Agoni selinuntiniLocation: Castelvetrano - CAM, Campus Archaeological Museum, Triscina, Selinunte On August 20th in CAM’S stadion track, athletic track and field games, which were named “Agoni Selinuntini”, were presented in honour of Ecista Pammilo.
The word “agone” derives from the Greek term “agon” which means emulation, effort to excel, and we wanted to use this term to convey the idea of the Selinuntian games as dedicated to classic sports; true to traditional competitions of the antique epoch, there was to be one winner to be encrowned with an olive-leaf wreath - a plant which the Selinuntian land is rich of – as was done on the evening of August 20th.
With the realization of the stadion track, the Kepha Foundation wished to promote athletic activity with the participation of persons of different countries and cultures thus providing, through sports, a means of meeting others and of cultivating mutual esteem Nino Centonze, Sports Councillor for the Municipality of Castelvetrano, who was present the afternoon of the inauguration of the games and who we thank for his support of our initiative, liked the idea of these games so much that he decided to institute an award in the name of the municipality to given during the event. Covenant with the Municipality of PoggiorealeLocation: Castelvetrano - CAM, Campus Archeologico Musele, Triscina di Selinunte On July 29, 2010 a formal agreement between the Municipality of Poggioreale (TP) and the Kepha Foundation was signed for the recovery of important architectural elements of the most relevant buildings of the antique city of Poggioreale, destroyed by the earthquake of 1968. The recovered artifacts will undergo restoration in the laboratories of CAM – Campus Archaeological Museum, of Triscina, Selinunte, and will then be put in exhibition in CAM’s Museum.
The initiative of recovery, restoration and exhibition of the architectural remains of Poggioreale was presented to the public on August 22. Scientia ad Artem
Location: Florence – Palagio di Parte Guelfa Kepha supported Scientia ad Artem, an expositive project of graduate theses in Science and Technology for Cultural Heritage of the University of Florence. This project of the University of Studies of Florence, an initiative of the CDL for Technologies for Preservation and Restoration and CDLM in Science for Preservation and Restoration, was conceived as a means of exposure of the students’ theses in the respective Bachelor of Science and Masters graduate courses. Kepha decided to back this important initiative in order to diffuse the most up-to-date restoration techniques implemented by the Tuscan based University. The exposition, which included over 40 exhibitive posters, was inaugurated in the Palagio di Parte Guelfa in Florence on October 14th by Eugenio Giani, President of the Municipal Council and by Augusto Marinelli, Rector of the University of Studies of Florence, and was open to the public from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily until October 19th. The dissertations were on public display in the form of illustrative posters whose aim was to divulge, in a simple and effective format, the most significant aspects of each thesis. The areas of the students’ research were diverse, ranging from different areas of applied science, to the preservation of cultural heritage. Among areas studied were: problems related to the preservation of wood, the analysis of pigments and binders in polychrome works, and the dating of archaeological findings using radiocarbon, as well as many other themes. In many of the others, the topic of the theses was Cultural Heritage: from the art of Bicci di Lorenzo, to the masterpieces of Caravaggio, to important works of Mayan civilization. Scientia ad Artem aimed to promote innovative professional figures such as Diagnostic Technicians and Scientific experts for the preservation and restoration of cultural heritage, an ideal joining of efforts between project management and the restoration crew for providing qualified technical skills and intervention during the diagnostic support phase up to the process of preservation and restoration. It was, in fact, with these very objectives that a specific university study program in Technologies and Sciences for Cultural Heritage was created in 2001, in Florence. The exhibition, organized by the University with the financial backing of the Kepha Foundation, was granted patronage by the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities, the Tuscan Regional Administration, the CNR-ICVBC, the Florentine Section of the INFN Institute, and the UIA Foundation. Redecorating Interventions
Location: Genoa Redecorating of the Archiepiscopal Palace of Genoa, in honor of the Pope’s visit The Kepha Foundation, in preparation for Pope Benedetto XVI ‘s visit to the Archdiocese of Genoa, commissioned a redecorating project in the Delegation Hall of the Archiepiscopal Palace of Genoa. The expert crafts persons, who have collaborated for many years with the Foundation, created and placed hand-carved wooden valances trimmed in pure gold on four windows of the hall, decorating two of them with the crest and the motto of His Holiness Benedetto XVI and, upon the other two, that of the Archbishop of the diocese of Genoa, Cardinal Bagnasco. The windows were then adorned with silk drapery on whose fabric was embroidered the same coat of arms as on the valances. The decorative work continued on to the six doors of the Delegation Hall, painted with the “trompe d’oeil” technique, creating a dimensional effect and portraying, on each door lintel, the coat of arms of Benedetto XVI and of five Cardinals: Angelo Bagnasco, Giuseppe Siri, Giovanni Canestri, Dionigi Tettamanzi e Tarcisio Bertone. Similar decorations were painted on the entrance door and upon the doors facing the Chapel of the Archbishop of Genoa The experts also created four statues of terracotta and painted paper maschè, each holding a chalice within which were placed tiny light fixtures to better illuminate the Chapel. High-relief Polychrome Terracotta Decoration
Location: Poppi Placing of the Madonna with child in the Tabernacle of Poppi The Feast of the Immaculate Conception of Poppi was an important moment for the Kepha Foundation: the Tabernacle in stone on the façade of the antique Monastery which houses the Foundation’s Headquarters in Poppi – International Training Center – lacking for decades, regained its status as a sacred site due to the placement of a high-relief polychrome terracotta depiction of the Madonna with child. Accompanied by the Abbess of the Camaldolesi Nuns, Don Patrizio Benvenuti, founder of Kepha, blessed and inaugurated the Tabernacle. The Madonna with child is the work of Antonio Corvaglia, a young architect and sculptor from Puglia, and Architect Giorgio Bandello. It was created in the art laboratory of the sculpture/paper machè maestro Antonio Papa, in Surano, located in the province of Lecce. |
