Ferrara hosts the XXVI edition of the International Restoration Fair, with a rich program

From September 18 to 20, 2019, the International Exhibition of Restoration, Museums and Cultural Enterprises returns to Ferrara Fiere, which this year reaches its XXVI edition, full of important new features.

The change of date in September, explains the organization of the Salone, is due and desired to present to the public the significant agreement with MISE - Ministry of Economic Development, in collaboration with ICE - Agency for the foreign promotion of Italian companies and Assorestauro, which has identified Ferrara Fiere and the Salone del Restauro as a central role as an international restoration hub. This new and prestigious partnership envisages the development of an extraordinary ad hoc promotional Project, Restoration Made in Italy, oriented to boost the knowledge and use of Restoration abroad as a product of Italian excellence, which will be articulated in different project phases in Italy and abroad. Italian know-how in the field of restoration has in fact always been used and in demand all over the world, thanks to the high specialization of national operators in the field of cultural resources and restoration. Thanks to this authoritative agreement, the new edition of the Salone intends to be the worldwide reference and meeting point for those working in the sector, for the sector’s professional orders and for the entire interested public, with structured moments of matching supply and demand in order to build a solid international network.

“The 2019 Exhibition,” says Filippo Parisini, President of Ferrara Fiere Congressi Srl,“ is set in a renewed framework also due to the paradigm shift that is affecting Restoration: a sector closely linked to cultural heritage and MiBAC, but also a distinctive and qualifying element of Made in Italy. A growth factor supported by the MISE, Assorestauro, ICE and CNA, i.e., the main institutional, trade union and economic players involved in the recovery and enhancement of our artistic heritage and design child of the postwar economic boom. And in this team, Ferrara Fiere plays an increasingly strategic role. If the BolognaFiere Group, of which it is a part, has placed the authority of its brand at the service of top-quality exhibition production, Ferrara Fiere is consolidating its standing as an organizer and venue of excellence. Just think of the more than 100 national and international companies that will participate in the Fair.”

To strengthen the twinning with foreign stakeholders, the first edition of Restoration Week, an initiative that echoes the Restoration Made in Italy project, will be inaugurated in the week of Sept. 15-21, 2019, as part of the Salone: it will be an intense week in which 50 international industry experts from 20 nations will have the opportunity to meet Italian restoration operators, learn about and deepen their techniques and methodologies The highlight of this series of side events will be the opening conference to be held at the Castello Sforzesco in Milan (10.00). On this occasion will be the launch of the APT - European Chapter, a new European network experience that will bring together the major voices in the restoration and enhancement of cultural heritage. The president of APT - Association of Preservation Technologies, an association with thousands of professionals in North America, will proclaim the birth of the European Chapter, a vehicle to create a single industry association in Europe that brings together the institutional and professional souls revolving around the restoration sector by facilitating exchange among the member countries, which, from a geographical perspective, go as far as Turkey and Russia.

The culmination of Restoration Week will take place at the International Restoration Exhibition in Ferrara, where on the opening day the first promotional video of Restoration Made in Italy will be presented at the institutional stand of the MISE. Also within the Salone, the 50 international experts will have the opportunity to meet Italian companies in a rich calendar of B2B meetings organized specifically at the institutional area. The highlight of Restoration Week will be the conference “The meaning and marketing of restoration in Italy and target Countries: an overview” to be held on Thursday, September 19, 2019 at 10:30 a.m. in the Sala Europa (second floor) of the Salone. A multi-voice conference, organized by MISE in collaboration with ICE and Assorestauro, in which the meaning of the term “restoration” in its different meanings by the invited countries and the possible synergies that can bring our excellence to dialogue as a protagonist in the world will be exposed.

In terms of exhibitors at the show, the 2019 edition will see the presence of more than 100 exhibitors including important institutions, training schools and museums, and the most important Italian and international companies from different sectors in the field of cultural heritage: from restoration to diagnostics, from technologies to products and materials, from lighting to museum merchandising, from vintage vehicles to the restoration of antique books, from museum displays to diagnostics for cultural heritage.

Among the presences will be: the MISE; the MiBAC, which will enrich the days of the Salone with a rich program of conferences and workshops flanked by an institutional stand within which two important focuses on cultural enterprises and the activities of the Ministry’s various institutes will be explored in depth; the MiBAC will bring its representative institutions in the field of cultural heritage from all over Italy, embracing different sectors 360°: from archaeology to cinema, from archives to museums to restoration institutes; Assorestauro; the Foundation School of Cultural Heritage and Activities; the Emilia-Romagna Region, which will address issues related to post-earthquake reconstruction; CNA Emilia-Romagna, which will bring numerous companies representing the synergy between craft excellence and new technologies; the Province of Ferrara with two projects on the Giulio D’Este Palace and the Estense Castle of Ferrara; the State Hermitage Museum of St. Petersburg with its customary workshops on restoration techniques; ANMLI - National Association of Local and Institutional Entity Museums; Green Building Council Italia, which will present the first round table on the internationalization process of the GBC Historic Building protocol; Formedil - National Joint Body for Training in Construction; and SMA - University of Bologna’s Sistema Museale di Ateneo.

