Confindustria Ceramica

Confindustria Ceramica — the Italian Association of Ceramic Tile Manufacturers - has appointed us with the promotion of an integrated campaign aimed at enhancing the global perception of "Italian Ceramic Tiles".

The project originates out of the need to redefine the product positioning, reviving its role as a main component in design, life style, fashion, new housing styles, and with a view to extending the industry targets by involving ever more competitive, creative consumers, who are strongly fascinated by trendy products.

The Italian Ceramics means Infinite Creativity

The campaign strategy and concept have been identified from the unique product plus: ceramics is basically the only type of tile with which a practically infinite range of shapes, colours, and solutions is possible. Following a target audit phase, in which an opinion poll and one-to-one interviews have been conducted, the campaign has further developed through an integrated project guided by PR actions and implemented in different communication channels: off-line advertising, events, TV, web communication, web portal.

Several actions have been carried out over a period of about one year with appearances on TV channels, newspapers and magazines (editorials, web, TV, events) for a total of approximately 114 million contacts.

Confindustria Ceramica is the Italian Association of Ceramic Tile and Sanitary Appliance Manufacturers — in charge of promoting Italian ceramic products both in Italy and abroad. In the past few years, ceramics has lost appeal versus its competitors: i.e. wood, stone, or resin tiles, deemed to be more prestigious and "trendy". Ceramics is considered to be a "poor", "cold", "uncool" products, suitable only for some specific settings (e.g., kitchens and bathrooms).

Italy Has Always Been the Most Important Producer of Ceramic Tiles In the World

The campaign aims to revamp ceramics as a creative, prestigious, and trendy solution. Ceramics has the right "credentials" to play a leading role in design, fashion, new life styles and architectural design: from all rooms in the house, to large buildings and public spaces.

There are two main reference targets: namely "insiders" (architects, designers, interior designers) and an increasingly larger group of "consum-actors", who are creative, motivated, well informed and who want to play a leading role in creating their own world.

In order to define the target’s needs: opinion poll by Eurisko and one-to-one interviews to some selected influencers.

The Innovations Developed by Ceramics Manufacturers:

The campaign strategy and concept have been identified from the unique plus that distinguishes ceramics from all its competitive products: thanks to a major product innovation developed by ceramics manufacturers, ceramics is the only type of tile with which a practically infinite range of shapes, colours, sizes, decorations, and finishings is possible.

For this reason, ceramics is "Infinite Creativity", and it perfectly meets the needs of Consum-actors, who favour solutions that allow them to pursue an exclusive and personal style. Ceramic tiles and consum-actors are the perfect match.

Unlike previous industry campaigns that were somehow self-referencing — our product is beauty and technology, — this campaign focuses on consumers (and industry experts) by fuelling their desire to play a leading role, while suggesting them that ceramics is the right product to fulfil it.

The campaign has been implemented along two complementary planes: a PR action, aimed at prompting rational purchase motivations (brain), as well as a whole set of integrated strongly emotional actions with a view to consolidating the new product positioning: ceramics as a creative choice (heart).

VIA «The Italian Association of Ceramic Tile Manufacturers»

VIA «The house of the Italian photographer»

The interventions mainly concerned the plaster and the Basilica's columns, which were starting to show cracks.

Walls and columns have been restored to their old form adding material in nearly invisible ways, as in the case of the access steps to the building which were restored using mortar lime.

The Basilica is one of the highlights of any visit to the popular archaeological site.

Built in the second half of the second century BC, it was used for the administration of justice as well as for trade negotiations.

The magnificent building has a rectangular plan with three aisles, a pitched roof supported by central columns and half columns from the top of the walls, where original decorations are still visible.

In the back of the Basilica is the court, which can be reached by wooden stairs.

Visitors will have access to the Basilica only through the side entrance of the building.

Source: AGI [July 29, 2015]

Indeed, with his black hair, curled form, and bared teeth, the ancient canine has stood ready for almost 2,000 years to discourage intruders from setting foot in the Domus of the Tragic Poet, supported by the famous inscription 'Cave Canem' or 'Beware of the Dog'.

Now, this universal symbol of the city that was preserved under the ash of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 AD has been restored and returned to the public eye in the archaeological remains of Pompeii.

Years of rain, mud, dirt and neglect were gradually cleaned away to bring him back to public viewing just in time for the dog days at the end of July.

The work on the mosaic canine is just one in a series of measures aimed at restoring and protecting Pompeii, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, for future generations, said Culture Minister Dario Franceschini.

In a post on his Twitter feed, he wrote: "Offered to the public the splendid new staging of Cave Canem". "(At) #Pompei, every day a proud step forward," wrote the minister.

