On the weekend of the 12-13th of October, the idyllic countryside near Florence hosted an initiative aimed at promoting local culture and the territory through arts. Specifically, the event took place in the rustically elegant Tenuta di Sticciano farmhouse.
Artists, potters, archaeologists and culture experts gathered in the 17th -century villa and its lush gardens to participate in the third edition of Civetta e La Fornace, literally “The Owl and the Furnace”. The name derives from the logo of Caba, which is the cultural association behind the organization of the initiative; and from Sticciano’s historic furnace, where local clay was fired and transformed into ceramic bricks and tiles for centuries.
Among the different activities and workshops that took place during the event: participants fired a sculpture outdoors and debated about an experimental eco-friendly kiln; potter Fosca Boggi from Faenza exposed some of her works (hyperrealist ceramic toys); biologist Filippo Giachi gave a talk about how insects work the clay in nature creating animal ceramics; the Tenuta di Sticciano illustrated the origins and natural development of wine making; and the book “Semper in Via” on didactics by Alberto Cavallini was also presented to the public. Ceramist Fiorenza Pancino and the Mentelocale group participated in the artist-in-residence exchange.
The initiative, which has reached its 3rd edition, was conceived and launched by Tuscan ceramicist Alberto Cavallini (1946po-2012). It is developed within a wider framework that organizes didactic workshops and artistic projects with local schools in an effort to recover ancient traditions, to strengthen territorial culture and to promote new forms of artistic experimentation.
