Gian Domenico Facchina Award 2023
On the morning of Thursday 21 December 2023, the award ceremony of the Gian Domenico Facchina Prize took place in the Aula Magna of the Scuola Mosaicisti del Friuli, a recognition that the Municipality of Sequals has been giving for many years to students who have distinguished themselves in execution of the essays that conclude the first course.
The prizes were awarded to two brilliant students, Valeriia Radchenko and Nina Zakharova, who respectively created a Little Bird, a copy of a detail from a mosaic from the 4th-5th century AD. preserved at the Bardo Museum in Tunis, and a Duck with flowers, also a reproduction of a particular mosaic taken from the Church of the Taxiarchs of Thessaloniki, 6th century. They are two works in natural materials and stoneware, with direct technique, in Roman style composed for the final exam of the training year, the passing of which is necessary to access the next class.
The mayor of Sequals, Enrico Odorico, presented the awards, who with heartfelt words illustrated what significance this award has for the community of Sequals. Remembering Gian Domenico Facchina means “giving prestige to the activity of many wandering talents” who traveled the streets of the world from Sequals and the surrounding areas to create mosaics. Facchina was certainly the most illustrious, but in Sequals between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries about ten other families gave birth to masters who distinguished themselves in Europe, but also in Africa and overseas. From the same family as the Mayor, five Odorico brothers made their fortune in St. Petersburg around the mid-eighteenth century and from there, at the will of the Tsar, they were sent to decorate new Orthodox churches that were being built, so they settled in Great Britain, Denmark, Serbia, France , opening mosaic workshops in those countries. A family profession, the mayor underlined, which his brothers have successfully cultivated.
This is a story shared in the Sequals area, an experience of emigration and luck, of artisanal knowledge and skills passed down from father to son, these are the roots of a community that the Facchina Award annually brings back to memory and makes present and alive . For this reason, the two selected mosaics will be exhibited for an entire year inside the Town Hall, the community’s home.
It is also the story of how art transcends national borders and how people overcome political and cultural barriers to learn and cultivate it. This is an additional meaning that must be given to the 2023 Facchina Prize: Valeriia Radchenko is Ukrainian, Nina Zakharova is Russian. Both decided with great will and commitment to learn mosaic art, both learned the Italian language and became students, classmates, included in a School that opens up to the world in the name of art.
In the presence of the President of the Friuli Mosaic School Stefano Lovison, the director Gian Piero Brovedani and the deputy mayor Gianni Lunari, Mayor Odorico awarded the prizes which aim to support the dedication shown by the two students in the study of mosaic.
Radchenko and Zakharova finally wanted to thank the Municipality of Sequals for this recognition and the teachers, in particular the mosaic teachers, who accompanied them in the first year of the professional training course, a path of which they are happy and proud.
Facchina Award 2023. The mayor of Sequals, Enrico Odorico, and the president of the Scuola Mosaicisti del Friuli Stefano Lovison.
Mayor Odorico, Nina Zakharova, Valeriia Radchenko and Stefano Lovison.
December 21, 2023
