LISTONE GIORDANO, THE GUARDIAN OF THE FORESTS

LISTONE GIORDANO, THE GUARDIAN OF THE FORESTS

Italy, Umbria, Roma, Perugia

Simplicity is only by people of genius

BARCELONA 18XI16. Everlastingly, Italy.

Year 1518. The Tuscan sculptor, painter and architect Michelangelo, one of the history of the XVth and XVIth centuries Renaissance period’s most talented artists who developed his work over 70 years between Florence and Rome, wrote the shopping list for his illiterate maid. He decided that the best way to avoid mistakes was to illustrate it with representations of the products to buy in the market. Hurriedly drawn with pen and ink, they are another example of the ingenuity that the painter treasured.

In Barcelona, Andrea Margaritelli, member of the Honorary Committee, entirely monitored ARTOUR-O il MUST project to celebrate its XIV edition on last October 18^th at Interni Barcelona’ showroom with the temporary contemporary art museum formula, consisting of an Italian travelling exhibition and a call where contemporary art by the up-and-coming designers have room and matched with haute cuisine on the table with the culinary support from chef Paolo Casagrande, a worthy chef who played his way to the famous Michelangelo’s shopping list to his illiterate maid giving it with a few mouth-watering author’s bites.

The Italian Casagrande from Treviso moves very gently in and around haute cuisine and, no kidding, under the most Michelin starred chef guidance, the Basque Martín Berasategui, he leads Lasarte’s restaurant kitchen staff. For the occasion, a sequence of artistry gourmet appetizers dressed all palates watered with Umbrian ‘Terre Margaritelli’ wines. As a Basque saying goes, take garrote to kitchen and life. Zorionak, Paolo! (Or Congratulations!).

 

Appropriately for the occasion in an exercise of expertise we attended the premiere of Listone Giordano’s board’s, that put the finishing touches used for containers to serve. No doubt, a key element.

The fashion designer Eleanora Lastrucci’s involvement, representing a show and models wrapped in her creations performance, and Roberta Ferrazza, manager of Barcelona’s Italian Institute of Culture, Stefania Ricci, manager of Salvatore Ferragamo Museum, and Stefano Nicoletti, Consul of Italy, present, they all granted a miscellaneous feeling; thus, it was a good opportunity to exchange unplanned and sparkling views on how to surmount opposite and wrest from danger.

While the supermoon’s brightness (is dawn on 14-15 Novembrer) disconnects me during a long pause from this narrative, I ponder on how to give visibility to the next readings, a labyrinthine enterprise.

It all came to happen in the first days of December 2015 when the Barcelonian ‘Interni by Almosta’, from Oromí’s family, Listone Giordano’s ambassador (wooden floors), Lualdi’s (doors) and Ernestomeda’s (kitchen furniture), had convened a limited and select group of architects to access to get a first-hand the passion, the commitment and the enthusiasm that links them to the Margaritelli family in Italy. And TREC’s founding partners reached that secret passport that took us up to Rome in order to come before Group Margaritelli’s business divisions.

The hosts produced a tight program of 3 intense days during which we travelled hundreds of kilometers by air and by road that included its retail and showroom in Rome Centre, the Foundation Guglielmo Giordano in Loc. Madonna delle Piano, Perugia, the factory, headquarters and the showroom in Miralduolo di Torgiano, Assissi and Terre Margaritelli, its vineyards, Winery and cantina, also in Miralduolo di Torgiano. A marathon of kilometres in just a few hours to show us their treasures. And they made their way to a ride of emotions.

Agrippa’s Pantheon in Rome towers majestically as one of the tops related to Roman architecture, perfect in terms of balance and harmonious curves, as well as for its unspoiled building. For behind it, shrouded in Roman history, is the Listone Giordano’s flagship exhibition and selling to the public store. I suspect the fact that gazing at the Pantheon’s rigorous classical forms while living with scattered buildings for the modern city normally, it causes a moving and amazing impression of anachronism. Today, in addition to remain a cult church, the monument plays the role in royal pantheon: it also contains the tombs of famous artists (including the prominent Renaissance painter Raphael) and members of the former Italian royal family.

Cheerful Aleix Oromí played the athletic contest on how to cross the centre of Rome in minutes walking with decided firm steps holding summa cum laude. I visited Rome dozens of times, but I’ve never walked so fast… Or yes, with my father, whom they call the Vatican Museum and the Vatican Library sprinter, the one and only elderly child on the eve of his 76^th year that has lost so far in Saint Peter Basilica, my model in my life.

It was there, in the heart of Piazza di Spagna in Rome, a city’s centerpiece, newly restored by Bulgari, on 9 December 2015, facing the historic 135-Spanish stepping stones hike, when we came across a lovable Diane Keaton * exiting a minivan who looked at my astonishment and naturalness with her unquestionable smile. Winter was well under way and cold showered the streets for what the impact of the encounter seemed like an eternity. On that day at that moment I strongly knew with deep faith that it would not be the last time.

* ‘And so it goes’ (drama 2014, with a role opposite Michael Douglas), ‘Something’s gotta give’, with a role opposite Jack Nicholson (romantic comedy 2003).

In the words of Bulgari’s CEO, Jean-Christophe Babin, Piazza di Spagna in Rome is closely related to its identity, an example of the lasting nature of the values and ideals defended by the firm, and they wish to continue engaging in other restoration projects for the city for the purpose of continuing to preserve and improve its infinite beauty. Bulgari, Fendi and Tod’s, who have a crush on Rome, protect the art and symbols from Rome through a financially beneficial sponsorship in an almost extraordinary 65% tax allowance on the sums earmarked for such funds.

