A new location for the inscriptions from the Holy See Pavilion at EXPO Milan 2015.
On January 9, 2018 – Fondazione Pesenti supports Journey of the Word, the project to relocate the 25 inscriptions that translated the Holy See’s message into 13 different languages for visitors to the pavilion at Expo Milan 2015.
“The inscriptions were placed on the Pavilion so that they could be read through the shadows cast by their own metal letters, evoking, even in the design, the biblical episode of manna falling from the sky,” said Ginette Caron, creator and curator of the graphic layout of the inscriptions on the Pavilion. On Sunday, December 17, in Trezzano sul Naviglio (MI), she presented the project at the church of Sant’Ambrogio Vescovo e Dottore of Trezzano, conceived together with Quattroassociati architects (also designers of the S.M. Beretta Molla church in Trezzano). It seemed fitting that this message should continue beyond Expo. Therefore, upon dismantling the Pavilion, the desire arose to preserve and give new life to these words through an ideal journey around the world.”
The project also involves the team of Prof. Marco Imperadori from the Politecnico di Milano and Alessio Pesenti from the Brescia-based company Nord Zinc, which carried out the treatment that makes the metal letters particularly resistant to weathering, thus prolonging their durability and perpetuating their message.
Started after the dismantling of the universal exposition pavilions, the Journey of the Word has reached several evocative locations: after the pilot relocation on February 5, 2017, in Paderno Franciacorta (BS), where the English inscription “Not by bread alone” was placed at the Oratory of San Luigi.
Paderno Franciacorta (BS), Oratory of San Pancrazio
The second stage (which officially launched the overall project) took place in Milan on the occasion of Pope Francis’s visit to the city on March 25: three inscriptions in Italian (“Dacci oggi il nostro pane”), English (“Give us today our bread”), and Portuguese (“Dá-nos hoje nosso Pão”) were affixed to the walls of the apse of the church designed by the Italo-Slovenian architect Boris Podrecca for Quarto Oggiaro, a Milan suburb. The church was consecrated by Cardinal Angelo Scola, then Archbishop of Milan, on Pentecost, the liturgical feast that celebrates the universality of the Christian message beyond language barriers.
Church della Pentecost, Quarto Oggiaro (MI)
The inscription in ancient Hebrew, “Not by bread alone,” was installed on Sunday, June 18, in Nonantola (Modena), where a memorial dedicated to the story of the Villa Emma children will be built. These were 73 young Jewish refugees saved from racial persecution during World War II.
The inscriptions “Dacci oggi il nostro pane” in Chinese, Ancient Greek, and Arabic were relocated on July 6 to the Farm Cultural Park in Favara, an urban regeneration project that, through art, has revitalized the historic “Seven Courtyards” neighborhood.
“Dacci oggi il nostro pane” in Chinese, Ancient Greek, and Arabic at the Farm Cultural Park in Favara
Below are some photos from Guinea-Bissau, West Africa, where one of the inscriptions from the Vatican Pavilion was installed. Fondazione Pesenti’s support continues to be important for the activities of the new school in the Mission of the Oblate Missionary Fathers of Mary in Cacine.
www.ginettecaron.it