The Tree of Life with 21 million visitors at Expo and online was the great gateway towards international recognition for the Industry Consortium “Orgoglio Brescia.” Now the new wonder brought by the association of Brescian companies is called Leosphere and it attests to their international ambitions.
A wooden sphere, 45 meters high, inspired by Leonardo da Vinci’s studies, will emerge in downtown Chicago in 2018 to celebrate through art the 45th anniversary of the twinning of Chicago and Milan.
Created by Florian Boje, this work represents the meeting, cross-contamination and dialogue between Italian ingenuity and American technology.
The Chicago mission, sponsored by the Municipality of Milan, was organized and coordinated with Joseph Monastero CO/ CHAIR Sister Cities International Milan Committee, Francesca Parvizyar CO/ CHAIR Sister Cities International Milan Committee and Robert Allegrini Vice President Corporate Communications – The Americas HILTON, with the support of the Italian Trade Agency of Chicago and the Italian Cultural Institute of Chicago.
A scale model of Leosphere will be on display from November 17 to January 7 at The Mart, the largest merchandising building in the world, with 372,000 square meters of space, an icon of the Windy City.
The work will be exhibited in a very prime location, on the ground floor of the building, in the Ernesto Meda Space.
The Orgoglio Brescia Consortium is comprised of 18 highly specialized companies and is led by Paolo Franceschetti.
Brescia is the second manufacturing province in Europe. It has a greater number of exports (in percentage) than the Italian average, huge technological potential and all the numbers to become the city of large works like these.
“We believe that only truly great, truly unique projects can be appreciated and valued at an international level,” states the President of the Orgoglio Brescia Consortium, Paolo Franceschetti. “Today we represent a one-of-a-kind project,” continues Franceschetti. “It is our ambition to furnish the world with our mega structures, which are imposing installations – an outdoor museum. In the era of Google maps, the Orgoglio Brescia Consortium prefers to create and install works in the most important cities in the world. The dream,” concluded President Franceschetti, “is to have a global circuit of history, culture and technology that see the works of Orgoglio Brescia as the new ‘destination pointers.’”
“We left Milan for Expo with a work inspired by Michelangelo’s Renaissance, the Tree of Life,” declares the National Vice President of Small Industry in the Industry Association and project team leader Giancarlo Turati. “We are now stopping in Chicago with a large work inspired by the genius of Leonardo da Vinci, Leosphere, which will open by Columbus Day 2018. Orgoglio Brescia is much more than a business project,” continues Vice President Turati. “It’s a cultural and business message. Thanks to the creation and installation of such imposing, spectacular mega structures, we want to call attention to the district of Brescia which has always been on the cutting edge.”
“The twinning of Chicago and Milan is the tangible demonstration of the strength and concrete nature of an event like Expo 2015, which united peoples and ideas,” declares Francesca Parvizyar CO/ CHAIR Sister Cities International Milan Committee. Our project, which began at that time in Milan, has seen us working busily these last two years to give concreteness and value to a partnership which further strengthens the bond between the United States and Italy. The Leosphere project is the symbol of Italian concreteness and ingenuity; the city of Chicago, the symbol of welcoming and vision.
“Chicago is preparing for the 45th anniversary of its twinning with Milan in the best way possible,” declares Joseph Monastero CO/ CHAIR Sister Cities International Milan Committee. “Leosphere is the symbol of this extraordinary initiative,” continues Monastero, “but it will also be a great work for the whole world. We’d like to thank the Orgoglio Brescia consortium for its work, its ingenuity and its foresight.”
