If the team is promoted, it will be a celebration in May/ Waving a [yellow and blue] flag in three/ On a Piaggio Vespa the boys will honk their horns/ And even those who hate football will be happy a little.
Today a cold wind is blowing that tells me about you / It's like the kiss of a woman with frozen lips / And it tastes like fog and tram stones / Memories of a living past [...].
Dutch Nazari, Italian rapper and singer-songwriter, will forgive us for the slight readjustment of his bars. From his Padua to a celebration Parma, for this spring with a special flavour, not only for the victory in Serie B and the return to the top flight, after three long seasons, but also for the rediscovery of one of the symbols of the Emilian city: the Bormioli glassworks in via San Leonardo.
Glass caresses: the glassware on display
At the beginning of May and twenty years after the last siren at the end of the glassworks shift, the "memories of a living past" returned to excite hundreds of Parma residents, thanks to the exhibition Glass caresses, promoted by the Bormioli Rocco Gold Medals Group, with the patronage of the Municipality, the Province and the University of Parma.
The Group has collected and cataloged all the company's material, advertisements and samples, combining the numerous points of view of workers and collaborators to pass on the tradition of the production of the glass in Parma.
Vivid memories in art
The event was created thanks to the precious artistic contribution of Nicoletta Bagatti, a contemporary painter, whose personal history is closely linked to the glassworks, her father Pietro in fact worked in Bormioli during the years of the economic boom. Through her memories as a child, who curiously listened to her father's stories, we access a piece of the city's history.
Bagatti's over 40 canvases tell us about the development of a neighborhood and an activity built and supported by Parma families. These works give us a glimpse into one “generational, industrial history of a supply chain that has characterized Parma on an international level” (Source: comune.parma.it). The choice of a post-industrial layout guaranteed continuity with the past and its atmospheres, and reaffirmed the need to protect a building of historical interest, like the plant designed by Leoni, the architect who also designed the Ennio Tardini stadium.
Beyond the dream of creating a permanent museum in the former glass factory and the multidisciplinary value of industrial archaeology, the experience of Glass caresses testifies the deep connection between productive activities, territory and families.
A bond that glass, as documented in 2022 byInternational Year of Glass, contributes to nourishing and welding, through a continuity that goes beyond the temporal boundaries of an industrial enterprise.
Sources: comune.parma.it, parma.repubblica.it
