”.

The event forms part of the programme for the latest edition of E-STRAORDINARIO, the Ermanno Casoli Foundation’s flagship project, which brings artists into the workplace to deliver training programmes in which contemporary art serves as a tool for learning, personal development and innovation.
The artist talk aims to provide an in-depth insight into and introduce the Elica Group and the local community to the Numero Cromatico collective, founded in Rome in 2011 and comprising researchers from the fields of visual arts, neuroscience, psychology, philosophy and design. At the heart of Numero Cromatico’s work lies the study of the mechanisms of perception, language and aesthetic experience, with a particular focus on the viewer’s experience. The group creates works, installations, experiences, publications and visual devices that aim to activate cognitive, sensory and emotional processes, going beyond the conventions of traditional art appreciation.

E-STRAORDINARIO is the Ermanno Casoli Foundation’s educational project, conceived and curated by Marcello Smarrelli, which since 2008 has been bringing contemporary art into the corporate world as an educational and methodological tool for corporate training. Through a series of workshops, internationally renowned artists work on the creation of a work of art alongside employees from the participating companies. The works produced form a ‘distributed museum’ involving all the companies that have collaborated with the FEC over the years.
Over the years, the initiative has seen the participation of over 20 artists, including Diego Marcon, Margherita Moscardini, Pietro Ruffo, Cesare Pietroiusti, Marinella Senatore and Nico Vascellari, as well as major multinational companies based in Italy such as Angelini Industries, the Sole 24 Ore Business School, Confindustria, Elica, Jungheinrich and MSD Italia.

E-STRAORDINARIO was awarded the 2014 Culture + Business Prize.

The Ermanno Casoli Foundation has a long-standing tradition of commissioning original greeting cards, a task entrusted this year to the artist Giovanni Termini.
His artistic practice explores the relationship between matter, form and space through installations that evoke work environments, construction sites and temporary structures. Using raw or pre-processed materials – such as iron, wood, plywood and concrete – Termini reworks everyday objects, removing them from their original context and transforming them into elements imbued with symbolic and poetic meaning.
In continuity with Dietro ai miei occhi, the title of the installation created by Termini for the eleventh edition of E-STRAORDINARIO for Kids, we find a reference to one of the artist’s iconic works: La Disciplina delle Eccezioni (2025).

A panic bar, which suggests a threshold but does not open anything, is fixed to a wall and incorporates a curved wooden strip. It is the same device that was given to the children as a prompt to explore, through play, what lies beyond a locked door or an impassable wall.
The threshold thus becomes a place of creativity where everyone can imagine whatever they wish, just as the children did when they depicted, using crayons, acrylics and various other materials, what lies ‘behind their own eyes’.
The door thus becomes a symbol of passage, of discovery and of the possibility of looking beyond what is visible, but also of the courage to face the unknown and the future.
Crossing the imaginary threshold suggested by the red enamelled door handle on the ticket reveals a quote from the American comedian Milton Berle: “If opportunity doesn’t knock, build a door”.
A wish that we may always find the strength, courage and humour to overcome obstacles through imagination, creativity and, why not, art.

The event is conceived as a dynamic, interdisciplinary discussion that brings together diverse experiences and perspectives on the power of play as an educational, creative and social tool.

The title references the famous essay by Eric Berne, the father of transactional analysis, and highlights how play is a tool capable of revealing relational dynamics, stimulating awareness and expanding creativity. According to the Dutch philosopher Johan Huizinga, in his famous essay Homo Ludens, culture itself arises from play. Art, from this perspective, is one of its highest manifestations: not only because it involves rules, rituals and symbolic frameworks, but because it implies ‘pretending’, a suspension of reality that allows us to express the inexpressible and reveal the invisible.

Through the perspectives of artists, cultural professionals and representatives from the business world, the discussion – moderated by Marcello Smarrelli, Artistic Director of the Ermanno Casoli Foundation – will feature Alfio Albani, President of the Chiaravalle Montessori Foundation, who will present the Montessori pedagogical perspective, according to which play is a conscious and formative process, an integral part of a child’s growth and identity development; Manuela Alessandrini, Head of the Education Department at the Omero State Tactile Museum, who will illustrate how play can be transformed into a sensory and inclusive experience through tactile art and creative workshops; Deborah Carè, Chief Human Resources Officer at Elica, who will explain how the use of the metaphor of play in corporate training is much more than a teaching methodology; it is a transformative approach that combines emotion, experience and learning: from co-creation activities with artists in projects promoted by the Ermanno Casoli Foundation, to gamification programmes for new recruits in which participants must manage a virtual company whilst tackling realistic problems in a controlled environment; Patrick Tuttofuoco, an artist who will demonstrate how play can become pure energy; indeed, his immersive, pop-inspired installations transform spaces into collective experiences reminiscent of the world of video games; finally, Saverio Verini, Director of the Civic Museums of Spoleto, who will explore the theme of childhood as a complex territory, a space of discovery and creativity, but also of anxieties and rules to be broken, explored by many contemporary artists through works of great intensity.

The event will also feature the screening of the video from the 11th edition of E-STRAORDINARIO for Kids, created in collaboration with the artist Giovanni Termini, which recounts the creation of Dietro ai miei occhi (Behind My Eyes), a collective work symbolising transition, discovery and the possibility of looking beyond what is visible.