The canine mosaic is now protected beneath a transparent cover designed to allow full public viewing of the mosaic mutt, with his great sense of movement as well as the realism and attention to detail that has made it one of the world's best known of the Pompeian masterpieces. Other restored works as well as extended tourist routes through the archaeological site should also be offered soon, officials suggested.

Work has been continuing at Pompeii, which for decades was neglected and even plundered due to slack security and poor protection.

At some points, the United Nations even threatened to withdraw its UNESCO World Heritage Site designation unless adequate money was invested to restore and protect Pompeii.

But, slowly things seem to be turning around.

In March Pompeii's largest house - Villa dei Misteri, famous for its frescoes of the cult of Bacchus - reopened after a two-year restoration and a three-month closure for work on its paving.

"We have behind us a year of extraordinary work," Franceschini said at that time.

"We have closed three work sites while another 13 have been opened, nine contracts have been started and we have hired 85 people". Almost precisely one year earlier, Franceschini pledged the Italian government would catch up on delays in restoring the Pompeii archaeological site and treat completing the ambitious 105-million-euro Great Pompeii Project as a "national challenge".

"The challenge of Pompeii is a challenge for the nation," Franceschini said, reiterating the importance of the Great Pompeii Project, aimed at safeguarding the unique site.

The European Commission, involved in funding the project, has insisted that the restoration work must be completed by the end of 2015.

There is some urgency.

In April 2014, heavy rains led to several reports of collapsed walls at the Pompeii site, soon after UNESCO warnings that the miraculously preserved ancient city could "completely fall apart" and lose its world heritage status unless urgent action was taken.

Source: ANSA [July 21, 2015]

The excavation, led by a team of American and Canadian archaeologists from the American Institute of Roman Culture, is bringing back to light an upper-class Roman home, or domus, from the fourth century A.D, as well as 2,000 year-old mausoleum, both located in Ostia's Parco dei Ravennati.

The site had been closed during the winter but when archaeologists visited it a few days ago, they got a nasty shock.

"“When we re-opened the dig site we found that some serious damage had been done,"” the team of scholars told Il Messaggero.

But this was not just everyday vandalism. The number '666', the widely recognized symbol for the Antichrist, had been carved into the site numerous times and the area was littered with birds' feathers and the remains of bonfires. “

In addition to the spooky remnants of occult rites the site was also full of junk.

“"During the winter people had been sleeping out here and had left all sorts among the ruins,”" the archaeologists said.

Bottles were strewn across the ruins and the vandals had even removed some iron poles, perhaps as part of some mysterious ritual.

Source: The Local [July 10, 2015]

The Superintendent for Cultural Heritage responsible for the sites at Pompeii, Herculaneum and Stabia said in a statement that the closure "highlights the critical situation...at Mt.
Vesuvius archaeological sites".

The 36 staff members at Herculaneum are divided between five shifts daily but that is inadequate for a site that covers an area of 4.5 hectares and requires six or seven staff per shift to supervise and protect the ancient site, officials said.

A sudden illness threw the schedule off and forced Monday's closure to the public, they added.

Herculaneum - like the more famous Pompeii - was destroyed by an eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD.

Both are UNESCO World Heritage sites and concerns about their protection and preservation have been increasing amid reports in recent years about cave-ins, natural disasters, and outright thefts of priceless archaeological relics.

Source: ANSA [July 06, 2015]

"The fact of the matter is that physical weathering, deterioration and damage to marble and other architectural stones present a serious problem for the preservation of sculptures, monuments and buildings," said Luzin.

David: A sculpture made from Carrara marble

Before its relocation in Galleria dell'Accademia, David, the "Giant", was  symbolically displayed in the political heart of Renaissance Florence, the Piazza della Signoria. Over a period of almost three centuries, the statue was exposed to the action of weather, historical events and inappropriate restoration works. These coexisting factors prevented the appropriate preservation of a masterpiece that, already at the time of its creation, was regarded as challenging by many artists—due to the presence of taroli, imperfections of the marble.

Today David is in a highly stable condition but still presents a contemporary scientific challenge from a conservation point of view. Researchers are monitoring marble cracking of the 4.3 metre David with a system of sensors that record vibrations, rotations and environmental conditions. [1] Conservationists monitor the sculpture because it is thought that even small mechanical impacts and small temperature variations are detrimental to marble.

Geologically marble is formed by the alteration (metamorphism) of limestone under high temperature and high pressure. The metamorphic process causes a complete recrystallization of the original rock into an interlocking mosaic of calcite and/or dolomite crystals with very specific mechanical behaviour.