Among the new entries in the XXVI edition of the Fair will be: the School of Cultural Heritage and Activities Foundation, which will delve into the systems of skills and training related to restoration activities; the Bioarchitecture Foundation, committed to the dissemination of Bioarchitecture issues, which will propose a study day dedicated to BIO Made in Italy restoration; Assocastelli, the Italian association of managers and owners of period and historic residences; the virtual museum La Macchina del Tempo, which will give visitors a virtual reality experience with 3D viewers; ABCO - Associazione Beni Culturali Onlus, which advocates the use of new technologies as a tool for the promotion of cultural heritage and activities; the Astra National Musem, one of the most dynamic public museums in Romania; and the Museum of the Mint of Rome, which has rich collections of coins, medals, cones, and wax models, largely the result of the creativity of the plant’s in-house engravers.

The constantly updated list of exhibitors at the new edition of the Fair can be found on the dedicated page on the official website.

As for the program, the event consists of a calendar of in and off events, collateral exhibitions, exclusive evenings, workshops for professional accreditation but also addressed to the public, conferences and meetings aimed at professionals, stakeholders and enthusiasts.

OnWednesday, September 18, current issues concerning the earthquake and post-earthquake reconstruction will be discussed at the conference presented by the University of Ferrara in collaboration with the Regional Agency for Reconstruction - Earthquake 2012 and the Clust-ER Build that will analyze the knowledge and management of intervention regarding the cultural heritage affected by the Emilia-Romagna earthquake in 2012; the ICRCPAL - Central Institute for the Restoration and Preservation of the Archival and Book Heritage will also address the earthquake theme by delving into the recovery of the archives of the earthquake-affected areas of Amatrice and Accumoli. Other talks include a meeting organized by the Royal Museums of Turin, which will present the restoration of the Chapel of the Holy Shroud, damaged by fire in 1997 and reopened in 2018, and the 2nd Local Focus Group organized by the Municipality of Ferrara on the analysis of the vulnerability of cultural heritage as part of the Interreg Central Europe ProteCHt2Save project. MiBAC on all the days of the Salone will also offer a varied program of conferences, workshops and talks: specifically, on Wednesday, September 18, the ISCR - Istituto Superiore per la Conservazione e il Restauro will present a workshop on the hatching technique, one of the most ingenious expressions of the application models of Brandian theory. There will also be room for contemporary art with the presentation by Edifir of the volume “Jackson Pollock’s Alchemy. Journey Inside Matter.”

OnThursday, Sept. 19, in addition to the international conference presented by MISE in collaboration with ICE and Assorestauro as part of Restauro Made in Italy, there will be a conference organized by the Fondazione Scuola dei beni e delle attività culturali dedicated to the complexity of restoration interventions in crisis situations, and also the talk by the Opificio delle Pietre Dure of Florence on research and its restorations where Piero della Francesca’s Resurrection of Sansepolcro will be presented, Domenico Ghirlandaio’s St. Jerome and Sandro Botticelli ’s St. Augustine in the Church of Ognissanti in Florence, Botticelli’s St. Ambrose Altarpiece from the Uffizi Galleries, Brescia’s Winged Victory, diagnostic investigations on Leonardo’s drawing 8P from the Uffizi Galleries, and other ongoing or completed restorations; the CNA meeting dedicated to the profession of cultural heritage restorer.

Finally, on Friday, September 20, the last day of the Fair will be opened by a conference organized by the Foundation School of Cultural Heritage and Activities dedicated to training for cultural heritage in which virtuous models and comparative experiences will be presented. Other events not to be missed include the Bioarchitecture Foundation’s conference that will address BIO Made in Italy restoration, providing a new key to understanding the restoration and regeneration of the rich and multifaceted built heritage in urban and rural textures; and finally, the ANMLI national conference where prospects for reorganizing the museum system’s structure will be explored, giving voice to the protagonists of the Italian museum scene.

A number of collateral exhibitions will also be set up within the Salone exhibition space. Design products from the best Made in Italy brands will be displayed in the Souvenir d’Italie exhibition curated by architect Anna del Gatto as examples for museum-quality merchandising. The pieces on display and produced by Italian high craftsmanship, SMEs and new Start-Ups will cover the workings of glass, crystal, porcelain, ceramics, textiles, silver, Plexiglas, wood and marble. Souvenir d’Italie aims to communicate to the public the importance of the relationship that exists between our varied territories and local productions: Italy has production districts with strong typicality that must be preserved and enhanced but also approached in a contemporary way. The exhibition will feature objects of great beauty and suggestion, capable of evoking in the public the sense of “belonging” so severely tested by globalization.

In the collective space of CNA Emilia-Romagna, the public will be able to admire, in addition to the many participating companies, an exhibition dedicated to vintage cars proposed by companies in the auto repair sector. The goal is to show visitors how to reinvent, remodel, and restore the car to its former glory. Craftsmanship that arouses in enthusiasts the same look of amazement and admiration that a work of art from the past, a painting, or a sculpture does.

Finally, at the Salon it will be possible to visit the exhibition Homage to Leonardo da Vinci, curated by Carlo Amadori. On the occasion of the celebration of the five hundredth anniversary of Leonardo da Vinci’s death, the exhibition aims to recall different themes created by the great, extraordinary and unique master. Thirty drawings will be offered to recall some fundamental works in the artist’s history.

Many of the Salon events include accreditation for professional bodies. For the full program, you can visit the Restoration Salon website.

Ferrara hosts the XXVI edition of the International Restoration Fair, with a rich program

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