Epochal Mutations - Contemporary Art Exhibition

Finally the Covid-19 lockdowns are easing and cultural events are being organised. Recently, our city organised a contemporary art exhibition called "Epochal Mutations" (MutAzioni Epocali). When I read the name of the exhibition, I thought that it would be totally influenced by the Covid-19 lockdown and would have a lot of works expressing anguish and fear. So I was not so sure if I wanted to look at it. Fortunately, I changed my mind and visited it - it had a lot of works which I liked. It also introduced me to the works of many new local artists and a few outside artists.

"Mutation" Art Exhibitions have been held in Schio since 2017, but its focus changes every year. For example, in 2019, it was "MutAzioni Spaziali" (Space Mutations). Due to the Covid-19 Pandemic, it was not held in 2020.

This year the exhibition was held at Palazzo Fogazzaro, a historical building in the city centre from 1810. In the courtyard there was a work of our Schio sculptor Mario Converio, who works with iron and metals. He is famous for his voluptuous female forms and I had written a post about him. His work for this exhibition is a globe with a storm of birds rising up from it. After this exhibition, this sculpture will be placed in the Schio railway station and will become a public art installation.

In this post I am presenting some of the artists from MotAzioni Epocali exhibition whose works I liked - they are not in any particular order.

During the exhibition, I met one of the artists - her name is Maria Grazia Martina - I will start with her. Her background is in history of art and she teaches in a school. She creates art with mixed materials. I asked her if her background in the history of art influences her as an artist? She said that it was more of a hindrance because she tends to compare of her works with those of well-known artists that she had studied and this makes her feel very self-critical. I could empathise with her feelings because self-criticism is a big challenge for a lot of artists and it is great that in spite of it, she can express her creativity. You can see her with some of her works in the image below.

The next image again shows the details of one of the works of Maria Grazia Martina, which I liked because of the vibrant colours of the fibres which express for me the confusion, interconnections and vitality of life.

The artist Claudio Brunello from Bassano had two works in the exhibition, one on the women of Afghanistan and another on languages and technology - I liked both of them. In the second work, he had used a lot of 3-D printed miniature human figures to express ideas about native languages while computer motherboards expressed use of the increasing use of English coupled with technology - I thought that that it was ironic that he expressed traditions part of this work through 3D printed figures. You can see details from this work in the image below.

Marco Zanrosso's installation "Ecological Equilibrium" had six semi-transparent circles, one in front of the other, moving up and down, creating ever-changing dynamic forms was very beautiful even if the ideas it expressed were too abstract. A large part of its beauty came from the constant movement of the circles and their translucent materials - both these aspects are difficult to appreciate in the image below.

There were many digital works in the exhibition. I understand that artistic expression can not be limited by the materials used by the artists and thus digital art is one such legitimate expression of creativity. However, I feel that having the skills of computer graphics is a different kind of artistic skill and needs to have its own separate art-world, it can't be mixed with art created by persons, using their hands in the the old- fashioned way. Like the works of Claudio Brunello above, I can also see that setting the boundaries between digital and non-digital would anyway be a difficult exercise. Among the artists presenting digital prints, I liked the work of Valeria Cassol, which was titled "When you look up and see the Universe", shown in the image below.

I also liked the digital prints of Slovenian artist Bogdan Soban - with their delicate colours and complex abstract forms, they invited you to look at them and get lost in their details. In fact, I spent a long time looking at his work presented in the image below.

Simone Ricciardello from Vicenza had 2 installations about climate change. One was called "Alone no one will be saved", which was more explicit about its theme. It had an old table fan which started moving when someone came or passed in front of it and then automatically stopped. Another of his installation, "The time of non-return" had a baby angel setup against green tiles and it expressed the time running out to save the planet.

The installations of the Schio artist Elisa Pedron expressed ideas of reincarnation, mutation and evolving through the mythical fire-bird Phoenix and a cosmic egg. You can see her cosmic egg in the banner of this post above while the image below shows the metal circles and the phoenix.

I especially loved the works of Luca Vallortigara, who had used abstract figures in wood to express its different natural colours and textures, which had the power to draw me into introspection and wondering about the meanings of life and nature.

