VERONA, ITALY -- Marmomac is set to return to Veronafiere from September 24 to 27, 2024. This edition aims to solidify its role as a business, education and cultural platform for all operators in the Italian techno-stone sector. Marmomac brings together an international audience, with 66% of the visitors in 2023 coming from abroad, representing 138 countries.
With over 1,500 exhibitors present each year, the fair provides a unique showcase for a comprehensive overview of the latest innovations in both stone products, fabrication and quarrying equipment, tooling and accessories, and stone care and maintenance products.
Participating in this event means being at the heart of creative and technological progress, discovering how marble continues experimenting to transform its timeless elegance into infinite applications. This is why Marmomac represents a significant added value for professionals such as architects and designers who can connect, find inspiration, and develop new collaborations at the Verona exhibition, according to Veronafiere.
"In today's context natural stone continues to be a prestigious and versatile material, capable of adding value to any architectural or design project with its beauty and unique properties,” said Raul Barbieri, marketing and sales director of Veronafiere. "Marmomac plays a crucial role in promoting the innovative use of this material, highlighting its most cutting-edge applications through a series of side events, including exhibitions, workshops and conferences."
These initiatives have helped create a true Marmomac community that lives throughout the year, both online, thanks to the Marmomac Plus digital brand room that brings together the top players in the sector, and offline, with networking missions organized abroad such as "We Speak Stone" in Chicago.
The 2024 edition will host “A Matter of Stone” again, the pavilion curated by Elle Decor Italia with a layout designed by the Calvi Brambilla studio. Pavilion 1 will feature a selection of Italian and international companies showcasing design productions and applications in a creative and stimulating context aimed at architects, interior designers and industry professionals.
Pavilion 10 -- The Plus Theatre -- a concept curated by Giorgio Canale reconfirms itself as the center of experimentation dedicated to natural stone. This year's theme will be the material, the protagonist within an actual district that develops around a central avenue lined with exhibitions, meeting areas and refreshment spaces. The individual exhibitions highlight the many facets of natural stone, offering a complete and in-depth view of the theme, telling the constant relationship between stone and machinery, and showcasing the countless varieties present in nature and the most modern technological processes.
In addition to the overall curation of the pavilion, Giorgio Canale has conceived the exhibition Walk of Stone, inspired by the famous Hollywood Walk of Fame, but with natural stone as the protagonist. This homage highlights the extraordinary richness of natural materials -- enhancing their chromatic differences, textures and details. With a walkway of about 300 square meters, the work offers an exclusive showcase for Italian and foreign companies, allowing them to exhibit and enhance one square meter of their best creations. The selection of natural stones, each with a unique identity and characteristics, represents the actual added value of the installation. These materials express surprising aesthetic diversity and offer functionality and innovation. Chosen for their uniqueness and distinctive qualities, they are ideal for various design and architectural projects.
The exhibition “Full/Empty,” curated by Raffaello Galiotto, involves international designers and stone industry companies who, starting from Giorgio Vasari's quote that "Sculpture is an art that removes the superfluous from the material to reduce it to the form of a body designed by the artist," will freely explore the relationship between fullness and emptiness with a series of marble works created in the era of new digital tools. The transition from the manual action of the past to CNC abrasive milling or diamond and waterjet cutting processes offers new opportunities today in terms of precision, technical reproducibility and waste utilization.
Also curated by Raffaello Galiotto is the exhibition “Viaggio al centro della tavola,” which collects a series of new works he designed. Faced with an empty table, we are commonly inclined to place an object at the center. A reassuring gesture, guided by our innate sense of order and balance. From this necessity, the centerpiece concept developed over time: an object usually of particular value for its craftsmanship or material that serves decorative and functional purposes. The exhibition thus proposes a colorful and fascinating composition of stone tables consisting of a top made from a slab and a centerpiece worked with the most advanced numerical technologies. It is an enchanting journey into marble, where to discover different colored lithotypes and their specific peculiarities, visible both in the form of a two-dimensional slab and a three-dimensional design object.
Following the success of the last edition, “The Applaud,” curated by Danilo Di Michele, returns, aiming to promote stone culture and highlight the extraordinary potential of natural stone. The protagonist of the installation that will take shape during the days of Marmomac is Il Fazzoletto, inspired by one of the first works designed by Fulvio Bianconi for Venini. The latter will be involved with other production partners in the stone sector to create a significant sculpture that will combine the strength and majesty of marble with the sophistication and delicacy of the iconic glass vase. The process carried out under the watchful eyes of the visitors will allow them to fully appreciate the complex collective work of the companies in creating the extraordinary natural stone piece.
Within the framework of “Marmomac Meets Academies,” Giuseppe Fallacara curates the exhibition Ceci n'est pas un fossile, created thanks to the creativity of students from various Italian and international universities and the support of companies in the stone sector. The project centers on the theme of the future of stone design, which is mainly focused on the close relationship between knowledge and know-how, theory and practice, craftsmanship and technology. These concepts will materialize in an innovative setup depicting a hypothetical "design workshop of the future," where computational design coexists with digital fabrication and artisanal expertise with all related technical tools. The shape of the "workshop" is inspired by fossil shells contained within sedimentary stone. Divided into functional areas (design, 3D printing and prototype construction), the "workshop," animated by a program of daily events, will indicate a possible direction for the complex world of stone design.
ADI Delegazione Veneto and Trentino-Alto Adige explore the design world in the exhibition “Architectural Modules.” Architecture is in continuous evolution, moving from wet construction sites to dry building systems. Serial products and parametric design integrate into the design of buildings and spaces. Thanks to the collaboration between designers and companies, new three-dimensional construction elements designed for facades, walls and interior spaces will be developed using the technologies of participating companies.
Pavilion 10 will also host a wine bar and a restaurant, designed to ensure that moments of relaxation and refreshment are immersed in two spaces dedicated to celebrating natural stone in its most refined tactile and aesthetic expressions.
The Best Communicator Award, dedicated to exhibit design and now in its 16th edition, will be unmissable, celebrating companies that present themselves with the most original and impactful exhibition concept.
