Olio Officina Festival 2023
INTERNATIONAL MAGAZINE #15
STAMP CANCELLATIONS T
he first cancellation refers to the theme of the twelfth edition: Oil is Progress. The underlying concept is that the olive tree and therefore the oil extracted from olives, embodies the very idea of progress. It is no coincidence that growing olive trees and extracting oil from olives were among the first, most significant human technological innovations. Adapting the oleaster, the forerunner of the olive tree, to become a cultivable plant – no longer wild but domesticated, no longer a spontaneous shrub but a tree developed to cater for human needs – was an important, nay decisive, step. That is why there is no other solution: progress has to be accepted and embraced, and failing to do so would mean retreating, going back, regressing. The cancellation sketch was produced by artist Stefania Morgante, who associated progress with the invention of the wheel and with extracting oil from olives, both great technological innovations. “What could be more avantgarde than something that for thousands of years has always worked?” asks Morgante. “The invention of the wheel changed human history forever and every little modern gear owes its role to that ancient concept. Starting from a simple olive, oil nourishes the world, lubricated gears, provided lighting, healed, and made humanity healthier and lovelier.” The artist says that “progress has the ancient in its blood, which is why it doesn’t fear innovation, indeed it actually welcomes it warmly.” The sketch of the second cancellation, dedicated to the memory of the writer Giuseppe Pontiggia on the twentieth anniversary of his death, is also by Morgante. Reflecting his most innate desire to represent society and its transformations, Pontiggia’s books analysed – studying everyday life – the aspects of an era moving in a new direction of progress. Tackling the theme of progress means turning the spotlight on machines, but also on the social, political and cultural dynamics of an era they have conditioned. In an event such as the Olio Officina Festival, the aim of the stamp cancellation dedicated to Pontiggia is not only a chance to remember a great writer, but also a way of reconstructing the network of meanings in the particular yet universal issues of a period of history and society with all its many transformations.
Friday 3 March 2023 12th edition Olio Officina Festival Oil is progress
Saturday 4 March 2023 12th edition Olio Officina Festival Tribute to Giuseppe Pontiggia
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