I also liked the multi-material works of Paolo Guglielmo Giorio like the one in the image below that was supposed to express the virus of Covid-19 together with the sea-life suffocated by petrol-spill from a big ship. I think that this was the only work in the whole exhibition which directly mentioned the Covid-19 pandemic. I liked the way the fish-net and the red virus came together against the grey background and the rotting skull (in the image below).

The work of Schio artist Elena Ester Accardo, "After the floods" was supposed to express a recurrent dream which has had. With delicate gold and greens, it had a very pleasing impact, the kind of art you can look at when you are feeling low and feel uplifted by it! While it had an immediate pleasing impact, it also had a complex mix of symbols, which kept me gazing at it and trying to discern their meanings.

The installation of the Schio artist Rosa Paola Astrid represented the countdown clock on the climate change which was put up in Rome in June this year on the World Environment Day. It had paintings of the earth seen from space in changing colours, again giving an expression to the time running out.

The next image shows one of the works of Martina Dalla Stella - it was called "No fear" and it expressed migrations, changing technology, role of police and big corporations and the courage of ordinary people to face them and to fight for rights.

I want to close with the work I liked most in this exhibition - I absolutely loved the mosaic like works of Eva Trentin from Marano Vicentino, with each piece of the mosaic expressing nature, places and moments of life. I felt that I could look at them for hours, find new points of reflection and at the same time, feel an emotional connection with them. Below I have an image from her work "289", made of 289 pieces of mosaic.

Conclusions

As you can see, there were many interesting works in this exhibition. The most common theme chosen by the artists was about the climate change. My favourite works in this exhibition were by Eva Trentin and Elena Ester Accardo. Regarding the installations, I liked most the works of Marco Zanrosso and Claudio Brunello.

As I came out of the exhibition, I saw the sculptor Mario Converio at the gate. He had come to take measurements of his work in the courtyard as it has to be strengthened for its placement in the railway station. We went to a nearby bar to have a beer and to talk about his art and about life.

May be one day I will also write about that conversation with Mario Converio. In the mean time, I hope that you have liked this virtual walk-through at the MutAzioni Epocali exhibition. Even if Schio is a tiny little town, I think that in terms of culture, it is full of wonderful opportunities.

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Unusual Vicenza: Discovering the Magic

Venice does not need an introduction. Many tourists visiting Venice have also heard of Verona. However, very few persons visiting Venice and Verona know of Padova and Vicenza.

Vicenza is counted among the 4 beautiful cities in the Veneto region in north-east of Italy along with Venice, Padova and Verona. Each of these cities is a concentration of history, art and culture. At the same time, each of these cities is distinctive - Venice is the city of canals, Padova is the oldest European university and the city of the saints (St Anthony and St Justine), Verona is the city of Romeo and Juliet, while Vicenza is the city of the architect Andrea Palladio and is a World Heritage city for UNESCO.

This post is an introduction to Vicenza, which has a large number of buildings designed by Andrea Palladio, one of the most influential architects of recent history. For example, his little gem, Villa Rontonda (in the image above), has inspired many patrician houses around the world including the White House.

This post is also about unusual ways for discovering the city's magic, seen through my eyes of nostalgia and through the eyes of Chiara Pesavento, who is passionate about languages, history and culture of this city.

Vicenza of My Memories

I had come to Vicenza in 1979 and stayed for a period at the guesthouse of the Filippini Church along the city's central street called Corso Palladio. Listening from my room on the second floor to the concerts of organ music held in the church below, is one of my first memories of this city and of Italy. At that time I was not very familiar with the western classical music and I remember my shock when it had happened for the first time - I felt surrounded by the warm pulsating embrace of the music as it had filled my room, it was absolutely amazing. Probably the particular acoustics of that building had something to do with that experience.

"Ai Filippini" was a 2 minutes walk from the city's central square, Piazza dei Signori (Lords' Square), where I remember spending hours on the weakends, admiring the absolutely amazing Loggia del Capitanio and the imposing Basilica with its green domed roof. Both these buildings were the works of Andrea Palladio, though at that time I had no idea about who he was!

I loved sketching in those days and that had helped me to become familiar with different landmarks of the city including the incredible Olympic theatre, Chiericati Palace Museum, Montanari Palace and 2 wonderfully landscaped parks - Querini park and Salvi park. Another of my favourites memories is that of the climb to the Monte Berico church at the top of the hill overlooking the city. The image (above) presents one of my sketches of the Piazza dei Signori from those days.