The Ermanno Casoli Prize is one of the most prestigious international awards dedicated to the relationship between art and business, promoted by the Ermanno Casoli Foundation, an institution which, since 2007, has developed a method that brings contemporary art into companies as a tool for training and innovation. The works created for the Ermanno Casoli Prize arise from the shared creative process between artists and employees, becoming the heritage of the companies that have chosen to experiment with this method. Foremost among these is Elica, a leading Italian company in kitchen extractor systems and the main supporter of the FEC.

Curated by Marcello Smarrelli, Artistic Director of the Ermanno Casoli Foundation, the FEC Digital Collection takes the form of a fully-fledged museum, designed by the architectural firm Salottobuono and created in collaboration with Studio Visuale and Metaverso. This innovative project was the winner of the TOCC – Digital Transition for Cultural and Creative Organisations call for proposals, promoted by the Directorate-General for Contemporary Creativity of the Ministry of Culture and funded by the European Union under the Next Generation EU programme.

The aim of the platform is to bring this scattered collection together in a single digital space, making it accessible to an ever-wider audience and overcoming physical limitations through the power of technology.

The FEC Digital Collection can be accessed from any device and is compatible with the main virtual reality headsets. Users can explore the works in an intuitive and interactive way through photographs, videos and audio content that trace each artist’s creative process. Thanks to 3D digitisation using Gaussian Splatting technology, visitors can enjoy an immersive experience with a selection of works.

Particular attention has been paid to accessibility: the platform includes filters to improve readability for people with visual impairments or colour blindness, subtitles that can be enabled in videos, content in LIS (Italian Sign Language), and is compatible with assistive technologies, ensuring an independent experience even for users who rely on navigation aids.

The FEC Digital Collection represents the natural evolution of the Ermanno Casoli Prize Museum 1998–2007, inaugurated in 2019 within the Santa Lucia Monumental Complex in Serra San Quirico (AN), which houses the works from the first ten editions of the Prize.

With the FEC Digital Collection, the Ermanno Casoli Foundation presents an innovative tool that reflects the latest museum theories and practices regarding the promotion and dissemination of contemporary art, bringing a unique artistic heritage into a new digital dimension that is accessible, barrier-free and open to all.

The collective exhibition, organised by Confindustria Ancona and the Ermanno Casoli Foundation and curated by Marcello Smarrelli, opened yesterday. The initiative brings together young people’s creativity, artistic heritage and business innovation.

The work is composed of 153 cement tiles, created under Piermattei’s guidance by over 150 young people (ages 15–18) from the Fabriano area, participants in Future Campus Fabriano — an educational program promoted by the Fabriano Territorial Committee of Confindustria Ancona, aimed at helping young people discover the region and its businesses, identify their talents, and navigate their future.

The project acts as a bridge between past and present, heritage and innovation, leaving a tangible trace of the educational experience lived by the students, and bearing witness to the deep connection between culture, entrepreneurship, and creativity that defines the Fabriano region.

INFO
Fabriano Industry
c/o BPER Banca, Piazza Giambattista Miliani 16, Fabriano
Tel. +39 071 29048279
Opening event: Wednesday, July 16 – 5:00 PM
Special opening: July 17–23, from 9:00 AM to 7:00 PM
Regular hours: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 10:00 AM–1:00 PM / 4:00 PM–7:00 PM

“Inhalatorium” is a large-scale sculptural installation made of heterogeneous materials, designed and created together with the company’s employees, in line with the mission of Fondazione Ermanno Casoli, which has promoted dialogue between art and business since its establishment.

“Poniatowski’s project for the Elica Group Polska community — explains Marcello Smarrelli, Artistic Director of Fondazione Ermanno Casoli — is grounded in a core conviction central to the Foundation’s mission: to harness contemporary art as an educational and methodological tool capable of enhancing the workplace environment and sparking innovative processes. Inhalatorium is not merely an object to be contemplated, but a device that redefines the company’s social dimension, strengthening the sense of belonging and connection among its people. Over the years, we have carried out similar interventions in other Elica facilities and within other major multinational corporations, activating art as a catalyst for dialogue, exchange, and reflection. This new installation fully embraces and advances this trajectory, reinforcing Elica’s international vision and its unique approach to promoting art and its transformative potential for the benefit of the communities involved.” 

Read the press release.

In his artistic practice, Cezary Poniatowski transforms everyday objects and materials into sculptural compositions. Drawing inspiration from the histories, emotions, and memories linked to material culture, he creates works that feel both familiar and unsettling. “Poniatowski’s research reflects the ways perception shapes meaning—how we recognize familiar forms in abstract compositions and how materials tied to domestic or utilitarian functions carry cultural and emotional significance. This approach positions him among the most compelling voices in sculpture and spatial practice in Central Europe today” – affirms Jakub Gawkowski, co-curator of this edition of the Premio Ermanno Casoli.

In the words of Marcello Smarrelli, Artistic Director of Fondazione Ermanno Casoli, “The Premio Ermanno Casoli has always aimed to foster dialogue between art and business, using the universal language of art to inspire new perspectives and ways of thinking. We do this across all the countries where Elica operates, promoting its values globally and reinforcing the deep connection between creativity and innovation. Thanks to his artistic practice, which explores crucial issues such as the human condition and its relationship with technology and the environment, we are confident that Cezary Poniatowski’s contribution will have a profound and lasting impact on the company and its employees.”

