The Italian Stone Theatre is the project that since 2015 brings to Marmomac experimentation and design with natural stone, through the installations of artists and designers who know how to express the excellence of Made in Italy in the world with their work.

MEETING PLACE
DESIGN ORIENTED
The Italian Stone Theatre is the place where challenges and opportunities related to the industrial processing of marble meet the creative necessities of art and design, with a view to the experimentation of increasingly innovative and design-oriented production solutions, able to raise the Italian natural stone market proposal to the same level or even above the international offer.
Over the years, Marmomac has unquestionably strengthened its role of leadership among sector events to become the essential meeting place for stone culture. Numerous and well established the educational opportunities with lectures, conventions and seminars addressed to the public and to buyer delegations, but also the architecture awards and the moments of confrontation on problems and technological innovations concerning the lithic project.

The Italian Stone Theatre is arranged around theme areas, each of which hosts an exhibition: one focuses on architecture, another on design, another still on art and the last on objects associated with leading furniture brands. Every year, in this space, Italian companies are invited to collaborate with internationally renowned architects and designers to create new projects, highlighting excellence in stone through works and installations inspired by a theme identified every year by the curators, Raffaello Galiotto and Vincenzo Pavan.
Since its inception, the themes explored have been different: from metamorphosis to the relationship between past, present and future, from the connection between stone the its territories of origin to the dialogue between fluidity of water and robustness of marble. In 2019, the theme was Naturality, that is the naturalness of stone in its purest aspect, its hallmarks of uniqueness and geo-diversity, as a fundamental element in nature that has evolved and transformed over the centuries.
The Best of the Italian Stone Theatre, realized in 2020 in occasion of Marmomac ReStart, is a catalogue that contains the best of the past editions.
The Italian Stone Theatre
TIME IN STONE
For the return of in-person attendance from 29 September to 2 October, The Italian Stone Theatre presents Time in Stone, with an original layout located in Halls 11 and 12 of the Exhibition Centre. The common denominator is Time, prompting thought about its symbolic and intrinsic value: what most distinguishes natural stone from artificial products is precisely Time, an intangible component embodied in stone by an indissoluble bond with the material itself.
TIME IN STONE
Curated by: Raffaello Galiotto e Vincenzo Pavan
What most distinguishes natural stone from artificial stone products is time, an immaterial component preserved within stone by a lasting bond. We can observe the passage of time in stratified materials and in countless varieties of rocks that are evidence of the evolutionary processes of the nature of our planet. Stone can tell us about our world from the most distant eras in which it was formed to the most recent ones of those who have worked it, leaving the mark of their own creativity. From the first flint tips to engraved writing, sculpture and architecture, created by the hands of craftsmen and the work of currentday “virtuous machines”, the essence of stone continues to be revealed in its substance. Describing stone over time is a way to return to authenticity and to the incomparable truth that nowadays man, increasingly fascinated by appearances, needs to rediscover new areas of creativity.