Articles by: A. F.

  • Facts & Stories

    It’s Almost Time for EICMA -- the International Two Wheels Show in Milan!

    And here we are, the 76th edition of the EICMA show is going to start at the Milan Fair in Rho, from 6 to 11 November. Six days to dream on two wheels in an atmosphere of innovation and excellence with technology from all over the world. A fantastic journey among bikes and motorbikes, with a spirit of adventure, but smart and sustainable. This year, 1,200 brands from 42 countries will show off their innovations.

    Meanwhile, in 2018 EICMA landed in America too with a series of promotional activities, including the sponsorship of the Colavita-Bialetti Pro Women’s Cycling Team’s participation to the USA CRITS Championship Series, as well as a visible presence at the Columbus Day parade and gala in New York City and at the NIAF 43rd Anniversary Gala in Washington, D.C.

    "EICMA is the most important global showcase of an industry,” said the president Andrea Dell'Orto in an interview with the Italian news agency ANSA. “This is an industry that continually transforms itself by creating excellent products, by continually focusing on innovation, and by developing a great ability to understand the market. And in Italy it is actually supported by an internal market that constantly records a positive trend. This makes EICMA - Dell'Orto concluded - one of the largest ‘passion containers’ in the world" (for more, click here >>  to read our interview with Mr. Dell'Orto).

    But the International Bicycle, Motorcycle and Accessories Exhibition is not only the most eagerly awaited event in the industry; it also a most prestigious meeting point for two wheels enthusiasts from all over the world.

    If you come and visit the show you will find an engaging experience,  including special areas dedicated to the new trends in mobility innovation, e-bike, two wheels tourism, as well as a Temporary Bikers Shop offering trade-in of used vehicles, vintage motorcycles and accessories.

    Equally unmissable is the outdoor MotoLive area that will host important competitions, shows, music and entertainment shows.

    Eicma 2018 will also cross the streets of Milan with the RideMood events. And, on Saturday, November 10, you cannot miss EicmaLand, the first big night party dedicated to the world in two wheels.

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    To buy your ticket  now >>

     
  • Facts & Stories

    The Bay Area Chapter of ISSNAF

    The Italian Scientists and Scholars in North America Foundation, ISSNAF, is a non for profit organization that was born in 2007, whose mission is to promote scientific, academic and technological collaboration amongst Italian researchers and scholars in the US, Canada and Italy. The founding group included 36 Italian scientists including 4 Nobel Prize, and today it is made up of about four thousand members and represents the largest organization of Italian scientists abroad.

    ISSNAF's New Chapter in the Greater San Francisco Bay Area

    ISSNAF has chapters all over North America including New York, Florida, Chicago, Seattle and now, finally, California. The Bay Area Chapter of ISSNAF was established in 2017 to connect the many talented Italian researchers based in the Greater San Francisco Bay Area. Leading this new group, which also includes major university centers such as Stanford, Santa Clara, San Jose State and several campuses of the University of California, is Italian engineer and entrepreneur, Pierluigi Zappacosta.

    On March 5th, Federico Rampini, Italian journalist Federico Rampini, who works from New York for Italy's La Repubblica newspaper, wrote about the new chapter in the "Far West" column of Repubblica’s Business & Finance insert. 

    “Since the time of the physicist Segre, the flow of Italian scientists and researchers to this section of California has always been enormous. There is an instinctive sympathy between Italians abroad, solidarity towards the latest arrivals, generosity in helping each other, but it is not easy to know everyone. Especially if the area is vast (the Bay Area has a population that is close to nine million) and the branches of activity are disparate. So it is important news that the Italian Scientists and Scholars in North America Foundation (ISSNAF) finally arrived there too. His activities are varied: organization of professional events, meetings with networking opportunities, guidance to younger researchers. What is perhaps even more valuable is the support that the ISSNAF offers to the universities and industry of our country.”

    ISSNAF Awards 2017

    The Italian Scientists and Scholars in North America Foundation every year gives out several awards to scientists of Italian origin who have honored their country of origin with a significant contribution to research. "Science & the New Industrial Revolution: Industry 4.0" was the focus of 2017 edition of the ISSNAF annual event, and 16 finalists were chosen for the 5 Awards for Young Investigators, all Italian researchers younger than 40. The research projects were in the fields of leukemia, chemistry, environmental sciences, engineering, mathematics, physics etc. During the same occasion, the biologist Rita Rossi Colwell received the ISSNAF Life Achievement Award, in recognition of her exceptional career as one of the most influential and visionary scientists today. “Interaction among scientists from all countries is important for science because it brings important new ideas and is culturally enriching in exchange of views concerning the environment, global health, and technological discovery,” stated Rita Rossi Colwell in an interview by Alberto Di Mauro.

