30 October 2008

print

Elica Contemporary: shortening the distance between art and industry


zoom

zoom

zoom

zoom

zoom

A wide cross-section of the public packed into the Elica showroom in Milan’s Brera district on the evening of October 30th, all there to celebrate the highly original relationship that the Elica company has established with the world of art.

Elica Contemporary –organised in consultation with Marcello Smarrelli, artistic director of the Ermanno Casoli Foundation – is an event inspired by the private collection of art that Elica Group President Francesco Casoli has made available to the company.

The evening, held on the occasion of the collection’s acquisition of new works by Ettore Favini, Christian Frosi and Nico Vascellari, three of the most interesting figures on the contemporary art scene, was attended by a rich mixture of artists, Elica customers, and journalists from the worlds of specialist art magazines, business and economics.

The reasoning behind the Elica Contemporary event lies in the Elica Group’s long-standing links with the world of modern art, regarded both as an important source of inspiration and as an area that may demonstrate beneficial correlations with the industrial world.

The Ermanno Casoli International Contemporary Art Prize was organised by Elica for ten years, and, for over a year now, the Group has been working together with the Ermanno Casoli Foundation in order to promote contemporary art, including initiatives capable of creating a nexus between architecture and industrialdesign.

The creation and activities of the Casoli Foundation have helped to develop synergies useful to the Group’s development strategies – synergies which the company regards with high priority where investment is concerned.
One initiative conceived and organised by the Casoli Foundation was E-Straordinario, a series of workshops for in-house training which involved thirty employees.

The works of the Elica Contemporary collection will be on show in the Group’s premises, making it possible for the company’s employees to work in close contact with art.  Before arriving in the Fabriano plant, however, the three newly purchased works were exhibited for several days in the Milan showroom, providing a very special opportunity for people to admire these art-house treasures on a lower floor transformed especially for the occasion into an art gallery. Meanwhile, on show on the upper floor, were Gold Stream, Wave, Star, Vogue, Space, Om, Mini Om and Victoria – some of the fascinating high-range Elica Collection brand hoods produced by Elica‘s very own in-house manufacturing artists.