Following this approach, Cezary Poniatowski has been invited to conceive a site-specific project for the Elica Group Polska plant. As is typical of the Premio Ermanno Casoli, employees will be directly involved in the creation of a permanent artwork. Poniatowski’s intervention will explore breath and inhalation—both as physiological processes and as metaphors for circulation, flow, and transformation. Engaging with Elica’s advanced technologies that regulate and enhance air saturation, the project will link those processes to the broader metabolic exchanges within individual and collective bodies.

The work will be inaugurated in June 2025 at the Elica Group Polska plant in Jelcz-Laskowice, Poland.

Read the press release.

Sorry, this entry is only available in Italian.

Sorry, this entry is only available in Italian.

Sorry, this entry is only available in Italian.

Sorry, this entry is only available in Italian.

The project, curated by Marcello Smarrelli, promoted by the Municipality of Fabriano and conceived in collaboration with Fondazione Ermanno Casoli, is supported by PAC2022-2023 – Piano per l’Arte Contemporanea, promoted by the Directorate-General for Contemporary Creativity of the Italian Ministry of Culture. 

Born in Turin (1936), Paolo Icaro is a key figure in the artistic researches of the 1960s. Closely connected to the Arte Povera movement, since the beginning he has experimented with the evolving nature of sculptural action in relation to form and space, using elemental and flexible materials such as concrete, clay, paper, wood, and plaster.  

Artificio naturale, created in 2011, perfectly reflects this ongoing research and experimentation. The installation consists of five stone boulders, simply laid on the ground. The sculptor first modeled an “ideal” stone in clay, smoothing it to resemble a perfect pebble, as if it had been shaped by the waters of a stream. From this original form, five plaster casts were created, then cast in cement, and finally, thanks to 3D scanning, sculpted in Matraia stone, a gray-blue material of exceptional compactness and durability. Although identical in shape, the five boulders appear different as they are placed in five unique positions where they achieve balance.

The project is accompanied by a series of public talks, educational workshops for children, and a book published by Chimera Editore, with texts by Marcello Smarrelli and Simone Ciglia.

INFO AND BOOKING:
0732.250658 | pinacoteca.molajoli@comune.fabriano.an.it

Sorry, this entry is only available in Italian.

Sorry, this entry is only available in Italian.

Sorry, this entry is only available in Italian.

Sorry, this entry is only available in Italian.

Sorry, this entry is only available in Italian.

Sorry, this entry is only available in Italian.

Sorry, this entry is only available in Italian.

Sorry, this entry is only available in Italian.

Can you please introduce yourself and the story of we+?
we+ is a contemporary design studio founded in 2013 in Tokyo by Toshiya Hayashi and Hokuto Ando. Our mission is to create new perspectives and values through research and experimentation. Our projects stem from constant research both in Japan and abroad. Thanks to these experiences, we’ve had the privilege of collaborating with various companies and organizations, contributing to research and development projects, commissioned installations, branding, product ideation, spatial design, and art direction.

What distinguishes your daily work?
We value research and experimentation. We integrate logical thinking, such as analyzing the client’s history and social context, with a hands-on approach to fieldwork and material experimentation. Our goal is to explore new expressions and possibilities to achieve alternative designs.

Can you explain more about “Straordinaria”, the installation that you are exhibiting at Fuori Salone at Palazzo Litta?
“Straordinaria” is inspired by the delicate formation of ‘clouds’ caused by the collision of warm and cold air. The installation consists of countless translucent mesh fabric cylinders suspended from above, creating an ethereal flow of subtle shades in space. These cylinders, slightly colored in some sections, evoke sensations of ‘air’ and ‘heat.’ The experience will be akin to strolling through the clouds, inviting viewers to harmoniously merge with the surrounding environment and immerse themselves in the elegant interaction of ‘air’ and ‘heat,’ discovering a world of unique sensations.

How will the public be engaged in the installation?
This installation offers the public an engaging experience where colors surprisingly change depending on the viewing angle, location, and distance to the artwork. By altering these factors, viewers can appreciate a variety of expressions. Stepping into the pathway within the installation, surrounded by the artwork from all directions, will be like taking a walk through a vibrant cloud of colors.

What do you expect from this experience in Milan with Elica and Fondazione Ermano Casoli?
Through the immersive experience we’ve created, we aim for the rebranded concept of Elica to intuitively resonate with visitors. Furthermore, we are delighted that this collaboration serves as an opportunity to deepen our relationship with Fondazione Ermano Casoli too. 

Sorry, this entry is only available in Italian.

Elica, a key player in kitchens worldwide for over 50 years, in collaboration with Fondazione Ermanno Casoli, – which has been promoting exchange between contemporary art and businesses since its establishment -, presents Straordinaria, a poetic site-specific installation envisaged by the experimental Japanese design studio ‘we+’, founded by Toshiya Hayashi and Hokuto Ando in 2013, curated by Marcello Smarrelli. 

The project – expressing its ‘thinking outside the box’ aptitude, a pioneering approach in which creativity and innovation combine in the pursuit of beauty – invites the audience to immerse in an unexpected and magical ethereal space, by evoking the lightness of air and warmth, two distinctive natural elements of Elica world.

