For the first time, the Elica Group and the Fondazione Ermanno Casoli present a project for children. E-STRAORDINARIO for Kids is dedicated to the sons and daughters of the Elica employees. The project will be led by artist Mario Airò (Pavia, 1961), internationally considered as one of the most important artists of his generation. Airò has been invited to develop a workshop for a group of 40 children, between 6 and 10 years of age. The initiative, curated by Marcello Smarrelli, artistic director of the Fondazione, is part of the E-STRAORDINARIO learning project, conceived by FEC to promote contemporary art in the corporate world as an effective training and methodological tool.

The workshop, entitled La memoria dell’elefante (The memory of the elephant), focuses on the production and the use of paper, an industry that has always been linked to the city of Fabriano.

The workshop opens with a first educational stage during which the children will tour the Museo della Carta e della Filigrana (Paper and Watermark Museum) of Fabriano, followed by a laboratory session with a professional paper maker who will illustrate the different steps of paper production. Mario Airò’s workshop will take place in parallel, with the purpose of creating a collective work with paper that will be later set up in the Elica main premises.
With this project, Mario Airò intends to stimulate the children’s imagination, starting from paper’s material dimension and the creation of imaginary silhouettes inspired by a fantasy bestiary.