Filippo dalle Luche:

Key to the future

Thanks to digital today is possible to preserve duplicate element in danger of deterioration, so why not exploit this? While I’m immersed in sculpture, painting and traditional art. I search for manufacturing digital between past and future.

Hi, this is Sarah. If you’ve listened to Materially Speaking from the start, you’ll know we’ve been meeting artists in a unique community around Pietrasanta and Carrara, in Northern Italy. Generations of sculptors have been working here since Michelangelo first came five hundred years ago to source marble for his Pieta. In 1963, the valuable work for the church dried up with a papal edict called Vatican II, and Pietrasanta’s studios and foundries turned their hand to the business of creating fine art instead. They encouraged artists such as Henry Moore, Jean Arp, Isamu Noguchi and Jacques Lipchitz to come and realize their work in marble or in bronze.

These artists were followed by others from all over the world, many of whom have told their stories to Materially Speaking. I was afraid that these artists might represent the end of an era. But despite the demise of the artisan, the growth of new technology, gentrification of the old artist studios and changes in fashion and art, it seems that the younger generation are as keen as ever to take up the mantle. Today I’m talking to Filippo Dalle Luche. Like any young student, Filippo loves rap music, partying and jogging on the beach.

But as the child of artisans, he has a foot in the traditional world as well as the new. As he searches for his new path in the world of digital arts, his thesis at Accademia di Belle Arti di Carrara shows a heartwarming nod to tradition. The Academy was founded ‘69 by Maria Teresa Cybo, Duchess of Massa and Princess of Carrara, to develop the arts and support the marble industry. The Academy began with a school of sculpture and a school of architecture. New specialties grew over the centuries and now, in addition to sculpture, where robotics are taught as well as traditional methods, there is painting, scenography, decoration and graphics.

However, Filippo prefers the new art technologies founded in 1999 to train artists in the skills of digital media.

My name is Filippo Dalle Luche and I live in Montegiori, an ancient village located at the hills of the municipality of Camayorre.

And how old are you Filippo?

I’m 24 years old.

And are your parents artistic and if so how did that influence the route you took?

My parents have an art laboratory specialised in gilding and restoration and was immersed in art and creativity.

Can you tell me a little bit about your course at Academia del Bellarti in Carrara?

Yes, the university where I obtained my degree is located on the most important cities in the world for the extraction and processing of the famous Carrara marble. The university is inside the historical Palazzo Ducale. I choose new technology of art in the field of digital multimedia art. As just academia, Belliarte has many interesting courses, but I have to name one is three d modelling.

So, Filippo, when did you finish the course you’ve just done at Belliarte?

I graduated on 07/20/2020.

Filippo lives in a small medieval village called Monteggiori, perched on a hill above Pietrasanta. The village dates back to the December. And as cars are forbidden, residents need to be hardy enough to walk up the steep cobbled path carrying all their provisions. This makes for a close and characterful community. There are year round residents, both families who’ve lived here for generations and artists who have settled here, and second homers from Florence, Milan and other European cities.

There is a brown dog on duty in the car park and many feisty cats. Unable to survive near the road, cats remain here after their owners move out and wander from house to house, demanding food and attention. When the village dogs take their evening stroll around the elongated fish shaped borgo, they know exactly which doorways will welcome them, with a rub behind the ears.

So can you briefly explain the two parts of your thesis?

Yes, of course. The metamorphosis of the museum space between past and future. In the final part of the thesis, analyze the digital aspect of the

Monteggiori Art is a cultural association created by the owner of one of the historic houses as a space for artists to exhibit work. In normal years it hosts an annual show and might also have a concert or film screening. Filippo explains how in the first part of his thesis he wanted to modernise the exhibition space and see how it might evolve and embrace the possibilities of the digital revolution.

And regenerating the appearance of the installation were my goals. Thanks to several months of study, on my part it was possible

Through study and extensive research, Filippo was able to simulate the physical characteristics of the museum space and bring them to life in a virtual environment. Having got this far, Filippo intends to continue developing interactive simulations of specific spaces. And with our ever changing rules on travel and social distancing, enabling virtual visits to museums and galleries looks like a really valuable skill to have.

