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Dear AIMC members and friends,
On November 22nd, the co-founder of AIMC, our beloved Isotta Fiorentini Roncuzzi, left us.
In this issue, exclusively dedicated to her, are three short testimonies which attempt to impart some aspects of the personality of this exceptional woman, who left a great legacy to the mosaic world. A small tribute to a great person.
Nikos Tolis
AIMC President
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The letter I would have liked to write to you
Dear Isotta,
We have known each other just for 55 years. I was not yet eleven when I registered for the Istituto Statale d'Arte per il Mosaico. You were the teacher of Natural Sciences for sixth and seventh grade, and later the teacher of Mosaic Technology. You, Mrs. Isotta Roncuzzi Fiorentini, and Mr. Verlicchi (who taught Drawing and Painting), were both the teachers who taught me for six consecutive school years. Isotta, do you remember when I was the only pupil in eighth grade, and you would teach site-specific out in the countryside where you drove me in your car. We laughed a lot! Then you would break the rules and we would visit mosaic studios, the one of the Gruppo Mosaicisti run by Renato Signorini, and many other magic spots where I discovered a new world which I would not ever figure out.
Of course, Isotta, were I talented in the epistolary art, I would tell about many episodes, anecdotes, facts, acts, projects, and trips we shared.
If you asked me, "Verdiano, who am I, according to you? And in a few words!" I would sincerely accept the challenge because I am very fond of you. Isotta, I owe you much. You are my spiritual mother (I am very fond of my biological mother), you are an exemplary woman. You belong to a generation before mine with guts and a sociocultural background. You imposed yourself, you broke the rules and spoke freely. Feeling deeply that you belonged to Ravenna with limitless vigor and determination, you defended your home as the capital city of mosaic. Then, as a female Don Quixote, you gave a major impulse to have it gain the new title of capital city of contemporary art mosaic. You rode many lands far away on the five continents to talk about mosaic as an art form and the mosaic world of the five continents came to you.
By the middle of the Seventies, (more)
Verdiano Marzi
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AIMC Congress in Saint-Petersburg - October 1992 |
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AIMC Congress in Kamakura 1994. Isotta Fiorentini Roncuzzi, Ilana Shafir, Silvana Juogovaz, Beatrice Propetto Marzi, France Hogué |
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Isotta Fiorentini Roncuzzi 1999 with Felice Nittolo
THE SMILE OF ISOTTA
The last time I saw the smile of Isotta was about a year ago when I went to the "house" which hosted her in Marina Romea, just a few kilometers from Ravenna. I speak of "smile" because, despite her difficulty in recognizing people, she had kept the affability, gentleness and acceptance of the Isotta I met in 1999 when, at her home in Ravenna, surrounded by her books and all that she loved, she gave me an interview about her life and about the reason behind the choices she had made.
In those years I had started the historical reconstruction of the lives of the "Maestri Mosaicisti del '900” (Mosaic Masters of the 20 th century) in Ravenna and I asked Isotta to talk about her relationship with the “Gruppo Mosaicisti”, with Ravenna, and with mosaic.
In answer to my request to narrate some emblematic episode about Ravenna and of mosaic, she answered thus: "I have always tried to understand why Ravenna is important for its mosaic. One day I was on the train . . . (more)
Felice Nittolo
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In search of the famous mineral Natron with Nikos Tolis. Egypt, 1996.
Isotta, a profound absence
Since November 22, the world of mosaic has been mourning the absence of the beloved Isotta Fiorentini Roncuzzi .
To write about our dear Isotta is not a simple task. First, she possessed so many qualities and activities, developed during a lifetime dedicated to mosaic, that it would require a lengthy research and an excess of time and space.
What could one say about the Professor who, for more than thirty years, taught countless students Mosaic Technology at “l’Istituto Statale d’Arte per il Mosaico di Ravenna” (the Art Institute for Mosaic of Ravenna), Chemistry, Mineralogy and Biology at “la Scuola di Restauro del Mosaico di Ravenna” (the School of Restoration of Mosaics of Ravenna), and who has given lectures and courses on the mosaic and its materials at many Italian and foreign universities and institutes?
How could one present her constant and passionate commitment as a researcher and author, who offered us many books, publications and conferences in Italy and abroad on mosaic, its history and technology, its materials and its conservation and restoration, in collaboration with the National Research Center CNR-IRTEC of Faenza and its seat in Ravenna?
In truth, Isotta did not limit herself to basic teaching. (more)
Nikos Tolis
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Thank you!
-submitted by Lila Abdul-Rahim
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