News

Cultural Mission to Havana

Location: Havana, Cuba
PeriodOctober - November 2011
Partner: Officina del Historiador de la Ciudad de la Habana

A delegation composed of President of the Kepha Foundation Patrizio Benvenuti, the Director Pandolfo Pandolfi, and Andrea Pandolfi, Manager of Scientific and Diagnostic Research and Restoration, visited Havana, the capital of Cuba, in October and November 2011.

The purpose of the trip was to gain cognizance of a very important historical and cultural reality; the city of Havana, in fact, dates back to the 16th century, underwent great development in the 17th and 18th centuries, followed by transformation and growth in the 19th and 20th centuries.

In the years immediately following the 1950’s, the buildings of the city’s vast center suffered a significant degradation and interventions for the recovery of the most significant historical and cultural buildings began only at the end of the twentieth century. The Kepha Foundation would like to contribute to the restoration of certain buildings, in accordance with the recovery plan spearheaded by the Officina de Historiador de la Ciudad de la Habana, led by Dr. Eusebio Leal Spengler; buildings which shall be then destined to social and/or cultural activities.

During last November’s visit, a cooperation agreement between the Foundation and the Officina de l’Historiador was signed, which, after review by the Foundation’s Board of Trustees, will be implemented in the course of the upcoming years.

Integrative and comparative study of ceramic materials

Date: 2008 - 2011

A bilateral agreement exists between CNR (National Research Council) and CNRST (Centre National pour la Recherche Scientifique et Technique) for the realization of a joint research project entitled: “Integrative and Comparative Study on the problems of deterioration of mosaics and tiles of historical Moroccan and Italian buildings - proposal for appropriate preservation strategies”.

The project, developed by the Institute for Conservation and Promotion of Cultural Patrimony – ICVBC per il CNR and by Université Mohamed V - Agdal Institut Scientifique - Département de Géologie for CNRST, has as its main objective the integrative and comparative study of ceramic materials which comprise the artistic Arabic and Roman tiles and mosaics found in Roman and Moroccan monuments (Imperial cities) in order to examine their chemical, mineralogical and physical characteristics.

The Kepha Foundation, in collaboration with ICVBC, has undertaken similar studies on ancient pottery from Sicily and Mediterranean countries such as Tunisia and Morocco.

The Kepha Foundation and ICVBC, in examining similar materials from ancient Sicilian artifacts, will be able to compare the results with those obtained from the bilateral project mentioned above, as well as to find appropriate strategies for their preservation. Included in the research activity for the study of materials and restoration techniques in which the Foundation collaborates is a new research project of ICVBC, “Methods of restoration of decorative mosaics in Moroccan and Italian historic buildings”, approved as part of the bilateral agreement CNR (Italy) and CNRST (Morocco), 2010-2011.

From these studies it is expected to:

a) identify key petrophysical and chemical mechanisms responsible for the deterioration of ceramic materials;

b) compare the different production techniques and state of preservation of artifacts in relation to their varied exposure to environmental factors;

c) propose appropriate materials and techniques for the protection of the objects in good condition or for restoration of deteriorated ones;

d) develop new ceramic materials, for use in restoration and integration of the gaps in the deteriorated mosaics.

News

Wednesday, 04 January 2012

Cultural Mission to Havana