Mother Gigliola and Sister Daniela are two nuns of the Benedictine Monastery, located at a distance of about 9 km from our Cement Plant in Fanna. These nuns with perpetual vows have lived in the Val Colvera since 1998. At present, the convent is home to 11 nuns. Guided by the motto “ora et labora”, which sums up the spirit of the Benedictine tradition, the nuns are involved in all kinds of activities: from the creation of embroidered works, mosaics, miniatures, to the production of jams, herbal extracts, sauces and honey using raw materials coming from nearby areas.

In order to make their work easier, the Management of the Fanna Plant donated a Peugeot 207 to the nuns so that they could easily reach the apple orchards and the Maniago area for their activities.
The monastery also features three rooms which offer hospitality to guests, including as a B&B.
The Plant’s support to the religious community represents another aspect of its relationship with the local territory, which expresses itself in the form of a synergic and comprehensive collaboration, to everyone’s benefit.

In 2021, ALIdARTE kicked off the initiatives which are part of the agreement with the Monselice Plant by presenting several projects, all aimed at encouraging social gatherings through art and culture.

The first initiative undertaken was the solo exhibition entitled “The colors of rebirth” by the differently abled artist Thomas Prearo. The show, open to the public, was set up in the offices of the cement plant.

On 25 June, at the end of the exhibition, the event “The room of colors and feelings” was held in an open space at the plant.

A second project was organized at the cement plant between May and June with the artist Cristina Masiero and the Association ADI Down. The initiative involved a few young girls in a creative workshop that featured ten sessions. The girls found a welcoming place where to spend a couple of hours a week, during which they were left free to express their creativity.

As a result of the agreement made with a local travel agency, Buzzi Unicem participated in an initiative the aim of which is to promote “Industrial Tourism”, a concept inspired by the work of Mr. Jacopo Ibello, President of the Cultural Association “Save Industrial Heritage”.

The project was developed with the objective of organizing guided visits to various factories, among which the Guidonia Cement Plant, so that visitors could learn about different kinds of industrial activities.

 

The participation of the plant in this “tourist circuit” resulted in a significant increase in the number of visitors. It also boosted the dialogue between the parties and encouraged a more in-depth discussion of issues and topics of common interest.

Just like on a real movie set, the shooting and audio recordings of the long-awaited performance associated with the installation “Steps” began in this way. Our Augusta colleagues, with their “steps” traced the footsteps of the artist Alfredo Pirri in an itinerary along the external and internal walls of the Maniace Castle in Syracuse, up to the large Hypostila Hall, where the artistic work was set up and the performance was staged.

It is here that our colleagues, amid some embarrassment, laughter and concentration, became actual “actors”, the stars of the first scene in which they were arranged in a procession. Following Pirri’s steps, a colleague of ours opened the scene by pushing a sphere made of stone - a medieval ball for catapult - rolling it along a floor made of mirrors, which broke under the weight of the sphere. This is how the performers, by walking on the broken mirrors, made a series of sounds and noises that, as a whole, created a sound carpet.

In the second scene, the actors turned into real human statues, petrified, unmoving, impassible, almost hypnotized by the long and harmonic whistling of a colleague. Suddenly, the silent scene was brusquely

interrupted by the sound of two helmets forcefully thrown down against the floor of broken mirrors: the human statues then stood up, walked, whistled, sang and interacted with each other, taking up the entire space around them.

The circle of the performance ended by resuming the first scene in which the procession of workers was formed. The workers then slowly made their way towards the exit of the castle.

It was an extremely intense day for the colleagues of the Augusta Plant, who were also busy the day before with the “lectio magistralis” of the same Pirri. During his presentation, the artist introduced a few of his works, starting from their genesis up to the actual creation, contextualizing extremely topical meanings and visons of society as well as of human and professional relationships.

Pirri shared his works, his creations, and his future projects with the eyes of an artist who watches the world and the space around him, imagining new dimensions and points of view and breathing life into a work full of meanings.