    “ISSNAF affiliates spearhead research, pioneer science and constantly push forward the boundaries of our knowledge" said the Italian Ambassador to the United States, Armando Varricchio. "They are an asset both for Italy and North America, and a true bridge between the two sides of the Atlantic. The young winners of the ISSNAF awards are a crucial asset in the context of relations between the USA and Italy. Their hard work and energy are a reason for Italy to be proud, and provide a strong impetus of innovation and progress to our companies".
  • Facts & Stories

    Ferrero buys Nestle's U.S.

    The Italian manufacturer of branded chocolate and confectionery products, Ferrero, has announced its latest acquisition of Nestle's U.S. confectionery business.​

    The $2.8 Billion agreement marks Ferrero’s largest push into the U.S. market currently and includes more than 20 historic American brands, such as Butterfinger, BabyRuth, 100Grand, Raisinets and Wonka, exclusive rights on SweeTarts, LaffyTaffy, Nerds and the Crunch brand in the US as well as Nestle's U.S. production facilities in Bloomington, Franklin Park and Itasca, Illinois.

    Founded in 1946 in Alba, Piedmont, by Pietro Ferrero, the company became an instant hit in Italy, with Pietro’s invention of "pasta gianduja,” a cream of derived from Gianduja, shifting the Italian consumption habit of sweets. Since then, the Ferrero family has built its success on introducing new products and developing strong brands such as Nutella, Kinder, Tic Tac, Ferrero Rocher as well as expanding its operations in more than 170 countries.

    “We are very excited about the acquisition of Nestle’s U.S. confectionery business, which has an outstanding portfolio of iconic brands with rich histories and tremendous awareness," Giovanni Ferrero, executive chairman of the Ferrero Group, said in a statement. "We will have substantially greater scale, a broader offering of high-quality products to customers across the chocolate snack, sugar confectionary and seasonal categories, and exciting new growth opportunities in the world's largest confectionery market," he added.

    Swiss food and beverage company Nestle, has been moving toward healthier and faster-growing categories like coffee, pet food, infant nutrition and water, as sugary products show signs of abating . Nestle has been working on reposition itself since chief executive Mark Schneider took the lead of the firm.

    According to Euromonitor, a market research provider, the acquisition will make Ferrero the third-largest company in the US, followed by Hershey and Mars.
  • A detail from 'Spectrum' by Gianluca Franzese
    Art & Culture

    PERSPECTIVES Opens at Museo Italo Americano in SF

    The Museo Italo Americano, located within San Francisco’s Fort Mason center, has been one of the few institutions in California solely devoted to Italian and Italian-American art and culture since its inception in 1978. The upcoming exhibition, titled “Perspectives”, opens on Thursday January 18th features the recent work of three contemporary Italian-American artists, Gianluca Franzese, Marietta Patricia Leis and Giuseppe Palumbo, who work with different media.

    Three Unique Perspectives

    Franzese, born in the southern Italian region of Calabria, studied painting at Pratt Institute in New York City and has lived and worked in San Francisco for the past 14 years. The son of a jewelry maker and a pupil of the old Italian masters, Franzese started painting at a young age, moving through realist, expressive, and narrative styles. Franzese’s work is characterized by simple geometric forms and continuous patterns of color blended with metallic reflections, creating paintings that play with perspective.

    In his own words, Franzese’s art “reflects my belief that beauty is a process that happens over time, with a focus on underlying patterns and geometries found in nature. The metallic elements in the pieces are sensitive to the temperature of the environment, expressing a particular temperament based on context. This responsive variable means that the work is always unique to the time and place in which it is viewed.” 

    Marietta Patricia Leis was born in New Jersey and received an MFA in studio art from the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, where she now lives and works. An avid traveler, Leis has visited places such as Thailand, Spain, Antarctica, Italy, Finland and Greece.  She is inspired by the variety of nature’s sceneries, lights and colors. She strives to portray this beauty in abstract terms, from very complex abstractions to reductive color fields, using several media, such as paintings, drawings, sculpture, and installation art.

    Giuseppe Palumbo, the son of a professional artist from Italy, is a sculptor based between California and Colorado. He has studied at the Art Students League in Denver, The Loveland Academy of Fine Art and the Scottsdale Artists School, as well as in San Miguel Allende, Mexico and Pietrasanta, Italy. 

    He mainly uses bronze and specializes in fun, figurative and eccentric sculptures. In the form of dancing sheep, flying pigs, meditating bulls, walking seashells and little men balancing on a ledge, Palumbo gives form to human emotions as well as to social and political perspectives. His objective is “not to create a replica of the living, but to capture the essence of a being, not a frozen pose, but a sculpture alive in texture, spirit and warmth” Palumbo stated.

