The international conference Antiche manifestazioni del patrimonio culturale intangibile e attività turistiche: il caso di Venezia”, will be held at the Port of Venice, Termina 103, on Friday 22nd and Saturday 23rd of Novembre 2013. The conference has been organized by VTP – Venezia Terminal Passeggeri SPA, managing authority of the Port of Venice. It is going to be a opportunity to promote the possible venetian candidates for the UNESCO convention on the intangible cultural heritage, written in 2003.
The conference is divided into three sessions, and the second one is going to focus the attention on the intangible cultural heritage of Venice: the Murano Glass working tradition, the Burano lace, the prestigious venetian textiles, the Gondola, the Venice Carneval, The “commedia dell’arte”, the flight of the Colombina, the craft guilds and associations which still exist today.
Consorzio promovetro Murano couldn’t miss the opportunity to talk about the Murano Glass working tradition. The paper will be discussed on Friday 22nd at 3pm and it will talk about the fact that the Murano glass working tradition appears to have everything that is required by UNESCO to be an intangible cultural heritage, as it belongs to a traditional craftsmanship.
In 2010 Promovetro began this process, led by the Italian ministry of culture (MIBAC) and the ICCD (institute for cataloguing and documentation), in Rome.
Murano is considered by many people as the first industrial district of the world, and it is the most clearly geographically delimited; the Murano glass working tradition belong to the unique heritage of this island.
“Murano glass represents today a still alive craftsmanship, which is often compared to mass production because of the lack of information”, says Luciano Gambaro, President of Consorzio Promovetro Murano. “This is why we are risking to loose Murano glass own identity and peculiarities, jeopardizing jobs and activities of all the workers, with the possibility to make it disappear forever.
To have the Murano glass working tradition recognised as a UNESCO intangible heritage, would mean to recognise an oral tradition, passed from generation to generation, which has used basically the same techniques, tools and materials, since its own origins.
For this special occasion Consorzio Promovetro has prepared an exhibition with some examples of the most significant Murano glass working techniques (mirrors, lighting, sculpture, fusing, beads, blown glass, grinding and decoration).