Straordinaria
Palazzo Litta – Cortile d’onore
Corso Magenta 24, Milano
Open to visitors: from Monday 15 to Sunday 21 April, 10.00 am  – 7.30 pm 

Sorry, this entry is only available in Italian.

In his artistic practice, Agostino Iacurci uses painting, sculpture, drawing, light and sound, heterogeneously combining various media to create immersive installations that intimately dialogue with places – visionary spaces in which stories, personal memories, literary references and vernacular tales freely converge. His large-scale pictorial interventions, which have earned him international fame, take the form of large painting interventions – an original reinterpretation of what is known as ‘talking architecture’.  

Starting from those considerations, Agostino Iacurci was invited to conceive a project for AIRFORCE’s new plant, which, as is typical of the Premio Ermanno Casoli, stems from a training need identified within the company in collaboration with the Human Resources department. After being acquired by Elica and seeing its headquarters transferred from Fabriano to Cerreto D’Esi, AIRFORCE needed to recreate the cohesion, energy and spirit of sharing that have always characterised it, but also to offer a welcoming and familiar place for its workers.  

The intervention will be the result of a series of actions that will start in May and will involve the entire company population – around 100 managers, employees and workers – without any hierarchical distinction, with the aim of transforming a large portion of the plant, which is currently used as a transit area, into a place for employees to rest and meet.  

With this message, which gets straight to the essence of things, Fondazione Ermanno Casoli together with the artist Claire Fontaine wishes a Merry Christmas.

The exhortation is to contrast the madness of the world by opposing it with the transformative gaze of children.

The drawings were realized by the children of Elica employees as part of the workshop “Gli animali scappati” (Runaway Animals), conceived for the ninth edition of E-STRAORDINARIO for Kids by Claire Fontaine, curated by Marcello Smarrelli.

The young participants were asked to draw their favorite animals, whether real or fantastic, imagining a daring escape from the illustrated books to the large white sheet passing through the heads of the artists “always open, like a door without key”.

Sorry, this entry is only available in Italian.

Sorry, this entry is only available in Italian.

Claire Fontaine’s new luminous installation entitled IL PERSONALE was conceived for the most iconic location of Elica’s Fabriano headquarters, stemming from the reflections generated during the workshop Lavoro femminile visibile e invisibile, attended by a group of 30 women who hold managerial roles within the company. In the light of some fundamental concepts of feminism –that the artistic duo has been exploring since its beginnings – the participants were asked to express themselves on the theme of female empowerment, with the aim of highlighting their difficulties in reconciling work and family.

The artwork thus becomes a reflection on the status of women in the professional and social context, bringing to light their value and emphasizing the importance of a broader political vision to promote equality and respect for women’s rights as transformative agents of society. 

Project supported by Regione Marche – Assessorato alla Cultura

[Read the press release]

Sorry, this entry is only available in Italian.

Sorry, this entry is only available in Italian.

Sorry, this entry is only available in Italian.

Sorry, this entry is only available in Italian.

Sorry, this entry is only available in Italian.

Sorry, this entry is only available in Italian.

Sorry, this entry is only available in Italian.

Sorry, this entry is only available in Italian.

Sorry, this entry is only available in Italian.

Sorry, this entry is only available in Italian.

An event promoted by the Ermanno Casoli Foundation will be held at the Italian Cultural Institute in Tokyo on Thursday 24 November at 11.30 to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of Ariafina, a joint venture between Elica and Fuji Industrial, one of the longest running relationships, from a trade point of view, between Italy and Japan.

To seal this relationship, which goes beyond business, Elica and the Ermanno Casoli Foundation have commissioned a work to the artist Gianluca Malgeri, bearing witness to how contemporary art is increasingly a founding value for the Fabriano company and how the Foundation manages to develop successful cultural paths to promote our artists even beyond national borders.

This is how Iride was born, a diptych consisting of two geographical maps on whose surface a double path is outlined, uniting Italy and Japan. The first route retraces the itinerary of the Rome-Tokyo Raid, the flight made in 1920 by two young Italian pilots that became part of aviation history; the second route traces the link between Fabriano and Tokyo, celebrating the twenty-year collaboration between Elica and Fuji Industrial.
“When Francesco Casoli called me to discuss the contents of the artwork to be realized – says Malgeri – he told to me more than about the professional relationship, about the emotional and esteem bond that exists with the Kashimura family. For this reason, since the first research, my goal was to create an artwork that above all reflected this emotional involvement”.

The composition ideally recalls two eyes, a double vision,  a common and shared goal that becomes the metaphor for this professional and emotional bond.

During the event, Francesco Casoli will donate a part of the diptych to Kosuke Kashimura, Chairman of Fuji Industrial. The two parts that compose the work, in fact, have been conceived so that, united or separated, they can always be in relationship with each other, regardless of the distance and the place where they will be once divided.

The venue chosen to celebrate this important anniversary was not accidental: The Italian Culture Institute in Tokyo is an institution committed to spreading our country’s history and culture, as well as promoting Italian creativity in Japan. The building where the Institute is based, designed by Gae Aulenti, is one of the most significant symbols of the strong relationship between the two nations. Moreover, the Ariafina joint venture, combining the beauty of Italian design with the flawless functionality of Japanese industrial tradition, is an excellent example of how two seemingly distant worlds are able to communicate, also thanks to the universal language of art.

Sorry, this entry is only available in Italian.

Sorry, this entry is only available in Italian.