    For more details on the exhibition click here>>>

     
  • Vincenzo and Giacomo Barbato
    Facts & Stories

    Italian Apparel Company wins Trademark Battle against Apple

    Steve Jobs is the new clothing and hi-tech brand of Vincenzo and Giacomo Barbato, two brothers from Naples, who have named their company after the founder of Apple.

    Upon discovering that Apple had never trademarked the founder’s name Steve Jobs, who died in 2011, the two entrepreneurs seized the opportunity and decided to do it themselves and use it for the clothing company they were building. After all, who trademarks a person’s name? Additionally, they also created a logo that shows a large J with a leaf and a sort of "bite", remembering inevitably the apple of Apple.

    Apple, as one can expect, sued the brothers over the trademark and a logo that imitates their own, commencing a lengthy legal battle in 2012. “We received four large folders of legal documents directly from the headquarters of Apple in Cupertino. At the beginning we were a little scared. It seemed like we were about to undertake the typical battle of David against Goliath. But we felt we were right and we went ahead through the legal routes, until we proved that we had the law on our side" the Barbato brothers said.

    In 2014, the European Union’s Intellectual Property Office ruled in favor of the Barbato brothers; since the letter J is not edible, the missing piece couldn’t be perceived as a bite, the IP Office ruled. While the outcome of the legal battle was decided in 2014, the Barbato brothers have been unable to discuss the case until now, as their claim on the brand was not settled until 2017.

    Vincenzo and Giacomo Barbato currently produce bags, t-shirts, jeans, and other clothing and fashion items, but they are planning to produce innovative electronic devices under the Steve Jobs brand.
  • Art & Culture

    Pistoletto’s Sphere Rolling down the Streets of Cold Spring, New York

    On Saturday November 4, 2017, Magazzino Italian Art, the new warehouse art space in the Hudson Valley devoted to Post-war and Contemporary Italian art, is hosting the Italian artist and leading member of the Arte Povera movement,  Michelangelo Pistoletto for a re-enactment of his 1967 performance "Scultura da Passeggio" (Walking Sculpture).

    Michelangelo Pistoletto’s 1967 performance “Walking Sculpture” was a citywide performance in which the artist rolled a newspaper sphere through city streets in Turin, Italy, captivating all who came into contact with it. Pistoletto’s walking performance was an act in opposition of both traditional methods of art-making and behavioral norms. In fact, his works meant to actively include his audience, encouraging viewer’s participation not only with art but with one another. “Art can also be democratic, it can be very much involved in society,” the artist said during another performance in London in 2009.

    In the last 50 years, the performance was re-created at the Tate Modern in London (2009), the Philadelphia Museum of Art (2010), and the Louvre Museum in Paris (2013), among others. This weekend a new version of the 'Sfera di Giornali' (Newspaper Sphere), made of pages of the three American newspapers which announced the birth of Magazzino for the first time in the fall of 2016, will be the protagonist of the upcoming rendition at Magazzino Italian Art. The artist himself will roll the sphere down the streets of Cold Spring, New York, inviting the public to join him and interact with the work, ceebrating not only the existence of Magazzino, but also the local community's warm welcome of the art space as part of its cultural landscape.

    The performance will begin at 12:30 p.m. at the Village Gazebo, located at the bottom of Main Street along the Hudson River waterfront, then circle back to the bandstand where Pistoletto, along with Magazzino founders Nancy Olnick and Giorgio Spanu, will share remarks.

     

     
  • A video preview of the exhibition. Courtesy of the MET
    Art & Culture

    Michelangelo at the MET: A Once in a Lifetime Exhibition

    One of history’s most admired artists, Michelangelo Buonarroti, will soon be the protagonist of the largest retrospective in its history at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

    Opening on November 13, the exhibition, titled "Michelangelo: Divine Draftsman and Designer," will explore Michelangelo’s rich legacy as a supreme draftsman and designer and his resulting influence on art. Calling it a "once-in-a-lifetime exhibition," the MET is set to present an extraordinary range and number of works by the artist, featuring 128 of his drawings, three of his marble sculptures, his earliest painting, his wood architectural model for a chapel vault, as well as a substantial body of complementary works by other artists for comparison and context.

    "This is an exceptionally rare opportunity to experience first-hand the unique genius of Michelangelo," said Daniel H. Weiss, President and CEO of The Met. "The exhibition will display the magnificent beauty of Michelangelo's works in order to deepen our understanding of his creative process."