When I look back, I feel that I was fortunate to have the introduction to the historical and cultural treasures of Italy through the unassuming and lesser-known Vicenza. Most tourists to Italy know of Rome, Florence, Pisa, Venice and Pompei. A few more discerning ones know about Bologna, Naples, Verona or 5 Terre. Relatively few think of visiting Padova or Vicenza. Knowing Italy through Vicenza has taught me about the joys of visiting smaller and relatively lesser known Italian towns to discover their hidden gems of history, art and culture.

Today, I live in Schio, a tiny town situated 20 km from Vicenza. Even Schio and many other smaller towns of the province of Vicenza, such as Thiene, Bassano del Grappa and Marostica, have so many historical, artistic and cultural sites to discover, that would be impossible to find in any other country! Anyway, enough about my memories of Vicenza - let me now give you a brief glimpse of the town through the eyes of Chiara Pesavento, who is more qualified to talk about it.

About Chiara Pesavento

Chiara Pesavento is a tourist guide in Vicenza, active in this role since 2006. Her decision to become a tourist guide can be traced to a visit to an art collection in Chiericati Palace Museum as a child, when she was struck by the description of a painting by the guide. "Suddenly that uninteresting piece of art acquired details and a depth of meaning" she explains, "and I knew that I wanted to be a tourist guide."

She also had a passion for learning languages (she speaks Spanish, French and English) and loves meeting persons from different countries. All these skills combined to create a person who is passionate about the history, art and culture of her town, and she loves to share these passions with people who come to visit Vicenza. For this post, I asked her to talk about some special thematic tours, which help in discovering lesser-known aspects of this city.

Unusual Vicenza

One of Chiara's favourite tours of Vicenza is called "The lost treasures". For this tour, she uses old city maps from '700 to visit and understand how the city has changed over the past centuries. It means going around to see buildings that are not there anymore and to hear about the history of what had happened and how the city had changed. This also helps in understanding the old toponomies of the town. For example, there were about 50 churches in Vicenza in late medieval period, out of which only 17 are still there today, while the remaining are lost. Many of these were lost during the occupation of the city by Napoleon Bonaparte. This tour lets you understand the impact of that occupation.

Another tour of the city is through its art collections. The art collection at Chiericati palace museum, the collection of 18th century Venetian art at Montanari palace, the sacred-art collection at the Diocesan museum and the different art works in the city churches - if you love art, there is so much to see and discover in Vicenza. For example, the St. Corona church has the altar and a painting by one of the famous Venetian artists, Giovanni Bellini.

About 500 years ago, Antonio Pigafetta, a writer, navigator and geography expert from Vicenza, had completed an around-the-world trip. To celebrate this event, together with her colleagues, Chiara proposes the "Pigafetta tours of Vicenza", to discover the Gothic town of the 15th century. It was a period when the town was recovering from the plague epidemic, agricultural crisis and famines. The tour allows the visitors to look at the buildings from that era and to understand the life of those times.

Chiara feels that there are many aspects of the city linked with its artisans and production systems, which are equally valuable to visit and to know better. For example, Vicenza has long traditions of wool and silk production since 15th century. It is also known for it goldsmith artisans. Another example is that of specialised printing such as the Busato artistic printing press specialised in chalcography (bronze plate engraving for printing), lithography (printing with stone or metal plate) and xylography (wood-block printing). She feels that tours to visit and see these artisans at work can be another interesting way to discover and understand the city.

Conclusions

With the Covid-19 epidemic, few persons are travelling around. However, hopefully soon this epidemic will be over and persons will start travelling and visiting other countries. Personally, I miss my travelling very much. However, not to be able to travel to far-away places has a positive side-effect - I can go back and rediscover my old favourite towns like Vicenza.

When travelling will become possible and you will plan a visit to Venice and surrounding cities, I suggest that you keep a few days to discover towns like Vicenza, Padova and Verona, and to visit the smaller provincial towns of Vicenza such as Schio, Bassano and Marostica.

If you want to contact Chiara Pesavento, you can check her website - Vicenza Tourist Guide.

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10 Things to do in Schio

If you are you visiting Schio (Province of Vicenza in north-east of Italy), this post is for you. It presents my list of 10 things to do or to see in the centre of Schio - all the places indicated in this post are at walkable distance from the city centre.