Sorry, this entry is only available in Italian.

Sorry, this entry is only available in Italian.

Sorry, this entry is only available in Italian.

Due to his interest in the dialectic that occurs between industrial and artistic production, in this project Satorre reflects about the nature of traces left by workers on the products they help to create. Unlike works of art, objects made on production lines are standardized and follow strict criteria linked to functionality and design. The artist focused on the contrasts between personal expression and rules, instinct and quality assurance, subjective proposals and functional standards. The name of the project, “Pelusa” (‘fluff’ in English), underlines Satorre’s interest in the involuntary yet unavoidable personal residue present in any production process, a surplus that, as much as one tries to eradicate it, keeps occurring.

ZONA CONCE opens in Fabriano on 3 July 2021: the new cultural hub born out of the requalification of the former tannery buildings will host artists, exhibitions, workshops and guests from all over Italy for an opening event that will also enable people to meet and interact.

The FEC is happy to make its contribution with a series of activities curated by our artistic director Marcello Smarrelli: WORKSHOP FOLDING COMET by Leonardo Petrucci Saturday 3 July 2021 |10 am – Fabriano Free of charge with compulsory reservation at this link: https://www.eventbrite.it/…/biglietti-folding-comet-di… 20 persons maximum

4:45 pm OPENING OF THE WORK

OPENING WALL PAINTING made by TELLAS on the wall opposite the entrance to the new ZONA CONCE cultural hub in Via Le Conce 76

Saturday 3 July 2021 | 12 pm – Fabriano

Free streaming; reservations for in-person attendance can be made here: https://zonaconce.it/programma/index.html TALK MATTEO FATO, ETTORE FAVINI, LEONARDO PETRUCCI, PIETRO RUFFO AND SISSI COME TOGETHER ON THE OCCASION OF A SPECIAL THINK TANK to share their ideas on how FILIGREE could be used in the future.

Saturday 3 July 2021 | 5 pm – Fabriano Free streaming; reservations for in-person attendance can be made here: https://zonaconce.it/programma/index.html

The full day’s programme is available at www.zonaconce.it

We would like to remind you that the event will be held in full compliance with the safety regulations and all the health and prevention provisions defined by the competent authorities to combat the Covid-19 pandemic. A specific safety protocol will be put in place by the organisation to further reduce any kind of risk with reference to the guidelines for the resumption of economic and social activities, Italian Decree-Law No. 65 of 18 May 2021, Italian Decree Law No. 52 of 21 April 2021

This volume recounts the story of a company seen through the eyes of Fabrizio Crisà, the designer who, through his work, was able to interpret the vision of his admiral, setting unexplored routes in a constant search for the wind of innovation and change. It shows products that are the result of the work of all those who have made them possible, from those who imagined them from the very beginning to those who designed and manufactured them. It speaks of people, of the passion of those who put themselves out there, but also of all those who, over the course of 50 years of activity, have contributed with thoughts, enthusiasm and dedication, but also with efforts, doubts, criticisms and sometimes even disagreements, which have served to review seemingly final stances and open up to different points of view in order to navigate towards distant horizons.

This book is dedicated to all of them.

Thanks to Domitilla Dardi and Etaoin shrdlu studio for helping us to make this project reality. A very special thanks to Fabrizio Crisà, Elica designer, for his precious and indefatigable work.

Matteo Fato, Cosa Naturale, 2020 (approx.)

The mind is in the likeness of a pine cone, which we carry as a representation of our pineal gland. Drawing a pine cone is a cerebral self-portrait, with the scales of all memories and all notions. It is our intimate, fatal compatibility with Nature. The wooden structure that houses the seeds of the pine cone in our internal ramification is commensurate with the natural destiny of our memory. Just as the spirals of a rose are equivalent to the limited revolutions of thoughts, so the whole of a pine cone resembles the congenital arrangement of fixed ideas. Every natural mystery teaches the mind to vegetate and not to be brilliant. Gianni Garrera

Fondazione Ermanno Casoli presents Matteo Fato for the day of the contemporary. An exclusive content donated by the artist, winner of the XVIII edition of the Ermanno Casoli Prize, to FEC on the occasion of the contemporary day organized by AMACI.

Matteo Fato, “The beauty of the world, in its landscape, burns the eyes; (you have to surrender, waving a white flag dirty with the ashes falling from the eyes, having it cleaned by the wind, to be able to cure them); before painting again “, 2020 (approximately) Brush cleaning on flag from landscape paintings, 130 x 80cm

The human body proceeds from the earth, everything that did not become human remained pure earth. The whole earth is matter not transformed into humanity. A flower is a stage of the earth of the terrestrial garden in which the human maturation of all Nature was interrupted.

Extract from the text by Gianni Garrera for: Flame of Love Viva (heaven and earth do not belong to the word), edited by Adele Cappelli, hired Gianni Garrera. Acquaviva Picena, Medieval Fortress / Church of San Rocco (A mouthful of art, Elpis Foundation & Galleria Continua)

Courtesy of the Artist & Monitor , Rome – Lisbon – Pereto (AQ)

Follow us on our social networks!

