Run-up to the third Icon Award.
If marble and stone are inherently and intrinsically heavy materials, an icon ideally has a delicate, inconsistent and immaterial character as only an image can be. A stone icon consequently seems to be a contradiction in terms. This apparent contradiction is part of the challenge embodied in the Icon Award created by Veronafiere and now in its third year. It aims to identify a work or object having a symbolic form capable of becoming the icon representing Marmomac’s communication campaign for the following year. A jury of experts, comprising authoritative exponents of the worlds of design, architecture, journalism and culture, will analyse the works displayed in The Italian Stone Theatre, the hall designed by Marmomac to celebrate Italian design and technology excellence applied to natural stone processing. The jury will then choose the work that best communicates the beauty and versatility of natural stone alongside the craftsmanship and industrial skills of Italian companies. The first Icon Award in 2016 was made to Panca Play, designed by Denis Santachiara for the Costa Paolo company: a totally new artefact achieving impressive inventive value in typological terms which. through the inference of Alpine horns, ensures strong urban characterisation capable to transforming, thanks to non-invasive technology, a collective space into a space of sound. Panca Play was the image chosen to represent Marmomac 2017; the current 2018 edition is hallmarked by Drap, the work designed by Paolo Ulian and developed by Silvestri Marmi that took the Icon Award in 2017. The delicacy recalling drapery inherent in Drap transfigures a defect in mechanical processing turned into an aesthetic quality: this equally represents the iconic value of Marmomac’s initiatives, as a combination of creativity and innovation, craftsmanship and design expertise.