Schio is a small town located on the foothills of Alps mountains. If you like history, culture and picturesque places where you can go for walks, then Schio is worth a visit, as this post will show you.

I will do a separate post for all the beautiful places around Schio, and there are a lot of them. This post is limited to the places in or near the city centre.

Schio - General Information

Schio comes under the province of Vicenza (28 km away) in the Veneto region. Nearby other well-known towns include Venice (120 km), Verona (95 km) and Padova (67 km). It is located in the northern part of Veneto, on the foothills of mountains known as Piccole Dolomiti (small Dolomites). It is connected to Vicenza by local trains (1 hour journey) and the state bus service. Schio's history goes back to at least the Roman times when it was called Scledum.

Vicenza is on the Venice-Milan and Venice-Trento-Bolzano train lines, and is thus well connected to trains from Switzerland, Austria and northern Europe. On the other hand, to go to Rome and south Italy, you need to change the train at Padova.

Schio was famous in 19-20th centuries for its wool mills. The biggest mill belonged to the Rossi family. Because of those wool mills it was one of the important industrial towns and was called the Manchester of Italy.

A hill crosses the town from south-east to the north-west - the eastern tip of this hill has the Duomo (cathedral) and the castle of Schio, while a Cappuchin monastery occupies the western end of this hill. A historical lithograph of Schio from 1864, commissioned by Alessandro Rossi, in the image below (curtsey @schiocultura) shows the area of Fabbrica Alta, as well as the San Rocco church on the hill in the right side with the Pasubio mountain in the background.

With this basic information, let me start with my list of 10 things to see/visit/do in the centre of Schio.

1. Duomo of Schio

The Duomo (Cathedral) of Schio is located in the city centre on the Rossi square and is an imposing structure atop a hillock, converted into a high platform with stairs going up on the two sides. It is dedicated to St. Peter. It was built in the 14th century. The present layout of the buildings was given more recently - it was started in 1747 and completed almost 130 years later in 1879.

The entrance of the cathedral has the sculptures of the 4 evangelists and a strip of bass-relief showing episodes from the life of St. Peter. Inside, among the different art works you can see a Madonna by the Venetian artist Jacopo Palma from the 16th century.

You can also admire the view of city and the surrounding mountains from the terrace of the Duomo.

2. Castle of Schio

The old castle of Schio was located at a higher level compared to the Duomo hill. It was built in the iron age and was dismantled in 15th century. Today only the old tower of the castle along with a more recent church (Santa Maria della Neve) remain on the hill. The church is no longer used for religious purposes and hosts the photography club of Schio.

Stairs from different sides of the hill go up to the castle, making it a short but invigorating walk. On the hill in front of the church you can see the base of two old towers of the castle. From here you also have a lovely view of the mountains surrounding the city.

At the base of the castle hill, a tunnel was constructed during the Second World War as a bomb-refuge. It is around 100 metres long and is now used by a local dairy company for stocking its local cheese, sold as "Formaggio della Grotta" (The cave cheese of Schio).

3. St. Francis church

The 15th century St. Francis church is located at the north-eastern edge of the central hill. It is one of the most beautiful buildings of Schio, with a stone bell-tower. Among the artworks, it hosts a luminous altarpiece by the artist Francesco Verla from early 16th century, which has been recently renovated.

Next to the church is an old Franciscan monastery, which does not have any monks at present. Part of it is used by a woman's self-help group called Daisy - they accompany the tourists to visit the church on Friday & Saturday afternoons. The church also opens in the mornings for the daily Mass.

4. Valletta

In front of the St. Francis church starts the Parco della Valletta (Little valley's park), a green oasis in the centre of Schio. It is characterised by century old trees and pathways going up and down the hill. From the park some of the views of the surrounding mountains are beautiful.

Coming out from St. Francis church, if you follow the road going downwards on the left (Via Grumi dei Frati), you can walk down to see a small beautiful chapel along the roadside - it is the 16th century chapel called Madonna della Salute, with a small water-canal passing underneath it. Behind the chapel is an arch from where you can climb the stairs to go back towards the Castle.

To the left of the chapel, another set of stairs also take you up towards the castle.