Carrara marble, the stone used by Michaelangelo in sculpting David, was  one of the most popular types of marble in the world because of its beauty and high lustre. For centuries it was quarried from the Apuan Alps in Tuscan Italy.

The popularity of Carrara marble was due in part to the wide range of varieties available (statuary, flowered, veined, brecciated, bardiglio, etc.), to the constancy of its quality, scarcity of defects, large size of single blocks that could be extracted, excellent physical and mechanical characteristics, and long-lasting strength and beauty." [2]        

However the suitability of marble from the Carrara area of Italy for buildings and artworks has been questioned because of 'spectacular bowing behaviour' of marble slabs on numerous modern buildings including the Amoco building in Chicago and the Grand Arche de la Defense in Paris.

A study of Carrara marble by a group of investigators led by Luzin have confirmed that microstresses caused by temperature variation and the thermo-mechanical properties of the marble itself help explain the deterioration. Co-investigators are Dimitry Nikolayev of the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Moscow and Siegfried Siegesmund of theUniversity of Göttingen in Germany.

The investigators were interested in the different environmental conditions that influence marble deterioration and had to reproduce factors known to be important to the process of deterioration. Temperature effects were among those known to cause mechanical stress.

Luzin and collaborators used non-destructive neutron diffraction to confirm that thermally-induced microstress from a single thermal exposure can cause microcracking in the marble and therefore be responsible for weathering and deterioration of the marble [3].

"Neutron diffraction is a useful tool and a non-destructive method to investigate the texture, phase composition and spatial and orientation dependence of strain in a bulk marble sample," explained Luzin.

Although the commercial use of statue-grade Carrara marble is no longer allowed, an exception is made for restoration works and scientific research. Freshly cut marble from a quarry in Carrara, Italy was used for the testing.

"Although not easy, stress measurements in geological materials, such as marble are feasible and provide valuable characterisation," said Luzin.

He explained that the challenges are related to the need to measure two phases with sufficient accuracy. It is necessary to use a large gauge volume because of the coarse grain microstructure and longer measurement time in order to capture very delicate effects of microstress in calcite and dolomite—which are also very weak neutron scatterers.

The neutron high resolution powder diffractomter, Echidna, determined the amount of each phase in two cube samples of marble. In one sample, the dolomite comprised a volume fraction of 28 per cent  and in the other it was 18 per cent, which is not surprising given the highly visible non-uniform distribution of dolomite in the marble.

The Kowari diffractometer was used to produce pole figures, graphical representations that   capture the preferred crystallographic orientation (texture) of the calcite and dolomite. "A weak crystallographic texture in both phases was confirmed in the neutron diffraction experiment," said Luzin.

The stress experiments were carried out using the Kowari diffractometer in a specially designed sample environment unit in order to control temperature. "We took measurements of the calcite and dolomite phases at room temperature and at 80° C."

Using a technique to measure the stiffness of an elastic material, the researchers were able to accurately measure the accumulated damage after a thermal exposure that could be unambiguously attributed to microcracking.

"Evidently, a significant change in microstress caused micro-cracking in the marble sample due to temperature changes," said Luzin.

Although exaggerated temperature might not be relevant to real daily and seasonal temperature variation, smaller, more numerous natural temperature variations during long periods of time might result in even greater accumulated damage. There are historical examples of sculpture which deteriorated into a pulverised state after a century of exposure to temperature variation.

"We have a responsibility to try and preserve great works of art and architecture with non-destructive techniques and nuclear technologies give us the means to do this. Hopefully David and other important monuments can be preserved in the centuries to come," said Luzin.

References

[1] Giovanni Pascale, Filippo Bastianini, Roberto Carli, "Monitoring Marble cracking in the David by Michaelangelo Proc. Art'11, 10th Int. Conf. on Non-Destructive Investigations and microanalysis for the diagnostics and conservation of cultural and environmental heritage, Florence, April 13th-15th, 2011, NDT44

[2] Stephano Merlino Paolo Orlandi "Carraraite and zaccagnaite, two new minerals from the Carrara marble quarries: their chemical compositions, physical properties, and structural features" American Mineralogist, Volume 86, pages 1293–1301

[3] 310.4028/www.scientific.net/MSF.777.148. Luzin, V; Nikolayev, D and Siegesmund, S, Temperature Induced Internal Stress in Carrara Marble, Mater. Sci. Forum 777, 148-154 (2014)

Source: Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) [June 22, 2015]

The historic underground tunnel linking the Colosseum with its gladiatorial training barracks could be restored thanks to a $1.7 million donation from the Kuwait government.