    Michelangelo Buonarroti: an Italian Genius

    Italian artist Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni, whose talents spanned the realms of visual art, architecture and poetry was born in Tuscany during Italy’s High Renaissance period and was known as Il Divino ("the divine one"). His artistic achievements distinguished him from his contemporaries and as a matter of fact, was commissioned by several of the wealthiest and most powerful men of his day, including popes and others affiliated with the Catholic Church. His most notable works include the David, sculpted only during his twenties, the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel and Pietà. Michelangelo’s drawings, beautiful artworks on their own, also give you a unique insight into how the artist worked and thought. Michelangelo's genius left an indelible mark on the history of art.

    Italian Master Michelangelo at The Met

    According to the museum’s press release, the pieces were "selected from 54 public and private collections in the United States and Europe, the exhibition will bring together the largest group of original drawings by Michelangelo ever assembled for public display" Among the highlights of the exhibitions will be a collection of drawings Michelangelo made for the Italian nobleman Tommaso de' Cavalieri, his first known painting, believed to have been created when he was only twelve, 'The Torment of Saint Anthony' and a sketch the artist drew for his final Vatican Palace fresco.

    Dr. Carmen C. Bambach, curator of the exhibition, commented: "This selection of more than 200 works will show that Michelangelo's imagery and drawings still speak with an arresting power today. Five hundred years seem to melt away in looking at his art."

    The exhibition "Michelangelo: Divine Draftsman and Designer," is sponsored by Morgan Stanley  and will open at the MET on November 13 and will run through February 18, 2018.

    For more info on the event clich here >>
  • From left to right. Magazzino Director Vittorio Calabrese; Italian Ambassador to the United States Armando Varricchio; Italian artist Marco Anelli; Minister of Culture Dario Franceschini, Director of the Italian Cultural Institute Giorgio Van Straten; and Consul General of Italy in New York Francesco Genuardi. Photo by #AlexaHoyer.
    Art & Culture

    Marco Anelli: Building Magazzino

    On Wednesday, October 4th, the Italian Cultural Institute of New York inaugurated “Marco Anelli: Building Magazzino” an exhibition featuring a selection of Anelli’s photographs, recounting the construction of Magazzino Italian Art.

    From former factory to art warehouse

    Located in Cold Spring, Magazzino – Italian for warehouse - was a former 1960s computer factory that was completely remodeled and expanded by Spanish architect Miguel Quismondo into an 18,000-square-foot exhibition space. The institution opened to the public in July 2017 and it is dedicated to exhibiting one of the largest collection of post-war and contemporary Italian works in the United States.

    Anelli photographs the construction of Magazzino Italian Art

    Throughout the transformation process into an art exhibition space, Italian photographer Marco Anelli was commissioned by Magazzino co-founders Nancy Olnick and Giorgio Spanu to capture the progress and construction workers on the site. “We at Magazzino Italian Art are honored to have commissioned and now present the photographic work of Marco Anelli,” they said. “Not only did he follow the various stages of construction, but he also captured the instrumental people devoted to this project in the most elegant and soulful way over the past few years.” Magazzino founders, Nancy Olnick and Giorgio Spanu, added.

    Curated by Magazzino’s Director Vittorio Calabrese, the exhibition traces the creation of the art institution, from the initial excavations to the installation of artworks in the galleries. In his body of work, Anelli highlights the relationship between architecture, landscape and the workers, individuals otherwise forgotten whose efforts have been instrumental to the construction of Magazzino.

    “Marco’s photographs are more than a document of Magazzino’s creation. The expansiveness of Marco’s approach, which embraces the project of Magazzino in all its human and material aspects, is a fitting tribute to the founders, Nancy Olnick and Giorgio Spanu. The intricate ecosystem of artists, designers, builders, and researchers that Nancy and Giorgio have fostered is revealed in minute detail through the medium of Marco’s pictures.” said Vittorio Calabrese.

    Italian Culture Minister visits Anelli’s exhibition at the ICI

    On the occasion of the exhibition opening, the Director of the Italian Cultural Institute of New York, Giorgio Van Straten, the artist, Marco Anelli, and Magazzino Italian Art’s founders, Nancy Olnick and Giorgio Spanu gave introductory remarks. Additionally, during the Week of Italian Language in the World, Vittorio Calabrese and Marco Anelli welcomed Italian Minister of Cultural Heritage Dario Franceschini, who was in New York for the occasion, on a private tour of the exhibition. The entourage also included Armando Varricchio, Italian ambassador to the United States, Giorgio Van Straten, and Francesco Genuardi.

    Anelli’s larger body of work will be featured in its entirety in the photographic book  Marco Anelli: Building Magazzino, to be published by Skira Rizzoli and available in bookstores in December 2017. As Magazzino Italian Art’s first editorial project, the catalogue includes a preface by Nancy Olnick and Giorgio Spanu along with essays by Manuel Blanco, Alberto Campo Baeza, Marvin Heiferman, Miguel Quismondo and Vittorio Calabrese.