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PIC Contemporary Industrial Heritage

The PIC project conceives of the relationships between culture and business as connectors between past, present and future, with the aim of generating new narratives about the heritage of Venetian manufacturing fueled by new partnerships with the world of cultural production. To do so, it systematizes the research work carried out in recent years by the aiku research center-Ca’ Foscari University and implements its technology transfer to a partnership composed of 6 companies of medium size and long entrepreneurial tradition.

Title:PIC - Contemporary Industrial HeritageCompanies:Arper, Dersut, Irinox, Keyline, Grafiche Antiga, Villa Sandi

PIC Contemporary Industrial Heritage

The PIC project conceives of the relationships between culture and business as connectors between past, present and future, with the aim of generating new narratives about the heritage of Venetian manufacturing fueled by new partnerships with the world of cultural production. To do so, it systematizes the research work carried out in recent years by the aiku research center-Ca’ Foscari University and implements its technology transfer to a partnership composed of 6 companies of medium size and long entrepreneurial tradition.

The need to which it responds is that of a new narrative of the production identity of medium-sized companies in Veneto, called to resolve a cognitive tension between dispersion in global subcontracting supply chains and the search for a connection to the deep tradition of Made in Veneto. A motivating factor is the identification and implementation of a system of thought and action that narrates the medium-sized enterprise of Veneto in the dual nature that characterizes it: reliable and efficient partner in global value chains but, at the same time, generator of beauty and style that transcends technique to speak to that system of symbols and practices we call culture to which we often resort to identify “Made in Veneto.”

PIC proposes to decline these aims by exploring, elaborating and concretizing in an experimental way the potential offered by the “business museum” institution. The medium-sized enterprises that form the partnership are in fact united by an awareness of the importance of such a form of corporate heritage enhancement. They are manufacturing companies that have already independently experimented and activated forms of capitalization of industrial culture, such as Dersut, Keyline and Grafiche Antiga, Irinox, Villa Sandi and Tessiture Luigi Bevilacqua.

The trait that unites the partnership and makes it cohesive in terms of the needs expressed is therefore to aggregate an experimental vanguard in the regional sphere by capitalizing on a base of shared experiences that can allow an operational reflection on the forms of further development of strategies for the enhancement of industrial cultural heritage in the perspective of evolved and contemporary heritage marketing.

In this sense, PIC presents itself as a capitalization project that studies, disseminates and experiments with innovative forms of discovering the heritage of industrial culture by fielding the languages of storytelling, especially theatrical-based storytelling. A new approach of continuous exchange between entrepreneurship and art professions is born. In this perspective, contemporary artistic languages were mobilized to narrate the company, heritage and territory in a novel way, stimulated imagination, exploration, creativity, and the ability to “tell,” surprise, and excite. Simultaneously, and in return, industrial production has developed capacities to accommodate and convey in innovative forms the values of the productions that have made the history of the territory. 

PIC is intended to define an approach of continuous exchange between entrepreneurship and art professions, generating contamination between artistic and corporate production and manifesting itself in new forms of displaying corporate heritage. The ultimate goal is the expansion of a competitive advantage thanks founded on intangible assets such as originality, inventiveness, aesthetics and attention to detail supported by a reinforced storytelling capacity achieved through the application of theatrical techniques.