Volterra hosts the first alabaster Christmas: raw material as regeneration

Volterra lights up with alabaster: on Dec. 8, the Arnioni design installation in the central Piazza dei Priori will be inaugurated in the square, kicking off VOLTERRA/LUMINA first alabaster Christmas in Volterra. A series of initiatives that will focus on regeneration and creativity by highlighting the potential of transparent stone from Volterra.

The initiative is one of the most significant projects of the city’s candidacy dossier for Italian Capital of Culture 2022: 22 designers for 22 artisans is the initiative supported by the Region of Tuscany and curated by international designer Luisa Bocchietto, former President and now Senator of WDO (World Design Organization).

Alabaster is the typical material of Volterra and through the latter it is intended to return to the raw material, with new forms of creativity. Light is one of the themes dear to the designer, who is famous for numerous works including, Vas-One, the large luminous vase that is now spread all over the world, which the architect Bocchietto designed for Serralunga. “The creation of this urban work for Volterra’s first alabaster Christmas,” says Luisa Bocchietto, “is the first stage of a path that will be developed over the course of 2021, to enhance the transparency and peculiarities of this material. It is important to convey the message that the veining of alabaster, which is an ever-changing natural material, is characteristic of its preciousness and makes each work unique.”

“The project,” the architect explains, “was born from the fascination exerted on me by the images of the ’arnions’ freed in the quarry from the inert material, to begin their path to light. In the collective imagination of the uninitiated, strangers to the reality of Volterra, in fact, alabaster is identified with marble, thinking that it is simply quarried from blocks outside. People do not know the processing route of the material, its uniqueness in the territory, its value, its characteristics of transparency and moldability, which make it a unique and valuable material. In this sense, rather than making a drawn shape, it seemed interesting to me to find a way to highlight this uniqueness, with the aim of enhancing the material and the process that takes place upstream in the making of the products, so as to build a narrative of immediate understanding.”

The idea is to bring Arnioni into the square, inserting a light inside them to highlight the variety of colors and veins that distinguish the natural material.

In collaboration with the alabaster masters of Volterra, in addition to the public work in the square, alabaster candleholders will be made: these first design objects of the 2020/2021 collection, a concrete sign of rebirth through light, will be offered for sale near Christmas.

Volterra hosts the first alabaster Christmas: raw material as regeneration

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