Marmomac: Merging the Creative, High-Tech of Natural Stone
MILAN, Italy — Marmomac will feature plenty of imaginative uses of natural stone paired with today’s technology during the international stone event’s 2024 edition this fall.
In a press conference here last week, event organizer Veronafiere previewed a wealth of exhibits slated to appear at Marmomac on Sept. 24-27 in Verona, Italy.
The event, a key reference point for the natural stone industry, aims to solidify its role as a business, education, and cultural platform for all operators in the stone sector. Marmomac is an international hub, with 66% of its visitors in 2023 coming from abroad, representing 138 nations.
With over 1,500 exhibitors present each year, the fair provides a unique showcase for a comprehensive overview of the latest innovations in both lithic products and machinery and tools for marble and granite processing and care.
“In today’s context,” comments Raul Barbieri, marketing and sales director of Veronafiere, “natural stone continues to be a prestigious and versatile material, capable of adding value to any architectural or design project with its beauty and unique properties.
“Marmomac plays a crucial role in promoting the innovative use of this material, highlighting its most cutting-edge applications through a series of side events, including exhibitions, workshops, and conferences.”
The 2024 edition will again host A matter of stone, the pavilion curated by Elle Decor Italia with a layout designed by the Calvi Brambilla studio. Pavilion 1 will feature a selection of Italian and international companies showcasing design productions and applications in a creative and stimulating context aimed at architects, interior designers, and industry professionals.
At The Plus Theatre, a concept in experimentation curated by Giorgio Canale, this year’s theme will be the material, the key element within an actual district that develops around a central avenue lined with exhibitions, meeting areas, and refreshment spaces. The individual exhibitions highlight the many facets of natural stone, offering a complete and in-depth view of the theme, telling the constant relationship between stone and machinery, and showcasing the countless varieties present in nature and the most modern technological processes.
In addition to the overall curation of the pavilion, Giorgio Canale also conceived the exhibition Walk of Stone, inspired by the famous Hollywood Walk of Fame, but with natural stone taking the star role. This homage highlights the extraordinary richness of natural materials, enhancing their chromatic differences, textures, and details.
With a walkway of about 300 square meters, the work offers an exclusive showcase for Italian and foreign companies, allowing them to exhibit and enhance one square meter of their best creations. The selection of natural stones, each with a unique identity and characteristics, represents the actual added value of the installation.
The exhibition Full/Empty, curated by Raffaello Galiotto, involves international designers and stone industry companies inspired by Renaissance painter/architect Giorgio Vasari’s quote that “Sculpture is an art that removes the superfluous from the material to reduce it to the form of a body designed by the artist.”
The exhibition will freely explore the relationship between fullness and emptiness with a series of marble works created in the era of new digital tools. The transition from the manual action of the past to CNC abrasive milling or diamond and waterjet cutting processes offers new opportunities today in terms of precision, technical reproducibility, and waste utilization.
Also curated by Raffaello Galiotto is Viaggio al centro della tavola, with a colorful and fascinating composition of stone tables consisting of a top made from a slab and a centrepiece worked with the most advanced numerical technologies. It is an journey into marble, where to discover different coloured lithotypes and their specific peculiarities, visible both in the form of a two-dimensional slab and a three-dimensional design object.
The Applaud, curated by Danilo Di Michele, returns for a second consecutive year, aiming to promote stone culture and highlight the extraordinary potential of natural stone. The theme is Il Fazzoletto, inspired by one of the first works designed by Fulvio Bianconi for Venini. The latter will be involved with other production partners in the stone sector to create a significant sculpture that will combine the strength and majesty of marble with the sophistication and delicacy of the iconic glass vase.
The process carried out under the watchful eyes of the visitors, will allow them to fully appreciate the complex collective work of the companies in creating the extraordinary natural stone piece.
With Marmomac meets Academies, Giuseppe Fallacara curates the exhibition Ceci n’est pas un fossile, created thanks to the creativity of students from various Italian and international universities and the support of companies in the stone sector. The project centres on the theme of the future of stone design, which is mainly focused on the close relationship between knowledge and know-how, theory and practice, craftsmanship, and technology.
These concepts will materialize in an innovative setup depicting a hypothetical “design workshop of the future,” where computational design coexists with digital fabrication and artisanal expertise with all related technical tools. The shape of the “workshop” is inspired by fossil shells contained within sedimentary stone.
ADI Delegazione Veneto and Trentino-Alto Adige explore the design world in the exhibition Architectural Modules. Architecture is in continuous evolution, moving from wet construction sites to dry building systems. Thanks to the collaboration between designers and companies, new three-dimensional construction elements designed for facades, walls, and interior spaces will be developed using the technologies of participating companies.
For more information, go to https://www.marmomac.com/.
