Buzzi Unicem entered an important partnership with the Alidarte art and cultural association in mid-December, setting up a calendar full of theater and art events to be held over the next three years.

The scheduled events have been suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but while waiting for the situation to improve the Alidarte association of Este has kindly allowed us to exhibit a work entitled “Dream Landscape” at the plant. The mixed technique work was created using upcycled textured paint, acrylics and enamels.

This past month of June, at the facilities made available by the Buzzi Unicem plant in Barletta, the first music therapy workshop was held by Maestro Michele Caputo, involving some of the children assisted by SI.VO.LA., the Social Cooperative for Autism and Neurodiversity. The main purpose of this music and communication project, coordinated and managed with the ongoing support of the ABA qualified personnel of the Cooperative SI.VO.LA., was to get the children involved in activities that would bring them closer to the world of sound and music, in order to discover a new method for communicating and developing their natural talents. Another small step taken together with the friends of SI.VO.LA. towards greater and greater SOCIAL INCLUSION and an opportunity to explore a new way of spending time together, even at a Cement Plant!

As a result of the agreement made with a local travel agency, Buzzi Unicem participated in an initiative the aim of which is to promote “Industrial Tourism”, a concept inspired by the work of Mr. Jacopo Ibello, President of the Cultural Association “Save Industrial Heritage”.

The project was developed with the objective of organizing guided visits to various factories, among which the Guidonia Cement Plant, so that visitors could learn about different kinds of industrial activities.

The participation of the plant in this “tourist circuit” resulted in a significant increase in the number of visitors. It also boosted the dialogue between the parties and encouraged a more in-depth discussion of issues and topics of common interest.

Just like on a real movie set, the shooting and audio recordings of the long-awaited performance associated with the installation “Steps” began in this way. Our Augusta colleagues, with their “steps” traced the footsteps of the artist Alfredo Pirri in an itinerary along the external and internal walls of the Maniace Castle in Syracuse, up to the large Hypostila Hall, where the artistic work was set up and the performance was staged.

It is here that our colleagues, amid some embarrassment, laughter and concentration, became actual “actors”, the stars of the first scene in which they were arranged in a procession. Following Pirri’s steps, a colleague of ours opened the scene by pushing a sphere made of stone - a medieval ball for catapult - rolling it along a floor made of mirrors, which broke under the weight of the sphere. This is how the performers, by walking on the broken mirrors, made a series of sounds and noises that, as a whole, created a sound carpet.

In the second scene, the actors turned into real human statues, petrified, unmoving, impassible, almost hypnotized by the long and harmonic whistling of a colleague. Suddenly, the silent scene was brusquely

interrupted by the sound of two helmets forcefully thrown down against the floor of broken mirrors: the human statues then stood up, walked, whistled, sang and interacted with each other, taking up the entire space around them.

The circle of the performance ended by resuming the first scene in which the procession of workers was formed. The workers then slowly made their way towards the exit of the castle.

It was an extremely intense day for the colleagues of the Augusta Plant, who were also busy the day before with the “lectio magistralis” of the same Pirri. During his presentation, the artist introduced a few of his works, starting from their genesis up to the actual creation, contextualizing extremely topical meanings and visons of society as well as of human and professional relationships.

Pirri shared his works, his creations, and his future projects with the eyes of an artist who watches the world and the space around him, imagining new dimensions and points of view and breathing life into a work full of meanings.

In 2021, ALIdARTE kicked off the initiatives which are part of the agreement with the Monselice Plant by presenting several projects, all aimed at encouraging social gatherings through art and culture.

The first initiative undertaken was the solo exhibition entitled “The colors of rebirth” by the differently abled artist Thomas Prearo. The show, open to the public, was set up in the offices of the cement plant.

On 25 June, at the end of the exhibition, the event “The room of colors and feelings” was held in an open space at the plant.

A second project was organized at the cement plant between May and June with the artist Cristina Masiero and the Association ADI Down. The initiative involved a few young girls in a creative workshop that featured ten sessions. The girls found a welcoming place where to spend a couple of hours a week, during which they were left free to express their creativity.