“We are in talks with Kuwait, one of several countries that has shown an interest in investing in Rome’s cultural heritage,” a spokesman for the city council said.

The Ludus Magnus, also known as the Great Gladiatorial Training School, is located a few hundred yards from the arena and was the largest facility in Rome.

Thousands of gladiators lived and trained there for more than 650 years until the middle of the 6th century when gladiatorial shows came to an end.

Today, the ancient remains lie neglected and littered with rubbish.

The Kuwaiti donation will renovate the area where gladiators would suit up for battle and collect their weapons before walking through the torch-lit tunnel and out into the arena, in scenes famously recreated in Ridley Scott’s blockbuster Gladiator starring Russell Crowe.

“For many years the area around the gladiator school has been rather forgotten, and impossible to visit. We hope to make some significant improvements and restructure the whole zone,” a city spokesperson said.

First built by Emperor Domitian between 81 and 96AD, the barracks were at least two storeys high and included a practice area where gladiators would put their combat skills to the test.

Remains of the site were discovered in 1937 but are thought to be from the second phase of building during Emperor Trajan’s reign from 98AD.

Author: Kate Mead | Source: Yahoo News [June 05, 2015]

Italy has been on a campaign to recover looted artifacts, using the courts and public shaming to compel museums and collectors to return them, and has won back several important pieces.

The items returned Tuesday were either spontaneously turned over to U.S. authorities or seized by police after investigators noticed them in Christie's and Sotheby's auction catalogues, gallery listings, or as a result of customs searches, court cases or tips. One 17th-century Venetian cannon was seized by Boston border patrol agents as it was being smuggled from Egypt to the U.S. inside construction equipment, police said.

U.S. Ambassador John Phillips joined Italy's carabinieri art police to show off the haul. It included Etruscan vases from the Toledo Museum of Art and the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, 17th-century botany books from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, and a manuscript from the 1500s stolen from the Turin archdiocese in 1990 that ended up listed in the University of South Florida's special collections.

"Italy is blessed with a rich cultural legacy and therefore cursed to suffer the pillaging of important cultural artifacts," Phillips said, adding that Interpol estimates the illicit trade in cultural heritage produces more than $9 billion in profits each year.

Police said several of the items were allegedly sold by Italian dealers Giacomo Medici and Gianfranco Becchina, both convicted of trafficking in plundered Roman artifacts. After the objects were recovered, Italian authorities confirmed their provenance.

Police stressed that most collectors and museums willingly gave up the artifacts after learning they had been stolen. The Minneapolis museum director contacted the Italian culture ministry after reading an article about one suspect piece, police said.

Phillips praised the collaboration between Italy's police and U.S. Homeland Security and border patrol agents. He also said the U.S. had returned more than 7,600 objects to over 30 countries and foreign citizens since 2007.

Author: Nicole Winfield | Source: The Associated Press [May 26, 2015]

A decision to cap Sunday free entries to no more than 15,000 visitors at a single time was made following a May 3 record of 35,000 visitors after reviewing UNESCO inspectors' analysis.

According to experts, high numbers of visitors cause increased moisture and micro-climate alterations which put Pompeii's priceless frescoes at risk.

The ministry and superintendency will present their reorganization plans at a press conference on Tuesday.

Source: ANSA [May 11, 2015]

Restoration work that began in May last year is supposed to be completed between June and July. The interventions underway were financed as part of the Po Fesr 2007/2013 program. For the restoration of the temples, overall financing of 2,271,735 euros was set aside.

''The works of the project 'Doric architecture in the Greek West: pilot restoration interventions' on Temples C and E,'' park director Giovanni Leto Barone told ANSA, ''call for interventions with innovative materials of the surfaces seen and an improvement and securing of some of the structural parts.

About 90% of what was planned has been completed.'' ''For the project 'Houses for Men, Homes for Gods' an overall 2,376,000 euros have been allocated,'' Leto Barone added. ''The works, which aim to improve the use, are for the restoration of some parts of the internal walkways between the Acropolis and the Malophoros Sanctuary, and a revision of the signage. About 80% of the project has already been completed.''

''A 'Theater for Selinunte' will be built in the site with a 600-seat capacity in the area between the temple and the Baglio Florio, where the park museum is located, with 415,000 euros in financing. About 90% is completed, and some 2,849,950 euros will go towards the completion the Baglio Florio museum of Selinunte. The work focused on the modernization of the electrical, anti-fire and air-conditioning systems, as well as the museum organization. About 80% has been completed,'' he added.

