Business makes culture
Oikos, a company representing design and quality made in Italy, chooses theatrical languages to communicate the intangible and evocative dimension linked to its products and identity. With the ultimate aim of celebrating the cultural value of Italian and Venetian manufacturing, the company is participating in the production of an unprecedented theatrical performance with the scientific supervision of the aiku centre of the Ca’ Foscari University and the realisation of the theatre company La Piccionaia.
From the stage of dramaturgical conception to the realisation of the final theatrical performance, the process saw the meeting of industry with the creative world, united by passion and the desire to create a work that could recount and shed new light on the life of Andrea Palladio, an architect symbol of Made in Italy, capable of representing artistic genius as much as technical craftsmanship. In a continuous dialogue between industrial production and craftsmanship, between past and future, the theatrically represented story of Andrea Palladio becomes the channel to convey the shared and cultural values of the territory.
In an elegant evocative metaphor, Oikos from behind the scenes is the actor that enables the creation of the theatrical work of art, putting artistic expression before any other self-celebratory purpose. Craftsmanship, art and industrial production are thus narrated in an unprecedented performance, directed by Carlo Presotto and with the direct participation of researchers in cultural management at Ca’ Foscari, who are involved at the forefront of the creation process.
Also of central importance is the dual significance linked to the figure of the artist, who in the Renaissance context is rediscovered as a technical engineer and acute connoisseur of materials, mathematics and geometry. The dichotomy between art and science vanishes in architectural synthesis, and Oikos becomes its representative and spokesman.
The blend of craftsmanship and industrial production allows the company to offer the market products with a high level of aesthetics, quality and identity, implicitly recognising itself as one of the heirs of Italian Renaissance history. The artists of the 21st century can be found in the companies: planners, engineers, architects and designers are those who still today incorporate the values of the Italian tradition, translating creativity into design, just as in the Renaissance past.
The theatre production ‘Effetto rinascimento’ is a fully-funded production by the company Oikos, which chooses the language of theatre to talk about the quality of Italian-made products. To do so, it turns to professional actors and their independent sensibility. This is not a simple sponsorship or marketing operation: the celebration of the brand leaves room for artistic investigation, to convey shared values detached from direct commercial interests. Therefore, the theatrical and dramaturgical content is elaborated with total freedom, producing a work that, from May 2022, will tour all over Italy, staging the story of a great artistic genius of the Veneto region: Andrea Palladio.
The innovative nature of the project also lies in its collaborative dimension, resulting from the synergic partnership of three distinct realities: the professional theatre company ‘La piccionaia’ and the company Oikos were in fact mediated and interconnected by the coordinating actions of the Ca’ Foscari aiku centre – Art, Enterprise, Culture directed by Prof. Fabrizio Panozzo. The university centre was therefore an active part of the project, sensing the fruitful collaboration, carrying out curatorial actions and facilitating the dialogue between the two worlds.
In the year of the Capital of Enterprise Culture 2022 promoted by Assindustria, artistic production confirms itself as one of the most fruitful channels of exchange and innovation, bringing out new possibilities of symbolic creation in unexplored territories.