For us, feeling good at the workplace is a fundamental principle. But what do we mean by feeling good? For us it means safety and health, but also wellness and beauty. That’s why the ceiling of our processing room has turned into a painted sky.
The project arose from the decision to install sound-absorbing panels to reduce the decibels by 50%; a non-essential intervention since our machinery’s noise level was already within legal limits, but capable of bringing acoustic benefit to our workers. And here was the idea: to involve one of the classes of the Canova Secondary Art School in Vicenza, with the supervision of an architect, to transform the sound-absorbing panels into an art gallery, so that those who lift their eyes to the ceiling can see skies, landscapes, horizons and colours. “It immediately seemed really fascinating to me, though not at all simple. But I accepted the challenge”, said the architect.
“Raggiungersi” is the name of the project, which means “reaching outin Italian: it involved twenty-one girls and two boys from the secondary school, who painted 114 sound-absorbing panels for a total area of 270 square metres. The subjects depicted? “Dense skies, sun, light, trees full of shimmering greens, barely-cold light blues, expanses of water, gusts of wind, filaments of silk soaring in the air. Eternal architectures and exciting landscapes”, to use the words of the architect who directed the project. Sunrises and sunsets, suns and moons, woods and mountains, starry skies and storms inspired the abstract subjects painted by young artists, who wanted to represent the skill of D’orica’s artisans and their being part of a continuous creative process. From a technical point of view, the youth did not use normal brushes but rags soaked in colour to avoid damaging the soundproofing characteristics of the panels.
The project was part of an alternating school-work program that has engaged the youth – twenty-three plus an additional six for the video-documentation of the work – for more than six months, thus becoming a way to involve the community to which we belong.
“A way to reach out to each other in order to be happy. […] Twenty-three souls who learn the freedom of expression. Without schemes, without rigidity. Being able to be touched. To become “out” and then “in” […] To be in the unconsciousness that generates risk. And produce a dense chaos of objects, lines, colours, spaces. And grasp that language that comes from afar. Harmoniously. And a thin line continually links all the paintings, marking the direction in a certain way. Like a thin silk thread” (Maurizio Signorini).