5. Piazza Rossi & Piazza Garibaldi

Via Pasini is the main road with shops passing through the old city centre of Schio, starting near Piazza Rossi and the Duomo. Piazza Garibaldi marks the beginning of Via Pasini. This is a pedestrian area of Schio. The two little squares, Piazza Garibaldi and Piazza Rossi, are inter-connected and have different bars with tables on the street, where you can sit and soak in the city atmosphere. Weekends usually have live music shows in one of the bars, along with buskers playing music on the sides.

From Piazza Garibaldi, the road going up towards the castle has another couple of bars that you may wish to explore and to taste some of the local beers. If you are visiting Schio, remember to spend an evening sitting there and watching the people having a drink while they exchange the latest gossip.

The city organises different festivals including the British Day (in October) and Cosplay (in April). On Wednesday and Saturday mornings it has the weekly market. The area of Piazza Rossi-Piazza Garibaldi is usually the central point of all these festivities & markets. While you are there, do not forget to look at the historical statue of Il Tessitore (the weaver) in Piazza Rossi, which is the symbol of Schio.

6. Palazzo Fogazzaro

Along Via Pasini, the central road of old Schio, you can see the municipal building (Garbin Palace) and the 18th century Fogazzaro Palace. Built in the Palladio style, the Fogazzaro Palace is the cultural centre of Schio. It hosts many history, art and photography exhibitions, seminars and events, including the Biennale of Schio which focuses on Papermade art, which has been held regularly since 2013 and brings together artists from numerous countries across the world.

Till early part of 20th century, the main water canal of Schio called Roggia Maestra used to cross Via Pasini with a bridge on it and was therefore known as Via Oltre-Ponte.

The image below shows an art work by Wilhelm Senoner from an exhibition held in Fogazzaro Palace in 2019-20.

Across the road, you can take the Garbin underpass to go to Piazza Statuto to look at the main entrance of the municipal building. This square usually hosts a car parking, so it does not look very exciting. However on the days of the weekly market (Wednesday and Saturday), it gets a make-over and you can admire it better.

7. Toaldi Capra Palace

Via Pasubio, the second main street of the old city centre, starts from Via Pasini in the middle and proceeds northwards. On this road you can see different medieval houses of the rich families of Schio including the 13th century Toaldi-Capra palace. This building was used as the municipal building till the first World war. The first floor of this building has frescoes from 15th century.

Like the Fogazzaro palace, Toaldi Capra Palace is also an important site of cultural initiatives in Schio. Its courtyard hosts an open-air theatre which has dance and theatre performances, as well as, the summer film festival (the image below shows a historical enactment of the fall of the Venice Republic in 1797 in the open-air theatre of the Toaldi-Capra Palace).

The palace also hosts art and photography exhibitions, while the rooms on the first floor hold conferences and seminars.

Via Pasubio is also the site of biannual Sareo Art Festival (which had been suspended between 2020-2021 due to Covid-19) during which local artists and artisans show their works in an open air exhibition.

8. Jacquard Gardens and Industrial Archaeology

In the 18th century Schio had become an important industrial centre with different wool mills. These were powered by the waters of Leogra torrent through a canal known as Roggia Maestra. For the workers of the wool mills, new housing areas were created. The old mills, the houses of the mill-workers and the water canals, together form the industrial archaeology area of Schio.

There are 3 old wool mills near the Schio city centre. The Conte wool mill, which is now converted into a cultural space (the Shed) where art and photography exhibitions are organised. It is located on Via Pasubio, a little further down the road from Toaldi-Capra palace. Inside, this building you can also see the water canal of Roggia Maestra with its swirling waters (the image below shows an art exhibition in the Shed).

A little further down Via Pasubio is the Fabbrica Alta (High Mill), which was the biggest wool mill of Schio and belonged to the Rossi family. The grounds of Fabbrica Alta hold music shows and garden shows while the city is discussing how best to use its old buildings.

Across the road from the entrance of Fabbrica Alta are the Jacquard gardens, built for the mill workers in late 19th century. The gardens include a theatre, artificial caves, fountains, a glass-house and some sculptures. This park is open on summer weekends. From one side of the gardens, you can also admire the beautiful San Rocco church with its lovely bell-tower, located on the Castle hill, next to the gardens.

The third wool mill, Cazzola, was located further outside the central area along Via Pietro Riboli. During the first world war, this was converted into a field hospital where the well-known American writer Ernest Hemmingway worked as an ambulance driver. One of the side-streets behind the old wool-mill is named in his honour.

