MOSAIC ART AND URBAN FURNISHINGS

The revitalisation project for the indoor spaces of the Friuli School of Mosaic (Scuola Mosaicisti del Friuli) to be completed in various stages, is intended to involve the entire teaching staff with their different fields of expertise, together with the students of all courses. The project aims to radically update the decorative /functional solutions that have traditionally used mosaic in relation to architecture and, specifically, for urban furnishings.

Through the work of acclaimed mosaic artist and art designer Giulio Candussio, the Mosaic School makes a strong statement: showing how mosaic can be used as a vibrant skin, both on large floor areas, and on three-dimensional surfaces, or as a subject with the ability to contaminate all surfaces considered “traditional” for mosaic in an imaginative and original way.

The initial implementation phase of the project first and foremost involved transforming the large chimney in the school yard, hitherto merely a structural element of the heating system, into a towering sculpture 12.8 metres tall x 2 m wide and 90 cm thick.

Zanutta S.p.A., a partner of Fiandre and market leader in the home furnishings, construction and plumbing and heating sectors, with dozens of sales outlets across Friuli and western Veneto, helped bring the Mosaic School and Fiandre together, cementing a special partnership. The pure white surfaces of FIANDRE porcelain stoneware were thus chosen to clad the entire chimney structure, creating a perfect background for the mosaics produced with traditional materials: Venetian enamels and gold contaminated with pioneering technological surfaces by FIANDRE.

The whole structure is encased in a gleaming skin of white ceramic tiles and, standing 10 cm proud of the surface, are two 9 and 7 metre tall works representing two trees silhouetted against the sky, with the spaces between the branches and leaves clearly visible. The trees are depicted in the colours seen in broad daylight and are surmounted by an abstract cloud comprised of geometric levels. On the rear surface, another two trees are rendered in night-time colours and the cloud at the top appears illuminated by cool moonlight. The daytime trees cast a shadow on the ground that is executed in mosaic tiles, cut in the same stone. The sculpture-structure comes to life with the changing sunlight that casts ever-different shadows on the gleaming, brilliant white FIANDRE ceramic surface; the same work also comes to life at night when illuminated by artificial light, so that it appears to sprout organically from the ground.

Commissioned by:
FRIULI MOSAIC SCHOOL
scuolamosaicistifriuli.it

Designer:
GIULIO CANDUSSIO
www.giuliocandussio.com

Partner:

ZANUTTA SPA
www.zanuttaspa.it