SCORCHED OR BLACKENED?

The Region of Umbria is on an innovative path to arrive at the definition of its own Brand identity. On this road, which tends to the enhancement of its strategic qualities, culture and design have a definite and special place. The latter is understood as a factor of qualification of craft and industrial productions in function of the overall quality of the territory. The cultural roots of this vision are easily found in tradition, in the history of the cities of Umbria and in its cultural heritage, whether located in local, Italian museums or anywhere else in the world. Culture as the basis of design thus becomes an additional factor of contemporary know-how.

After many experiences over the years, especially to Milan at Fuorisalone, a work that began to Expo2015 comes to the Spoleto Festival.

The project, proposed as a monolithic object, is intended to to evoke emotional and unusual aspects of Umbria: from the Porziuncola church in Assisi to the CIAC in Foligno, from the fossil forest of Dunarobba to the Etruscan tunnels of Orvieto, from Alberto Burri's Grande Nero to Jean Nouvel's minimetro tunnels to Perugia.

The exterior of the pavilion, is decorated with an anagram composed with "monk" alphabetical characters, the new font launched on the occasion of "Expo Milano 2015," referring to the question that hovers over the installation(Scorched or Blackened?), while the interior is marked from a theca to linear development in which artistic experiments designed from four professors of the Academy of Fine Arts "Pietro Vannucci" of Perugia concerning the innovative use of as many traditional materials belonging to the regional green craft and industry: paper, ceramics, wood, glass are displayed in installation form.

From the letters draw inspiration the shapes of prototypes made from Umbrian companies for the Interni Space, "no borders," at Fuorisalone 2016. The installation for the first time is offered in Umbria.

"Scorched or Blackened," sensations of Umbria at the Festival dei Due Mondi

The exhibition installation "Scorched or Blackened," commissioned to the Academy of Fine Arts "Pietro Vannucci" by the Umbria Region, will be realized inside the Church of Santa Maria della Manna d'Oro in Spoleto and will be inaugurated friday, June 24, on the opening day of Festival dei Due Mondi. An installation made for the first time in Milan's Ca' Granda during the last Fuorisalone (April 12-17) as part of the exhibition "Open Borders," curated by "Interni" magazine editor Gilda Bojardi: a prestigious exhibition, in which there were installations signed from renowned designers such as Ron Arad, Stefano Boeri, Michele De Lucchi, Massimo Iosa Ghini, Piero Lissoni, Ingo Maurer and Carlo Ratti. to explaining the project, Paolo Belardi, director of the Academy of Fine Arts "Pietro Vannucci," and coordinator of the team of professors of the School of Design of the same Perugia Academy, as professor at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering of the University of Perugia.

**Professor Belardi, can you describe the exhibition set-up, the materials used in its realization and its special features? **

"The exhibition layout, which I designed together to Matteo Scoccia and to Paul Robb, will present itself as a viral form of incorporation, both figuratively and conceptually. In this sense, the black monolith planted in the hall of the Church of Santa Maria della Manna d'Oro, precisely because it will be both content and container, will evoke perhaps unusual, but among the most emotional aspects of Umbria: from the fossil forest of Dunarobba to the little church of the Porziuncola in Assisi, from Guidubaldo from Montefeltro's wooden studiolo to Gubbio to Tomaso Buzzi's winged eye to Montegabbione, from Gino De Dominicis's Cosmic Magnet to Foligno to Alberto Burri's Great Black to Perugia. But, above all, it will evoke the enigmatic character of the velarium designed many years ago by the unforgettable Gian Carlo Leoncilli Massi (perhaps the last great Umbrian architect of the 20th century) for the portico of Spoleto Cathedral. In fact, if toward the baptismal font the installation will flaunt a texture composed with "monk" alphabetical characters, which will repropose in the form of an anagram the question that hovers over the installation (scorched or blackened?), toward the altar will be marked from two long glass cases, which will present and at the same time protect the artistic experiments conducted from four professors of the Academy of Fine Arts "Pietro Vannucci" of Perugia, pursuing the innovative use of as many traditional materials proper to the most established regional craftsmanship: from one side Arthur Duff/ceramics and Marco Fagioli/wood, on the other Pietro Carlo Pellegrini/paper and Paul Robb/glass."

What values do ephemeral projects and experimental practice take on today?

"to my view, the ephemeral/experimental mix takes on a guarantor value, aimed to at conferring the chrism of conscious contemporaneity. Because ephemeral architecture, when fueled by the experimental component, is an extraordinary medium for reading the present from a historical perspective. On the other hand, we are still children of modernity, and all the masters of modernity, to in spite of their repeated professions of faith in technological progress, have always put ideological construction before physical construction: so much from bequeathed us masterpieces conceived as programmatic manifestos before as real estate. I am thinking of Le Corbusier's Philips Pavilion, but I am also thinking of the "Blur Building" by New York studio Diller+Scofidio. Likewise, coming to Italy, I think of itinerant architectures such as Aldo Rossi's Teatro del Mondo, Franco Purini's Teatrino Scientifico, and Alessandro Mendini's Torre del Filosofo. On the other hand, borrowing a beautiful song by Fabrizio De Andrè, one does not do architecture just to pursue 'a vast program of eternity'."

What characteristics did the collaboration with the Umbria Region take on during the development of the project? What do you think could be the results of this experimentation?

"Two centuries ago, the Perugia Academy of Fine Arts invented from scratch the green and medieval Umbria. An advertising slogan that had great success, but which has now had its day. And today, at a time when Umbria wants to renew its image by launching the "Umbria brand," the Academy is once again at the forefront. I think of course to what we did this year at the Fuorisalone, but I also think to what we did last year at the Expo, where we presented "Monk": a new font that looks to the future (because it was conceived as a matrix of a digital alphabet), but that does not forget the past (because it was designed by hybridizing the round typeface of the Carolingian script, proper to Benedictine manuscripts, with the angular typeface of the Gothic script, proper to Franciscan manuscripts)."

**What kind of responsibility does the designer have today in terms of relationship with society and innovation proposal? **

"The designer has always had great responsibilities, including and especially ethical ones, because an object (and to even more so a space) interacts with the user, conveying values to him or her and directing his or her behavior. Both in a positive sense (just think of Bernardo Rossellino's square in Pienza) and in a negative sense (just think of Albert Speer's Zeppelin Camp). Today, moreover, in the wake of the planet's increasingly serious environmental problems, these responsibilities have increased. Not to case Salvatore Settis made a provocative proposal, arguing that architects should be ethically bound by the 'Vitruvian Oath' just as doctors are bound by the 'Hippocratic Oath'."

How does the designer relate in his work to the industrial culture and know-how of the company?

"I do not believe that the designer should relate to the company's "know-how" by indulging it. Rather, I believe it must provoke and stimulate it. to Indeed, in my opinion, the designer must perform a maieutic action, bringing out the dormant qualities: especially those of which the company is unaware. Because most Italian companies (and Umbria is certainly no exception) are distracted by everyday problems and lack their own research and development center."