In collaboration with the Cultural Heritage Department of Padua University.

The scientific and didactic project Clay. Stories about encounters, curated by Monica Salvadori, Monica Baggio and Luca Zamparo, originated from the collaboration between Direzione Arte, Cultura e Beni Storici of Intesa  Sanpaolo and the Cultural Heritage Department of Padua University, as part of the research developed by Progetto MemO La memoria degli oggetti. Un approccio multidisciplinare per lo studio, la digitalizzazione e la valorizzazione della ceramica greca e magnogreca in Veneto (The memory of objects. A multidisciplinary approach to the study, digitisation and appreciation of the ceramics of Greek and Magna Graecia in Veneto), supported by Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Padova e Rovigo.

The initiative was inspired by the Intesa Sanpaolo collection of ceramics from Attica, Magna Graecia, which consists of over five hundred finds from Ruvo di Puglia, a flourishing ancient town in what is now the province of Bari. The vases were imported from Athens or made in Apulia and Lucania between the 6^th and 3^rd centuries BC and, together, provide valuable evidence of the culture of Western Greece. The collection, originally owned by the Caputi family, who avoided its dispersion by consigning to posterity a unique collection from the same necropolis complex, has been part of the Bank's artistic heritage since 1999 and is preserved in its entirety at the Gallerie d'Italia di Napoli. The museum in Vicenza is the site of a development activity focusing on small groups of ceramics selected from the collection entitled Clay. Stories about encounters (after Clay. Stories about journeys and Clay. Stories about vases hosted in the past).

Clay. Stories about encounters is the third leg of an in-depth itinerary which, thanks to the suggestions inspired by the Intesa Sanpaolo collection of vases, intends to bring the general public closer to the archaeological ceramic heritage, highlighting aspects that are still highly topical.

The path stems from the many years of research conducted by Padua University and developed particularly since 2018 by the MemO Project. This is the conclusive phase of the exhibition and educational itinerary, conceived and developed during the notorious COVID-19 international health emergency, which has now come to its end, bringing a message of hope and recovery, emblematic of the resilience displayed by contemporary society: the return to meeting up in person.

Over the past few years, the two promoting institutions – Intesa Sanpaolo and Padua University - have brought together numerous regional and national museum organisations, combined academic research and the protection and development of cultural heritage, opening up to new audiences and encountering materials that are not always easy to understand and use, often stored in museum deposits.

After stories about how vases are made and about journeys that shorten the distances between times and places, this third exhibition describes the meeting between men, women, gods and heroes: the meetings that change people's lives, today just like they did in ancient times, that change history.

The narrative and exhibition itinerary (which presents, alongside a group of ceramics from the Intesa Sanpaolo collection, works on loan from important museums in the Veneto and Apulia regions, with exhibition design by Michele Franzina) is characterised by a clear didactic aim and particular attention to the public. It is distinguished by a simple yet specific language, which aims to provide the foundations of a lexicon for knowledge of Greek and Magna Graecia ceramic production, via an educational experience that extends from the ancient world to the contemporary world.

Thanks to the collaboration between Gallerie d'Italia - Vicenza and Padua University, the exhibition is equipped with audio, video (with translation into Italian Sign Language) and tactile (with tactile books designed by Elisa Lodolo) supports created specifically for the exhibition, in order to be widely inclusive and accessible, with the aim of reducing, if not completely breaking down, cultural, motor and sensory barriers and, at the same time, creating a shared and comfortable space.

SPECIAL MENTION S'ED "Accessibility to cultural heritage", Storia di un incontro, by Elisa Lodolo
The tactile book Argilla. Storia di un incontro, designed for Gallerie d'Italia – Vicenza, received a special mention in the category "Accessibility of cultural heritage" in the 2023 edition of the National Competition of illustrated tactile publishing "Tocca a Te!" promoted by the Federazione Nazionale delle Istituzioni Prociechi. As for the reason adduced: "the book, where form and material of Attic and Magna Graecian potteries dialogue with the reader, illustrates in detail their origin and use, and through an inspiring narrative arouses curiosity and new questions. It brings forth the pleasure of learning and of the imagination of possible stories, and helps to feel the ancient, while rediscovering the present".

 

Using the most innovative 3D survey technologies, the exhibition designed, again, by architect Michele Franzina, is equipped with a tactile support created to make access to the archaeological ceramic heritage preserved by Intesa Sanpaolo even easier.

The exhibition enjoys the collaboration of Direzione Regionale Musei Puglia - Museo Nazionale Jatta di Ruvo di Puglia, Musei Civici di Bassano del Grappa, Musei Civici - Museo Archeologico di Padova, Museo di Scienze Archeologiche e d’Arte di Padova and Centro d’Ateneo per i Musei dell’Università di Padova.

Learn more with videos made in the Italian Sign Language

In the Old Testament Room there are vases depicting the highlights of meetings between men and women. Greek and Magna Graecia pottery offers the chance to relive the moments of the warrior's departure for war or his glorious return, of sporting activity, working with wool, the symposium or games, a bit like ancient photographs.

The exhibition continues in the Ancient Rome Room, focusing mainly on scenes of courtship and seduction, depicting the various stages of amorous desire, narrating the fundamental passage of women from the condition of maiden to that of adult and to the realisation of their new social status, which occurs through their meeting with men and finds its perfect fulfilment in the generation of children for the community.

The Room of the Four Continents allows us to explore meetings with others, with the enemy, with the stranger, going as far as the sphere of the divine and death. Thanks to pottery from Greece and Magna Graecia, we can reconstruct the myths of Eros and Dionysus, two gods closely linked to earthly meetings and populations. At the same time, in this context, one is led to reflect on the meeting of different cultures, traditions, customs and habits, elements that can enrich societies.

In this short video, Elisa Lodolo introduces one of the characterising aspects of the scientific and didactic project Clay. Stories about…, the theme of accessibility and inclusion. Thanks to the author's narration, we can immerse ourselves in the stories created through the tactile books created especially for each edition of the exhibitions and now freely available in the Room of the Four Continents and understand them.