Matteo Fato won the 18^th edition of the Ermanno Casoli Award with “Gentile come un ritratto”, curated by Marcello Smarrelli, a project chosen for the sensitivity and effectiveness with which it has been able to deal with this particularly difficult time in which even the relational dimension of work is being put to the test by the pandemic. The artist has indeed decided to open his authorship to a collective operation, translating the pictorial gesture, namely the distinctive feature of his work, into a “collective act”, thereby recreating a sense of closeness and interaction with others. The work produced is the result of a temporary painting workshop set up for a week in Elica – a leading manufacturer of cooker hoods for kitchens – and headed by Matteo Fato, with the participation of 159 employees from the Fabriano, Mergo and Castelfidardo offices (FIMEMotors).

The title Gentile come un ritratto (Gentle as a portrait) deliberately recalls the alleged self-portrait of painter Gentile da Fabriano (Fabriano 1370 approx., Rome 1427), which appears in the Adoration of the Magi painting (1423), now preserved in the Uffizi. Matteo Fato’s challenge was multifaceted: starting from a masterpiece of the past closely linked to the talent and beauty of the region to collectively conceive a work in the present, and, in this leap in time, moving from Gentile’s self-portrait to a relevant portrait: that of a company based in Fabriano that, driven by the passion of its founder Ermanno Casoli, has distinguished itself in the field of design on a worldwide level, in an ideal connection with Gentile’s Renaissance workshop.

The participants had the opportunity to interact with the artist personally, though always in complete safety, reflecting together on the nature of the portrait as a form of expression that represents not only an individuality, but the era that characterises it. In order to portray a subject, it is necessary to be able to achieve “familiarity” with the historical, cultural and social context that surrounds them. Keeping this in mind, each of the participants received from the artist the key to leave their mark, in search of a similarity based on their own experience and everyday life. The result is a work that, in its plurality and abstraction, is capable of representing all those who have contributed to its realization.

The portrait, as is customary in Matteo Fato’s painting, is part of a larger installation entitled Gentili come un ritratto (Gentles as a portrait) made up of other works linked to his work process: indeed, other paintings have been extracted from this collective operation, produced from the cloths used to clean the brushes at every change of hand and colour, in turn placed and framed inside their transport crates.

The project is part of the celebrations for the 50^th anniversary of the birth of Elica and follows the methodology of E-STRAORDINARIO – the training programme featuring contemporary art that has distinguished FEC’s activities for over a decade. The installation will become part of the Elica Corporate Collection, which can be visited upon reservation.

Participation in the inauguration is subject to the limitations due to the current health situation; it will be possible to participate only and exclusively upon reservation and up to full capacity.

Information and reservations
segreteria@fondazionecasoli.org

From Monday 21 September and for the whole week the artist Matteo Fato will be in Elica to create, together with all the people who work there, “Gentile as a portrait”, curated by Marcello Smarrelli.

WATCH THE STUDIO VISIT

Matteo Fato was born in 1979 in Pescara, city where he lives and works. He has been teaching at the Academy of Fine Arts of Urbino since 2009. He partook in many exhibitions in private galleries and public museums in Italy and abroad. In 2012 he completed his residency at the Dena Foundation for Contemporary Art (Paris), with the participation in the exhibition The collection Giuliana Thomas et Setari, retour à l’intime (La maison rouge, Fondation Antoine de Galbert); in July 2017 he took part in the OPEN20 exhibition at the Mostyn Museum in Wales. He took part in numerous artists’ residencies, such as: the Spinola Banna Foundation (Turin, 2008); ArtOmi, (New York); and in Norway within the Nordic Artists’ Centre Dalsåsen – NKD (2015). In 2016, he partook in the 16^th Art Quadrennial of Rome. In March 2018 opened a solo exhibition titled Heresy (of the) Anthology at Galleria Nazionale delle Marche (Palazzo Ducale, Urbino, Italy); in June 2019 he opened a solo show entitled Night Scene by the Sea at the Visual Arts Center – Pescheria (Pesaro). His works are included in many private and public collections in Italy and abroad.

Gentile come un ritratto – As gentle as a portrait revolves around two traditional pillars of artistic practice: painting and portrait. Its production is composed of various phases and will culminate in September, when Matteo Fato will work in the company. Fato will invite the employees to reflect on their nature through the figure of Gentile da Fabriano, a protagonist and interpreter of the Renaissance period who, thanks to his genius and ideas, made the city where he was born famous. Together with the artist, following in the footsteps of Gentile, the people of Elica will produce a choral portrait of the company, which, thanks to the determination of its founder and the contribution of all those who work there, has become an international reference point.

A temporal short circuit will be created which will combine two stories and two desires to achieve the same goal: to follow one’s passions, to excel in one’s work, to make one’s land great.

The activity, scheduled for the last week of September and which will be held in Fabriano from 21 to 23 September and in Castelfidardo in FIMEMotors, from 23 to 24 September, was presented by Elica and FEC throught a webinar with the artist Matteo Fato.

The 8th of July, at 3 pm, Mauro Saccchetto- CEO Elica, Alessandro Innocenti – Group Chief HR Officer, Viviana Cattelan – FEC Director, Marcello Smarrelli – FEC Artistic Director discussed the workshop with Matteo Fato who closed the meeting anticipating the sending of a personal letter as an invitation to participate numerous.

It is possible to see the recording of the webinar HERE

To stay up to date, follow us on our social media channels!

