Monday, July 6, 2015

Shipping Isn't All Freight Containers and Dry Cargo - We Also Have Culture!

Italian Shipping Group (Naturally) Encourages the Arts
Shipping News Feature

ITALY – URUGUAY – WORLDWIDE – Although the business of lashing cargo into a hold or securing containers of freight aboard a box vessel may appear to be a little rough and ready, never let it be said that the world of shipping does not also have certain cultural attachments. And who better to demonstrate the artistic profile of the industry than an Italian operator, in this case the d’Amico Group, which has just launched a programme called The Owner’s Cabin, an innovative and unique international artist’s residency programme aboard the company’s ships as they sail around the world.

The project has started with Italian born, Berlin based, Benedetto Pietromarchi liasing with the dry cargo vessel Cielo di Vaiano in Punta Pereira, Uruguay to travel with the ship across the Atlantic for approximately one month. Pietromarchi’s interests lie in the contrasts between nature and manufactured pieces of art work, biology and man-made constructions and how these separate elements are both perceived and experienced, particularly within the contexts of varied cultures, histories and present circumstances.

The residency is intended to provide Pietromarchi with the time, space and exposure to investigate how these various elements come together within this specific and rarely experienced context and to eventually produce a body of work informed by his time aboard ship. The sixty year old d’Amico Group says it is excited to facilitate and support such a novel platform on which to combine shipping, art and culture, and looks forward to witnessing how the invited artists react to and visualize both an environment and experience that is usually invisible to those outside of the industry, but intrinsic to life across the globe. Paolo d’Amico, Chairman of d’Amico Group commented:

“We are honoured and very proud to launch this new and unique artist’s residency program with the Italian artist Benedetto Pietromarchi. With The Owner’s Cabin project d’Amico’ s commitment to introducing art and culture into the areas that are home to the main international shipping hubs that we operate in gets beyond on board our ships.”

The objective of The Owner’s Cabin is to provide artists with access to the extraordinary and rarely seen environment of life and work at sea, allowing them a unique opportunity to engage, and actively participate, with an inimitable and hopefully inspirational experience. By placing artists at the intersection of industry and art, commerce and creativity, isolation and global interaction, the hope is that they will be able to access a place of expanded thought and artistic possibilities. Throughout their time at sea, the artist will be encouraged to consider and reflect on ideas surrounding (but not limited to) international trade, that local/ global interaction, travel, culture, time and space, so that once they disembark their work can bring consideration and discussion of these notions to a broader public.

Photo: Benedetto Pietromarchi (on the left)aboard the Cielo di Vaiano