To look at the area which had the mill-workers houses, you need to walk from the city centre towards the Leogra torrent. Different criss-crossing roads such as Fusinieri, Tessitori, Rossi, Cimatori, etc. are all part of the industrial archaeological area.

You can also take a short walk along the torrent in the Via Lungo Leogra and take a selfie from its bridge, from where you have an excellent view of some of the beautiful mountains surrounding the town (the image below shows the torrent with reduced water-flow in the summer).

9. Civic Theater

The Civic Theatre was built in early 20th century and is situated on Via Maraschin. During the theatre season, it has a rich calendar of plays and concerts. Parts of the civic theatre are being renovated (winter 2020). Inside, the theatre has a beautiful frescoed first-floor hall.

The Civic Theatre also conducts theatre, dance and creativity workshops with schools, elderly persons and other groups.

Across the street from the Civic Theatre, you can walk to big central square of Schio - Piazza Falcone-Borsellino. It has a model showing the different mountains around the city and their names & heights. It also has a war memorial. Finally, my favourite place in this square, is a sculpture by Alfonso Fontana of a fountain with birds and children (the image below shows an overview of Falcone-Borsellino square seen from the back of Fogazzaro Palace).

10. Mother Bakhita church

Mother Bakhita was a catholic nun in the congregation of Figlie della Carita Canossiane (Canossian Daughters of Charity). Originally from Darfur (Sudan), she was kidnapped and sold as a slave when she was 9 years old. Destiny brought her first to Venice and then to Schio in late 19th century. She died here in 1947 and was declared a saint in 2000.

Followers of Saint Bakhita come to visit Schio from different countries. Her church is located in Via Fusinato, not far from the Duomo.

Conclusions

As you can see, even if Schio is only a tiny town, it has a few things to see and do for the visitors. The town is surrounded by beautiful places to visit, especially in the mountains and lakes, starting with the two mountains which guard the north and east of the town - Monte Summano and Monte Novegno. About all these, I will write in another post.

I first came to visit Schio in 1982. My wife's family had been living in the old mill-workers' area since late 19th century. After my retirement, we are living in that same family house where my wife, her father and her grand-father were born. I love living here - I love the view of the mountains, its roads going up and down and the numerous cultural opportunities it provides. It just needs a short bicycle ride to leave the city and to be in the beautiful countryside surrounding Schio, as shown in the view from Via Broglio below.

I had decided to limit this post to 10 places. This meant that I was unable to include some of my favourite places of the city in this list.

For example, I also recommend the walk from the castle towards the Capuchin monastery in the evening for breath-taking views of the mountains; and if you have time, go to the crossing between Via Bosco and Via Fogazzaro to see the lavandaia (washer woman) sculpture and the place along Roggia Maestra where the local women used to wash laundry till mid-20th century.

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#schio #visitschio #schiotourism #placestovisitinschio #beautifulveneto #vicenza #italy

A Creativity Megahub in Schio

Can 3D Printing provide good quality and better fitting prosthesis to persons with disabilities? I was looking for the answers to this question. The problem was that my knowledge about 3D printing was extremely limited and so I had to first understand about 3D printing.

A chance live-telecast on Facebook introduced to me to Megahub, an initiative promoting creativity and technological innovation, which helped me to learn the basics about 3D printing. I will write a separate post on the possible role of 3D printing in making of prosthesis. This post is an introduction to the Megahub initiative.

The Question About 3D Printing

3D printing was supposed to completely transform the world economy and our daily lives. All we needed was a 3D printer and we could have printed in our village everything that we needed, from medicine pills to shoes and clothes, in the designs and colours that we wanted, at almost no or very low cost.

However, after the initial hyperbolic predictions and enthusiasm for a few years, today we do not hear so much about it.

It was in this background that I was asked the question about the role of 3D printing for the production of prosthesis. A prosthesis serves to substitute a missing body-part - for example, an artificial arm for a person with arm-amputation.

My Chance Encounter with Megahub

I live in Schio, a little town in Italy, about 80 km north-west of Venice. About a year ago, I wanted to learn about post-processing of digital photographs. Searching on internet, I had found that Megahub organised such courses, so I had written to them and asked to inform me whenever they had such a course. After that email, nothing had happened and I had forgotten all about it.