The archaeological park is located at the mouth of a river where wild parsley (selinon) grows, which was the origin of the name of the waterway. The city was founded by Megara Hyblaea residents in Sicily in the seventh century BC near two port-canals, now sanded over, and engaged in intense maritime trade.

''It was due to this expert use of the geographical role of Selinunte,'' historians say, ''that their inhabitants, in the space of just over two centuries, achieved an economic prosperity unrivalled in the Greek world or in that of Sicily/Magna Grecia.''

A city of grandiose size was built with numerous places of worship and public works of high quality. Due to conflict between the Greeks and the Punics in the late fifth century BC, it lost its urban splendor, becoming an important Punic center of trade. Here the Greeks built four parallel temples close to each other in the southern zone for worship and other public activities.

''The position of the acropolis was extremely privileged due to its extension,'' archaeologists say,'' towards the sea, between the western and eastern coves. Its elevation over the sea was balanced and enabled easy monitoring of the two ports to it, linked by short and easy access.'' Selinunte construction materials were excavated from the Cusa caves.

They were in use from the sixth century BC until the defeat of the Greeks by the Carthaginians in 409 BC.

Author: Giovanni Franco | Source: ANSA Med [May 06, 2015]

The house faced Via di Mercurio, a few steps from the Forum, and was named after the fountain-nymphaeum placed in the garden and adorned by refined mosaics.

The restoration was completed in 135 days, ahead of schedule, and cost around 240,000 euros. Most of this sum, some 200,000 euros, was paid by the Great Pompeii Project, an initiative of the Italian government aimed at protecting the archaeological site.

The rest was financed through a public-private partnership with the Citta' Italia foundation and donations made by citizens..

Source: AGI [May 06, 2015]

A large marble crown which topped the "Statue of the Two Hercules" monument in the town of Cremona in northern Italy was brought crashing to the ground after the tourists climbed onto it to pose for the photograph.

The crown sat on top of a large marble shield which is flanked by two statues depicting Hercules.

The monument, located on Piazza del Comune, a medieval square at the heart of Cremona, is one of the city's best known symbols.

Police are investigating the accident, while experts were on Monday expected to assess the extent of the damage and give an estimate of how much repairs are likely to cost.

The statues were sculpted in the early 18th century and were placed on top of one of the gates that led into Cremona.

They were later removed from the gate and since the 1960s have been kept in the Loggia dei Militia, formerly the headquarters of the town's militia, on the main piazza.

Cremona is best known for its violin-makers, in a tradition dating back centuries.

The most famous was Antonio Stradivari, who made around 1,000 violins, cellos, violas and harps, and whose instruments are often referred to by the Latinised form of his name, Stradivarius.

Author: Nick Squires | Source: Telegraph [May 04, 2015]

The Egyptian-style pyramid-shaped tomb of Gaius Cestius, an Augustan era general, reopened to the public this week following an extensive restoration initiated in March 2013. Japanese fashion mogul Yuzo Yagi who funded the project said "It is extraordinary to return it to the white city like [it was] two thousand years ago. It was a great job with an incredible team led by two women", referring to Rita Paris and Maria Grazia Filetici, Italy's archaeological superintendency directors who oversaw the project.

The 120 foot-high pyramid, according to Paris, was constructed in 330 days, made of white Carrara marble. The 21st century restoration of the 2000-year-old tomb took a cumulative 327 days, 75 days less than projected.

Yagi donated two million euros to the innovative internal and external restoration that required a mix of traditional and non-tradition conservation in areas such as vegetation removal, marble facade protection, marble panel stabilization and damage prevention, and a handicap-accessible entrance ramp.

The restoration was much needed after centuries of wear and tear, which included, as Paris detailed, the tomb's incorporation into the 3rd century AD walls, looting in the Middle Ages, mid-17th century restoration, and use as a meeting spot in the 19th century.

Present at the invitation-only inauguration was Umberto Vattani, president of the Italy-Japan Foundation, cultural and foreign affairs undersecretaries Francesca Barracciu and Benedetto Della Vedova, Rome Cultural Heritage superintendent Francesco Prosperetti, and Rome Mayor Ignazio Marino.

Barracciu said that the restoration was "a brilliant best practice that strengthens our belief that the public and private collaboration is a way to go again with more determination. And since last July's Art Bonus, we are very confident ".

When asked if Yagi would finance future heritage projects in Italy, the fashion mogul said "we have a long list of aid to Japan, for the tsunami-affected areas. But I would be happy to return in the coming years".

Author: Erica Firpo | Credit: ANSAmed [April 21, 2015]

The Italian agreement