Origins

The Biennale project was conceived and structured during the nineties, and has come true with its first edition in 2011.

This event has become reasonable in the light of the brilliant results achieved in the past years with the various cultural events that have allowed the development and affirmation of the International Centers for the Conservation of Architectural Heritage, and in particular of the Italian section, which distinguished itself organizing various successful congresses and international seminars.

• The international colloquia that took place in the past, attended by distinguished scholars from Italy and other European Community countries, Eastern European countries, the United States and South American countries.
• The numerous International Congresses promoted by the Centers and held in various countries around the world, with the support of national and international public and private organizations, including UNESCO, the European Parliament, ICOMOS, the Central Restoration Institute, Local Superintendencies, National Ministries.
• The international masters on restoration and the bilateral visits of the participants.
• Research and direct interventions on the cultural heritage of various cities including: Orvieto, Havana (Cuba), Dodecanese (Greece), Tenerife (Spain).
• International workshops held in Orvieto and abroad, with prestigious organizations such as the National Science Foundation (USA), the National Research Council (Italy), and various national and foreign academic institutions.
• Advertising and dissemination activities.

The Biennale project came from a careful analysis of all aspects (cultural, social, economic, technological, and market) that affect the implementation of the “Project of the Existent”, hindering an exchange between ideas and intervention, a fundamental exchange to foster intervention strategies capable of managing the conservative and transformative processes in an integrated way, safeguarding values, resources and documents, and meeting the main needs and expectations.

Results of the Biennale

The greatest success of the Biennale is to be found in the extraordinary Local Cultural Projects promoted and organized locally by the local organizing committees, including:

• The didactic laboratories for undergraduate students, the knowledge of the built cultural heritage and the practice of restoration. Graffiti in public places, on buildings restored or restored.
• Photographic exhibitions, with illustrations of buildings and places of particular historical artistic interest, seen with the lens of amateurs and professional photographers.
• The drama, dancing and culinary arrangements made in the abandoned historical alleyways of the neighboring cities, in order to put under the lights of the spotlight and to draw the interest of local citizenship for the architectural and urban restoration.
• Organized tours of buildings and places of significant historical and architectural interest, in the state of abandonment or in the expectation of restoration, with experienced guides (architects, historians, archaeologists). This includes visiting the cemeteries of different religions close to each other in the district of Pavlos Melas (Thessaloniki, Greece) and banners scattered in the alleys of the historic center of Taranto.
• The realization of small interventions of urban restoration carried out by way of example in various parts of the city, stimulating for future interventions.
• Illuminations and projections on buildings that have been dismantled for some time, to capture the attention of the citizens towards the dismantled architectural heritage and trigger the debate on the interventions of their recovery and retraining.
• Design contests for urban furnishings: bench, dustbin, lighting fixture, gardener, inserted into specific environmental education programs of local schools.

Expected results with the Biennial Project

Formulation of guiding principles and the creation of operational tools, such as: knowledge and decision support for the identification of strategic research and training programs in the context of Reconstruction and Quality Systems for Built Heritage.

Objectives of the Biennial

• Dissemination
• Archiving
• Training

The Biennale envisages a technical and cultural setting and articulation that concerning management, technology and economics, with a highly interdisciplinary vision. There is no evidence that exhibitions have previously dealt with all of these aspects.

Also important is the continuity of the Biennale Project, which makes it possible to create a permanent and on-going comparison and updating site, not presently in Italy or abroad.