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Everything’s now ready for the ribbon cutting for the 40th Cersaie, with the International Ceramics and Bathroom Furnishings Exhibition scheduled for September 25–29, 2023, at BolognaFiere. The event has already put up its no vacancies sign, with all its exhibition spaces in all 15 halls of the Bologna Exhibition Center booked by 634 exhibitors, including 245 from 27 countries outside Italy.
Cersaie 2023, which is expecting 100 thousand attendees, had a live-streamed press conference on Tuesday hosted by Giovanni Savorani and Emilio Mussini, respectively the president and vice-president of Italian industry federation Confindustria Ceramica. “Compared to last year’s excellent growth in turnover, which hit 7.2 billion euros for the ceramic tile sector alone,” explained Savorani, “2023 has seen a decline in both of volumes and revenues. Skyrocketing interest rates and inflation are causing a sharp cooling off in consumption and demand. And this is happening on different continents, not just in Europe. We hope that Cersaie will help us put this situation behind us.”
The most prestigious international event for the ceramic and bathroom furnishings sector is ready to celebrate its 40th anniversary with a retrospective of the road traveled so far, but also, and in particular, by throwing open the door to the future and continuing along “the path towards indispensable environmental sustainability in conjunction with equally indispensable social and economic sustainability,” added Savorani. The head of the ceramic industry federation went on to stress the importance of Ukraine on the international stage and the need to “start rebuilding the country now, and not wait for the war to end.” Cersaie 2023 will host the booth of the Ukrainian Ceramics Association inside the Services Center.
The Cersaie 2023 opening conference, entitled Cersaie 40: Made in Italy and the Challenge of Continuous Innovation, will be held on Monday, September 25, at 11:00 a.m. in the Europauditorium in Palazzo dei Congressi. Speakers at the event will include economist and former Italian prime minister Romano Prodi and Giuseppe Castagna, CEO of Banco BPM. Minister for the Environment and Energy Security Gilberto Picchetto Fratin, minister for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Antonio Tajani, and minister for Enterprise and Italian Manufacturing Adolfo Urso will also participate by video link.
At 6:00 pm, again in Palazzo dei Congressi, the Ceramics of Italy international press conference will take place, the traditional meeting with the media and journalists from around the world to illustrate current trends and future prospects in the ceramics sector.
Cersaie 2023 will continue its successful event format, which ranges from Tiling Town (Hall 32), a meeting place dedicated to everyone involved in ceramic tile installation, to the Press Cafés (Mall 29–30), informal conversations between the editors of 18 architecture and interior design magazines, and leading industry professionals. This year, the meetings can be followed both in person and will be streamed live.
The central element of the Building, Dwelling, Thinking educational program will be the conference PNRR Projects for the City of Bologna, scheduled for Wednesday, September 27, at 11:00 a.m. in Palazzo dei Congressi. The session will see the participation of Bologna mayor Matteo Lepore and president of the Bologna Chamber of Architects Marco Filippucci.
This will be followed at 3:00 p.m. by a conference presented by Chinese architect Xu Tiantian entitled Mother Earth, which will look at the revitalization of rural areas in China.
Again in Palazzo dei Congressi, on Thursday, September 28, at 11:00 a.m. there will be a session dedicated to 50 years of Jørn Utzon’s Sydney Opera House (1973–2023), whose story will be told by French critic and historian Françoise Fromonot. This is a project in which ceramics play a key role, with the characteristic prefabricated steel-reinforced concrete white sails covered with over a million glazed ceramic tiles.
Then at 3:00 p.m. in Sala Italia, architect Mario Cucinella will present his project for the Italian Pavilion at Osaka Expo 2025, the Ideal City. The event will also see the participation of general commissioner of Osaka Expo 2025 Mario Vattani.
Friday, September 29 will see the post-pandemic return of the Lesson in Reverse event aimed at high school students, scheduled for 11:00 a.m. at the Europauditorium, hosted by Stefano Mancuso, professor at the University of Florence and founder of plant neurobiology.
Entitled Route40, curated by Davide Vercelli, and designed by Dario Curatolo, Cersaie 2023 will also be hosting a special exhibition to retrace its 40 years. The exhibition will give visitors a chance to view the highlights of the past four decades, set against the backdrop of the great changes that have taken place in the cultural, social, planning, and manufacturing fields, through the products and projects that have changed the course of the market and design. Route40 will wind its way through the exhibition center from the Quadriportico, the starting point and conceptual link in the story, through Galleries 21–22 and 25–26, and on to the Mall in Hall 37.
All images courtesy Cersaie
