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Event date:
26 - 29 October 2011
Trade show:
VITRUM 2011
Location:
Milan, Italy
Region:
Lombardia
Fax:
39 02 33005630
Organizer:
VITRUM S.r.l.
Association:
Sectors:

VITRUM 2011: International Trade Show Specialized in Machinery, Equipment and Systems

Glass magic, from tradition to technology

VITRUM, the leading international glass manufacturing trade event held in Italy, continues to find ways to present cutting edge techniques and technologies alongside a glimpse into the illustrious past. The tradition of glass manufacturing originated and matured in the small workshops of artisans in ancient Rome or during the time of the Doges in the Venetian Republic. Those crowded, smoke-filled shops of the past have given way to spacious, almost sterile, modern industrial facilities, where new techniques are applied to ideas that have their heritage in the distant past.

It was just such an imaginary journey along the glass trade routes that brought the “Glass Relic” to Vitrum in 1995. Priceless archeological evidence was recovered from the Adriatic Sea, showing how, as early as the 16th century, glass had been cast into crude blocks in the countries where the raw materials were abundant, and traveled by sea to regions where it was transformed into elegant, colorful objects. Successive Vitrum events -- like “Glass Tales” --featured the Byzantine anchor by Pellestrina, which emerged miraculously intact from the floor of the Venice’s lagoon, alongside other precious finds from digs carried out in Venice. Bottles, goblets, multicolored fragments from window panes and lamps -- “fragile” and, at the same time, durable testimony to the skills and artistic elegance of the master glass craftsmen who did their utmost to satisfy the demands of European aristocracy.

Yes, Vitrum is also an example of how the modern industrial world can take on the noble challenge of imparting a refined cultural message.

Thus, the show presents itself not only as the business appointment of the year but also as the ideal venue where history, tradition, evolution and technological innovation intersect and flow into another in a virtual stream of time. This too, is the magic of glass.