From Rome to Assisi, where San Francisco and Santa Clara were born, Episcopal seat in Italy placed in Perugia’s province that which is in turn in the Umbria region, we participated in an exemplary culinary experience together with Andrea Margaritelli in a city’s restaurant in a gesture of respect that was much more than good manners. I realized it merely stood for innocent delicacy or empathy towards the participants surrounded by comfortable setting in which Andrea’s signature became decidedly clear. In particular, all that takes place at the table when dishes tick off, gives me joy, as if that were the Pina Bausch’s National Opera in Paris ritual of song and dance.

Not only the Burgundy wines are already present in cellars and on tables the world over; its forests also. Located in the mid north east of the country, the Burgundy French is a region of forests that crown the hills, the water, the abbeys and the vineyards, a land of contrasts full of chronology.

Wood is and remain a living material and a fine one par excellence to which Listone Giordano transforms into the most precious of all wooden pavements with a unique and unmistakable aesthetic.

The technological revolution that Listone Giordano masters was born in 1983 when the Professor Guglielmo Giordano (Margarita-CN, 18XII1904-04II2000) accurately gave the traditional hardwood flooring with a reliable support of birch multilayer system that, together with transverse verses and micron-sized assemblies, it successfully revealed a durable wooden floor capable of retaining its shape lifelong.

Day after day in the French Burgundy forests, Listone Giordano

strengthens its history with the education of the wood by meticulously choosing the best. Certification of sustainable forest management is realized by means of an integrated cycle that covers a period of more than 180 years: every tree is numbered and registered and, for each representative example, a tracking is being conceived in order to support a multistage procedure for an ever-increasing growth in heritage forest. Then, we speak of the most valuable French oak, thermal natural treatments, of some top quality finishes with ecological oils to get colours and a few customizable laying programs.

This way, ‘Heritage spina traccia’ represents a classical geometry made of burly character. ‘Reserve Mareggiata’ comes from the characteristic appearance of the weathered wood and spoiled by marine waters turning every table into a majestic log. ‘Reserve Traccia’ is a handcrafted mature collection. BISCUIT one, designed by Patricia Urquiola, is marked by the free composition of lines and shapes with rounded edge. The peculiar ‘Slide’, designed by Daniele Lago, stands out for 3 different types of trapezoidal lamellas which can be combined and, thanks to the cut and the 3-randomly assembling, it interlaces dynamic visual geometries.

In 2000 Fondazione Guglielmo Giordano was born in memory of the bold Professor Guglielmo Giordano, established in ‘Villa Spinola’ at Loc.Madonna del Piano, Perugia, to promote studies and research of historical and technological nature in the wood sector engaging with art. I can still recall how I vibrated when crossing the entrance to the estate to continue down a long tree-lined dirt road that opened onto the villa and how I saw for myself subtle spiritual sense to be about to live an exceptional lifelong learning. Perhaps, the significant fact that the villa had belonged to Borgia became an important issue: a mythified and disfigured powerful interest group, a disproportionate myth in many occasions shaken by the narrative sensuality the Renaissance inspires, an era of change in which art, politics, religion and war technology re-established its dominant and unpredictable alliance. It was there that we stayed and where they made us feel like were part of the Margaritelli family.

Of all this, indubitably, we learned that in Listone Giordano wood working industry the sustainable balance exists together if you respect nature, conservation, historical tradition, logging, time and dedication in all its processes, a production completely far removed from any deforestation and also from any model of production to the use. And we found out that it’s not really a question of selling wooden products that holds particular interest and raises the consciousness for Andrea Margaritelli, for his team and his traces, but the organic matter planned by nature: the wood and its craftsmanship.

In a place nestled atop Miralduolo Hill in the Torgiano wine region between Perugia and Assisi, as in an Edward Hopper’s art, the painter of solitude, I discovered that time had stopped in the quiet and nothing pretentious wine cellar Terre Margaritelli, among whose vineyards beats a catharsis of wisdom, leisure, gastronomy and visual function.

Currently, the winery owns more than 52 hectares and produces more than 50.000 bottles of wine per year from 15 varieties of grapes that grow in its vineyards. Terre Margaritelli is a relatively young company but with roots that has endeavoured to enlarge the wine sector based on processes with caress, textures, taste, traditions and courage.

Their sales manager, the passionate Italian winemaker Federico Bibi, and his wife, the American chef Jennifer McIlvaine, from Philadelphia, are the lovely couple that manages the winery. And they told us that, although the vineyards have existed since 1950, they began to sell wine to the retail only 8 years ago. Prior to that, they use to sell grapes to other bottlers without a knowledge of which varieties were planted.  Up until 15 years ago that they decided to replant it all, to produce organic wine and to lead the kitchen under the same guiding principles.  And thus, sharing stories, background and a few laughs, they thrilled us with wine, champagne and typical foods of the region.

Learned, pleasant and willingness, Margaritelli and Oromí awarded us memorable bits of life that I will never forget, because Italy Woo me and I declare myself a lover of this magical land. Perhaps it strongly makes sense to me my Italian roots …

Without example, a worthwhile visit.

SPQR (Senatus Populusque Romanus)

 

Written by Adelaida Subías

Photo Credits: Listone Giordano & Adelaida Subías

Editing & Producing by ‘RENOVATIO, with attitude’©