Then, a few days ago, while I was trying to learn about 3D printing, I saw an email from Megahub, saying that they were going to do a live telecast about 3D printing on their Facebook page. When I read that email, it was almost the time for that telecast, so I immediately clicked the link. The telecast was an introduction about the technology. After the telecast, I checked the Megahub website and found that they had 3D printers and provided basic training about how to use them. I immediately signed up for an introductory session.

Learning About 3D Printers

Silvano, my teacher for 3D printers, is a great person - simple, unassuming and passionate about the 3D printing technology. I had a half-hour appointment with him, instead we talked for 2 hours and he patiently answered all my questions, explained everything with examples and showed me stuff about different kinds of 3D printers.

At the end of this session, now I have a much better overview and understanding about 3D printing and its possible role in making prosthesis. I will write a separate post about it.

Megahub Services

Megahub is one of the activities of a social cooperative of Schio called Samarcanda, which is active in different areas such as support for refugees, homeless persons and women in difficult situations. Their main office is on Via Paraiso, a few kilometres from the city centre. Part of their building is dedicated to Co-Working, where you can rent a working space and have an office with access to a meeting room, internet, printer and a kitchen.

Megahub is one of the activities in that building, and it has a separate space with an open-space layout which is subdivided into two kinds of areas - an area with machines for rent and learning; and, spaces which can be rented by start-ups and artisans.

The Learning & Machine Area of the Megahub includes labs for 3D printing, photography studio, electronic lab, laser cutting, CNC milling machine, welding, woodwork and carpentry. For each of these areas, you can join their training courses as well as, fix individual appointments for learning about the use of a specific machine. You can also book a machine and make things for your personal projects. For all of these, the costs are very reasonable since it is run by a social cooperative. The teachers are all young and passionate persons, who often go beyond their professional roles to try to help you.

The Start-Ups and Artisan spaces can be rented for a small amount by persons who are starting their professional careers. For example, presently one of the spaces is rented by a young ceramic designer while another has a couple making artistic mirrors. In one space, a guy has a green-house setup inside an old cold-drinks' box where he grows orchids - it is completely automated, so he can control it from his mobile phone.

I think that Megahub is a wonderful opportunity for young entrepreneurs to get a supporting environment, where they can work by themselves and yet be surrounded by others, who can become friends and supporters. They can try their ideas without risking a big amount of money in setting it up. They can learn from their failures without wrecking their savings and if they are successful, they can move to their own place. In this way, they also do not need to invest money in buying expensive machines, they can rent those existing in the megahub for the actual use by paying little amounts.

For more information about Megahub and to use its services, write an email to info@megahub.it or check its website: www.megahub.it

Conclusions

This post is my thank you note to Silvano and his colleagues, Martino and Pietro, for their generosity and helpfulness in teaching me all about 3D printing. I think that the basic idea of Megahub, as a supportive space to help persons to learn about technological innovations and to help young entrepreneurs in converting their ideas into reality, is a wonderful opportunity, which all cities should have if they are serious about nurturing young entrepreneurs.

The image above has Silvano showing a 3D printed guitar with colourful LED lights in it, that they had made in Megahub (the mask is inevitable since these are COVID-19 days!).

If I was not already so busy, I think that I would have loved to learn more about woodwork at Megahub and make wooden objects, which was one of my secret desires when I was young! Who knows, may be, I won't be always so busy and one day, find time to dedicate myself to learning it at Megahub.

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#megahub #megahubschio #workshops #workingspaces #3dprinting

4th Schio Biennale of Papermade Art 2019-20

The 4th edition of the Schio Biennale focusing on Papermade exhibition is going on at Fogazzaro Palace in Schio. It is a biannual art exhibition on paper art.

This post is about my favourite 15 art works from the 2019-20 Papermade exhibition. 

The Theme of Papermade 2019-20

The theme of 4th edition of Papermade curated by Valeria Bertesina is "Beauty in the non-essential". Art and beauty may be seen as unnecessary, even superfluous, but I feel that art and beauty add life to our lives. Prehistoric humans understood it, when they made cave art, necklaces out of colourful beads and painted figures on earthenware.