The setting and the lighting. I would like to carry off researching space where you can interact and make visit and virtual reality that can be later presented on the website for a dual display of the exhibition. I want to point out the love and belonging that binds me

Filippo speaks of the love for his home village, has inspired both the project, Modernizing the Art Gallery, and the following one.

Second project I call Immortalising an element.

As previous generations of artisans have done, he’s creating something for the church. Church of Monteggiori is not Filippo has proposed that he uses three d technology to create a spare key for the priest.

Donation to preserve an element in the process of degradation. The function that I have applied takes the name of reverse engineering, from prototype, from an object that we want the reconstruction or an element that is in danger of deterioration using three-dimensional technique. Even more important to make it no longer a single element, but by duplicate, thanks to new technology. The project face different stage of design to get the final part that in bronze element.

The big day arrives for the presentation of the key to the priest in the church of Santo Stefano in Monteggiori. Filippo is pacing up and down outside the church. His aunt arrives and then his granny. A neighbor wanders around in his slippers with a steaming mug of coffee, which he made at a friend’s house because his gas cylinder has run out. A man in jeans with a bag of ecclesiastical robes in his hand dashes towards the door.

He is followed by the priest dressed in black, who is young, but even he pauses to catch his breath after walking up the steep path into the village. A group of neighbors are struggling to heave a wheel chair up a last stone step to the church, determined to include a much loved member of the community who’s unable to walk. The church bells ring out and finally we go inside. Much of the village have come. And now they take up their socially distanced positions around the church, with the all too familiar notices telling us where to sit. With an arrow.

The church is decorated with a myriad of different marbles in pink, gold, cream and black. There are three naves and around the sides of the church are various artifacts revealing its history. I see a sketch of Zita de Bourbon Palmer, the last queen of Austria, who lived nearby. A statue of Madonna de la Guadeloupe, adorned with colorful beads, and a glass dome over a patinated gesso model of San Francesco with a rabbit, squirrel and wild boar created by Maria Gamundi thirty five years ago.

Mass is given and communion taken. The collection is made. A historian from Kamayuri gives a potted history of the village and the families of Monteggiori. Filippo and the young priest stand at the front, between them the altar with tall candles and even taller candlesticks. Filippo brings in two large keys on a stand.

They’re a little longer and a lot broader than a standard pencil. His parents recently did a traditional restoration on the Madonna della Grazi for this church. And as they are guilders, no doubt they created the gilded picture frame containing an iPad, from which Filippo gives his technical presentation, showing the various stages of reverse engineering, by which he’s produced a new spare key for the church. He then explains to the congregation the process of creating the spare key. He started by taking photos of the key from every angle to have view of it.

Once he had detailed pictures, software helped him to size them to scale. During the final phase of the three-dimensional modelling, he made several renderings, trying to imitate as closely as possible its original texture. Rendering is the procedure which allowed him to generate a digital image with a special program. Once the digital project was complete, he began the physical creation. Using a three d printer, he reproduced a copy of the key in biodegradable bioplastic, commonly called PLA.

Once he’d checked that the key made with the three d printer worked in the lock, he reproduced a bronze key through the lost wax technique. So we’re speaking, Filippo, in the summer of twenty twenty. I’m just kind of wondering, has the pandemic affected your outlook?

We can say that despite disastrous moment that was happening, I was able to realise for my generation, we are aware that the future is going to be complex in the face of what is happening. A possible lockdown could cause a disastrous economic blockade, especially for us young people in a search of work.

Thank you so much, Filippo. That has been brilliant. It’s been really nice talking with you.

Thank you.

So thanks to Filippo Dalle Luche for explaining his wonderful projects. The quay seems to me like a symbol for access, and for many the church still represents a place of refuge and community. Filippo’s story marries tradition and the enormous possibilities offered by new technology and the dreams of the young generation. You can see Filippo’s work on his LinkedIn page Filippo Dalle Luche. And thanks to you for listening.

As with all episodes, you can find photographs of the work discussed on our website materiallyspeaking.com or on Instagram. If you’re enjoying Materially Speaking, subscribe to our newsletter on our website so we can let you know when the next episode goes live.