Mass age, message, mess age (Elica 2018) is the project that Elena Mazzi carried out together with Elica employees following the invitation she received by Fondazione Ermanno Casoli as the winner of its annual award. The title is inspired by the famous essay by Marshall McLuhan, The Medium is the Massage, which saw the author decide to keep the misprint present in the title (massage instead of message) to confirm his thesis on the non-neutrality of the media. The Elica company, to which this theme is very dear, required a training session on communication among employees, and thus provided an opportunity for the artist to develop a sort of “method”.

Indeed, the project proposes a reflection on communication techniques and strategies, stressing the possibility of making mistakes during the transmission of a message and the way this affects the course of subsequent events. By analysing the Elica context and starting from the word “change”, which is widely used within the company environment, the artist experimented with various communication techniques, thereby revealing its proximity to the word “revolution”, understood in the most scientific sense of the term, namely movement, rotation and therefore change.

Texts: Elena Mazzi, Marcello Smarrelli
Graphic design: Elena Mazzi
Translation: Matteo Bugiolacchi
Proofreading: Cristina Terzoni
Photo credits: Daniele Alef Grillo, Michela Curti, Elena Mazzi
Language: Italian, English
Pages: 52 + 12
Dimensions: book 22.5 x 16 cm; insert 16 x 11 cm

The artist’s book is not for sale and has been produced by Boîte in a limited edition of 200 copies.

We always associate our desires with the stars, contemplate them and ask them to know whether, how and when we will get what is most dear to us; the sky is where we look for our constellation, namely the astral lines that represent us and guide our lives.

Ursa Minor, also known as the Little Dipper, is formed by seven main stars arranged in the shape of a cart with a rudder, the last of which is the North Star, which is called this way because it is only about 1° from the North Pole of the celestial sphere.

The book can be found in all the best bookstores or HERE

ENJOY THE READING!

On Friday, the 13th of September, the usual appointment with Elica employees children will be held in its seventh edition, organized by the Ermanno Casoli Foundation. This year the Bianco-Valente artist duo will be the protagonist and for the occasion they have created the workshop entitled “The palce where I live”, curated by our artistic director Marcello Smarrelli, which will focus on the function that places exercise within us.

Artists and participants will re-read and reinterpret the automotive, tourist, geographical maps and photos that the children will have gathered, during the summer, together with their families. With the maps cut and gathered randomly, new ones will be built, testifying to the individual stories of each participant, from which it will clearly emerge that the story of the life of each of us consists of the interweaving of places and experiences made during our journey, which in turn intertwine with the places and experiences of many other people.

PRESS RELEASE

Through this specific outdoor activity and faithful to its primary objective of creating and encouraging dialogue between both the artistic-cultural sphere and the industrial one, the FEC promotes an in-depth knowledge of the Italian and international cultural heritage, allowing, through the language of art, to strengthen creativity and lateral thinking. Guided by Marcello Smarrelli, the group will visit the Pesaro Civic Museums, the exhibition “Agostino Iacurci Tracing Vitruvio. Dream journey between the pages of De Architectura and the spaces of the Pescheria Visual Arts Center where the personal exhibition of the artist Matteo Fato entitled “Night Scene On The Sea” is hosted. Finally, the artist Luigi Carboni will open his atelier to tell about his experience with art, both as a professor at the Urbino Academy of Fine Arts, and as an artista as well.

The initiative also represents an important opportunity for socializing and building a group identity based on the sharing of social and cultural experiences and values. Making art an ethical model of behavior thus becomes a goal that is not only educational but socially responsible.

Smarrelli’s intervention will focus on the benefits of art for the company, its ability to become an instrument of innovation of personal identity and activator of more effective behaviors; Art as a way to renew learning and knowledge creation, a means to innovate physical space, products and business processes; Art as a new perspective to conceive competitive advantage.

Sorry, this entry is only available in Italian.

On Tuesday, 14th of May, our artistic director Marcello Smarrelli will be a guest of Urbino Fine Arts Academy leading the talk intitled “The form of error” with the artist Nicola Samorì, in continuity with his personal exhibition held at the Pescheria Pesaro Visual Arts Center in the summer of 2017.
At the meeting, organized by prof. Sebastiano Guerrera as part of his painting techniques course, the artist Matteo Fato and the art critic Alberto Zanchetta will participate. A working class for selected students will follow on May the 15th.
The event is organized in collaboration with Fondazione Pescheria – Centro Arti Visive and it is reserved for students of the Urbino Fine Arts Academy.

FEC artistic director Smarrelli will present the activities that characterize the Foundation, contextualizing them within the history of art in a targeted, exhaustive path, which highlighted, through significant examples, how art can no longer be identified with a material product, but it becomes a place of meeting, dialogue and comparison managed by the artist according to his own methodologies.

The Ermanno Casoli Foundation continues the collaboration with the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart of Milan with a classic that is now in its fourth edition: HAND, the workshop by Francesca Grilli, which offers to the Master’s students in Arts Management the opportunity to live a training experience already tried and tested in the corporate environment, addressing and analyzing their contents and methods. The novelty: it will be all in English.

HAND # 4, curated by Marcello Smarrelli, is part of the course directed by Prof. Francesco Tedeschi and coordinated by Prof. Chiara Paolino, Business Organization researcher and author, together with Marcello Smarrelli and Deborah Carè, of the book “Innovare l’impresa con l’arte. Il metodo della Fondazione Ermanno Casoli” (Innovating enterprises through art. The Fondazione Ermanno Casoli method), published in 2018 by the EGEA Publishing House.

