The Sixteen Master Mosaicists 2023
Today, Friday 16 June 2023, at the Palazzo La Loggia in Piazza Duomo in Spilimbergo, the proclamation of sixteen Master Mosaicists took place in an emotional ceremony.
They are: Mattia Bertellotti, Luca Calligaro, Pauline Debuchy, Arianna Fastro, Erica Gatti, Jonas Paul Giubbini, Valentina Ienco, Jihyeon Lee, Dalila Loiacono, Alessia Lovato, Alessia Mandarano, Sofia Montanaro, Vsevolod Prokhorov, Ester Sut, Margherita Toffolo, Alessia Venz. These are the students who began their training at the Friuli Mosaic School in September 2020, certainly not an easy year. They came from different parts of Friuli Venezia Giulia, but also from Veneto, Lombardy and Tuscany. The international character, which distinguishes the Scuola Mosaicisti del Friuli, was then represented by a pupil from France, one from South Korea, to which a Russian pupil was later added. Here was the composite group, which crossed the threshold of the School determined to learn the art of mosaic, and today sees the realisation of what was a wish three years ago: to become a mosaicist.
This was emphasised by the School’s president, Stefano Lovison, at the opening of the ceremony, what an important achievement it is to attain the professional qualification of Master Mosaicist, a firm point on which to build one’s business and future. Thanking the School’s teaching and technical-administrative staff for their commitment during this training year and wishing the new mosaicists all the best, President Lovison then concluded by reminding them that the School will always be at their side, to rejoice in their successes, but also to support them in the face of doubts and possible difficulties in the world of work.
Spilimbergo’s mayor Enrico Sarcinelli took part, proudly emphasising how Spilimbergo is concretely the City of Mosaics, starting with the School, which trains new mosaicists capable of setting up workshops in the area. An art, that of mosaics, which, according to Regional Councillor Stefano Zannier, is able to best represent the Friuli Venezia Giulia Region in that it expresses the craftsmanship of ancient tradition, but also the creativity and innovation of contemporaneity that the young people of the School, together with their teachers, know how to interpret.
Director Gian Piero Brovedani congratulated the students, recalling their path and achievements. He also urged them to cultivate and germinate all the skills they have learnt during their training. Individually, the students were then called upon to collect their certificates of professional qualification as Master Mosaicists, accompanied by applause and smiles from the many family members and friends present at the ceremony.
This was followed by the Ronzat Prize, supported by the Sepol company, conceived and strongly desired by Pietro Ronzat, who with this initiative, now in its sixth edition, intends to support the students’ abilities and support their entry into the workplace. For this reason, the winning work is chosen from the final essays of the last course and this year two were the winning mosaics, chosen ex aequo, by Pietro Ronzat. They are Dualism by Dalila Loiacono and Blindness by Jonas Paul Giubbini: non-figurative mosaics that relate to universal themes such as inclusion and sociality and find their expression in the texture of the mosaic composition. It should not be forgotten that the School’s students were certainly attracted and influenced by the mosaics of Nane Zavagno, an artist to whom the Spilimbergo administration dedicated an articulated exhibition last spring, which the students had the opportunity to visit together with curator Angelo Bertani. It was precisely that attention to the nature of the mosaic, the care for materials, the shape of the tesserae, the reliefs and the joints with the effects of light that they determine, that constituted an important lesson for the students in recalling the intrinsic values of mosaic art.
The ceremony ended with a short musical performance by the newly appointed master mosaicist Vsevolod Prokhorov, who wished to give his fellow students, now colleagues, and the entire audience, auspicious notes for the future.
Group photo of the sixteen Master Mosaicists
June 16, 2023