This exhibition started in October 2019 and will finish on 9 February 2020 (Note: it has been extended till 13 April 2020). It includes two special events - (1) a series of "sculptures" by Joseph Rossi which re-interpret some iconic & provocative works of the well-known Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan, and (2) a mini- exhibition of 15 artists from Finland. The image above presents "Him" by Joseph Rossi, which was a re-interpretation of the Maurizio Cattelan sculpture (2001) of a school boy with the face of Hitler kneeling in prayer.

Re-Interpreting Maurizio Cattelan

Joseph Rossi is a graphic artist based in the nearby Thiene. This edition of Papermade is hosting few of his installations, including some which are a homage to the iconic works of Maurizio Cattelan.

Cattelan, a famous artist based in Padova (Padua), has been in the news recently because of his provocative work of "art" which had a banana fixed to the wall with a duct-tape in the "Art Basel" exhibition in Miami Beach USA, which was sold to an unnamed French art collector for 120,000 dollars and eaten by the Georgian performance artist David Datuna. I think that such works are an example of performance art, which may even be seen as a criticism of the way "conceptual art" is dominating the various recent biennales.

The image above presents another of Joseph Rossi's re-interpretation of Cattelan's provocative works - of the 1999 wax sculpture called "Ninth Hour" which showed Pope John Paul II lying dead crushed by a meteorite.

Finnish Artists in Papermade

There are works of 15 well-known artists from Finland in this Papermade exhibition. They range from art-works with pastel and ink on different kinds of paper, to etching, mezzotint and digital prints. They also include 2 installations - (1) Trio Schio, a paper-meche work by Arja Jappinen; and (2) Beauty, an assemblage including cut paper and origami by Jouni Boucht (in the image below).

Among all the other Finnish artists, my favourite were the 'charcoal on paper' art works by Paula Suominen, presented in the image below.

Another work which I liked very much was called "Land of the Free", made with ink and spray paint by Egs, a well-known graffiti artist from Finland. The image below shows part of this work.

Other Art-works at Papermade

An important presence at Papermade was of the Australian artist Giuseppe Romeo. His cockroach-like origami "sculptures" with a metallic finish, greeted visitors on the stairs and spread over the exhibition, on the floors and the walls, looking like an infestation.

I liked the colours and vivacity of the collages by the Italian artist Elsa Pietrelli.

I was touched by the digital print of a woman's face by the Vietnamese artist Quang Pham Khac, who explained that it was an image of his wife, which he has been making in different forms over the recent period to cope up with her death.

I loved the colours and feelings evoked by the series of paintings/collages by Silvio Cattani inspired by the poetry of the famous Russian poet Sergej Yesenin.

The tropical foliage (below) and the human figures created by Canadian artist Zachari Logan in his "Eunuch Tapestrieses", with pastel art-work on black paper, were visually very striking because of their vivid colours and details.

I am not a fan of the "conceptual art". Even in this exhibition, there were a couple of such installations, which I felt were unexciting and a kind of lazy art. However, I liked the idea behind Iginio Iurilli's simple installation called "Exploding tomato sauce can" (below).

I liked the prints from etchings/woodcut/Relief by Tribhuvan Kumar Dev from India, Haladaj Wieslaw from Poland, Linda Whitney from USA (presented in the image below), Marco Trentin & Leonardo Marenghi from Italy and Yuji Hiratsuka from Japan.

Finally, I liked the tiny and exquisite water-colours of birds by Michela Moretto (below).

For this post I have presented pictures of 15 art-works which I had liked. However, I am very much aware of my own fickle subjectivity - on another day, I would have chosen other art-works. If I ask you to choose your favourite art-works from this exhibition, surely your choice would be different from these 15 works!

Conclusions

I think that this edition of Papermade has a lot to see, admire and think. Generally speaking, in an exhibition on paper art, I would like to see works which use paper in innovative ways and not just as a background to make prints or to paint with ink, pastels or water-colours. In that sense, there were not many new ideas in the exhibition. However, if you visit it with an expectation of seeing art which stimulates you and makes you reflect, you won't be disappointed.

Let me conclude this post with two cut-paper origami inspired works - the delicate "Between you and I" by Susanna Doccioli (above), and the gossamer "Suspended Labyrinth" by Susy Manzo (below).

The exhibition is open till 9 February 2020 (Note: it has been extended till 13 April 2020), so if you are visiting Schio, do not miss it. It is a 5 minutes walk from the railway station. 

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