Sorry, this entry is only available in Italian.

The Premio Ermanno Casoli is celebrating its 20^th anniversary: the Fondazione Ermanno Casoli foundation is inaugurating a special edition of the Prize on Saturday 13^th April at 5:00 pm with the site-specific artwork The Relay, by artist Patrick Tuttofuoco.

Tuttofuoco’s large neon light installation revolves around the most important themes that characterise the artist’s research: family relationships and generational exchanges, the mechanisms and bonds that characterise and bring together communities and the study of territories. The title makes explicit reference to the relay race: the act of receiving something and being able to pass it on to another human being becomes a metaphor for exchange, generosity and recognition, but also the changing of generations and life itself. The simple gesture of holding an object in one’s hands is expanded upon and shown in all its stages, thereby giving a spatial dimension to the notion of time.

The Relay will be donated to the Museo Premio Ermanno Casoli 1998-2007, which will be inaugurated on the same day within the Santa Lucia monumental complex of Serra San Quirico (Ancona).

WATCH THE TEASER

Invited by the Rotary Club of Alba, Wednesday, February the 27th, at the Palazzo Banca D’Alba (Cuneo province), the FEC decennial experience was told by the three guests through practical examples of artistic interventions in companies ispired on the book “Innovare l’impresa con l’arte. Il metodo della Fondazione Ermanno Casoli”, which they presented showing each one the issues related to their professional environment. President Elica Francesco Casoli told about the benefits that the presence of the Foundation and its activities have brought to the company, highlighting the need, in the business world, to conceive competitive advantage through art in a new way; Professor and Researcher Chiara Paolino highlighted the ability of art to become an instrument of personal identity innovation and activator of more effective behaviors as well as a way to renew learning, creation of knowledge and to innovate the working space ; finally, the art historian and FEC artistic director Marcello Smarrelli highlighted how the curator’s role is crucial to project and implement the artistic interventions inside the company, looking at art as a system of knowledge transmissions, democratic and circular, recognizing in this a very powerful means of formation.

Friday the 1st of February 2019, at 4 pm, at the Delloiacono’s COMUNICA headquarters in Pescara, will be held When to collect are the companies, the last meeting of the project Start your collection promoted by Fondazione Aria, conceived and organized by Deliacono COMUNICA in collaboration with Collezione da Tiffany / Collection at Tiffany’s. With the aim of providing the basic tools to learn about the art market through a series of workshops, meetings and guided tours, the project investigated the issues inherent in starting a collection: from market dynamics to the first purchase up to the creation of a private or corporate contemporary art collection.

On the same occasion, given the meeting’s topic dedicated to corporate collecting, with case-history on private and corporate collection, on Friday 1st February 2019 the Ermanno Casoli Foundation presents the book I Innovare l’impresa con l’arte. Il metodo della Fondazione Ermanno Casoli | Innovating the company with art. The method of the Ermanno Casoli Foundation, published by Egea in 2018.

The comparison, opened by the institutional greetings of the Minister for Cultural Heritage and Activities Professor Alberto Bonisoli, will focus not only on what currently the art, in the broadest sense of the term, is able to generate, but also on the designs and synergies that this sector is able to guarantee.

The 17 educational institutions Cians (Academy of Fine Arts “Aldo Galli” of Como, Academy of Fine Arts and Design Poliarte of Ancona, Academy of Fine Arts “GB Tiepolo” of Udine, Academy of Costume and Fashion of Rome, Italian Academy of Art, Fashion and Design of Florence, Accademy of Fine Arts, SantaGiulia of Brescia, IAAD – the Italian University of Design, IED – European Institute of Design of Milan, Istituto Marangoni of Milan, Istituto Modartech of Pontedera (PI), IUAD – Academy of Fashion in Naples, LABA – Free Academy of Fine Arts in Brescia, LABA – Free Academy of Fine Arts in Florence, NABA – New Academy of Fine Arts in Milan, RUFA – Rome University of Fine Arts in Rome, Sae Institute in Milan, Saint Louis College of Music of Rome) will bring to the discussion table the requests of a population of over twenty thousand users that includes first of all Italian and foreign students and to follow, teachers and employees.

The works, opened by the artistic director of Macro Asilo Giorgio de Finis, introduced by the president Cians arch. Fabio Mongelli and moderated by the philosopher Nicolas Martino, will be anticipated by the report of a representative of the Ministry of Education, University and Research, in view of the assembly of the States General Afam (High artistic and musical training) scheduled for next February. Following the reports of the lawyer. Anna Rita Fioroni, president of Confcommercio Professioni (Professional designer: skills and qualification of the changing market), of the arch. Dario Curatolo, member of the Adi Steering Committee (outline of the project, the Italian way), of dr. Marco Tortoioli Ricci, president of Aiap (The pedagogy of the project), of Dr. Sofia Gnoli, journalist and fashion expert (Marketing and fashion: the heritage and the brand), by dr. Marcello Smarrelli, Ermanno Casoli Foundation artistic director (Innovating the company with art), by dr. Cesare Biasini Selvaggi, Exibart editorial director (New professional opportunities for those leaving the creativity factories). The conclusion will be preceded by a space dedicated to the contributions of Miur / Afam representatives and Cians Institutions.

In this particular occasion the official website Cians will be presented: www.ciansedu.it.