TUSCAN LANDSCAPE  Interview with Paolo Pecile (Manager of Terre di Toscana - Le vie della ceramics) What is Terre di Toscana - le vie della ceramics (Tuscan landscape - the ceramics paths)? In what cultural framework was it established? It's an association that includes three Tuscan towns, Sesto Fiorentino, Impruneta and Montelupo Fiorentino, that are connected to one another thanks to their ceramics production tradition. The association was established to give an answer to the strong necessity to connect territories that have specific traditions and productions, but that nowadays lack the right instruments to face the market correctly, especially when we have to cope with issues such as technological and / or formal innovation. Moreover, there was the need to set in motion territorial synergies, both on the political and the productive level. Our first step was a promotional campaign in order to become visible as ceramics productions towns at the national level. It's quite obvious that our principle is always the same. What I mean is that we're trying to join together strengths and capabilities in order to connect different experiences and energies on mutual projects. Impruneta, Montelupo and Sesto Fiorentino. Even if these towns are connected by one common background – the land, they also have very different historical and production characteristics. How can you bring them together in one association? Each town has its own specific historical, cultural and productive identity. However, each of them has its own characteristics, which are different from one another. Consequently, it would be wrong to talk about one Tuscan district of ceramics and to outline this district as one unique productive and territorial system. Numerous SMEs have their factories in Impruneta. Only a limited number of them is going on with the production of traditional special pieces or of furnishing pieces, though. The most of them has chosen to specialise in the manufacturing of tiles for floors and consequently have to face many Italian and foreigners big industrys that offer more competitive prices and better services. In Montelupo Fiorentino, on the other hand, the industrial area is composed of SMEs. Nowadays, in Sesto Fiorentino there are about 20 small and medium enterprises (historically the number of enterprises registered was about 160). Richard-Ginori stands out from the other companies, but we have to understand that this company doesn't really have a direct relationship with its territory anymore. This distance began when the enterprise Ginori was sold to Richard in 1896 and has obviously increased during these decades and because of its transformation in a multinational. The relationship with the territory has especially been important for the training of professionals. There are several cases of highly specialised workers who worked for a long time at Richard-Ginori and that left the company to establish their own business. This has happened especially when the company has gone through serious crisis. Territorial realities have a low level of visibility on the current market. However, it would be very important to make these productions easy to identify both at the Tuscan and at the national level. We can only manage to do this underlying the historical and cultural values of Tuscan tradition. We should try to link the individual reality with the larger Tuscan cultural and traditional framework which is related to the myth of Tuscan landscape that is predominant in Western collective imaginary. As far as you can judge, what are the perspective for the Tuscan ceramics in a globalised world? As already pointed out, it's important to give visibility to this field and to affirm the concept of a Tuscan DOC. Another important issue is the formal and technological innovation of our production, in order to make it more competitive. Design can be extremely useful to launch out an enterprise on the market, to shape a new image and to find new customers. Moreover, there's the field of technological up-dating and of technologies transfer from one sector to the other. This can open new interesting perspectives as well because it can help improve manufacturing systems. Obviously, we have to experiment and to dare to look for alternative ways. And that's one of the aspects the association tries to improve. In fact, we have to go over the difficulties of joining together, to overcome mutual distrust and to develop synergies together. However, the most important issue is the market. Researches carried out in this field highlighted the competitiveness with other emerging countries and the general 0% increase of sales, at least for the most traditional sectors such as cutlery, earthenware, plates and complements. The high or very high-end products have still a good market, but the most conventional products are loosing customers more and more. It's absolutely important to understand the expectations of the middle-class and how their tastes changed. In fact, historically, that is the social class to which this field addressed and that made it successful. For example, what are the consumption models of new generations? What's the main orientation of the income? Is the house still one basic ambition or one reason for self-fulfilment or a symbol of social stand? On the other hand, big enterprises can quickly study the market and its tendencies, while SMEs cannot cope with it. Consequently, it's necessary to establish consortial associations that can improve the knowledge of SMEs and help them to identify new lines of production. For example, the classic distribution system (sales agent - warehouse - retailer) is old and new models of distribution and sales could be tested. In conclusion, to understand the market demands and to outline the highest number of possible ways to face them is our aim. Craftsmanship and large organised distribution (LOD). Traditionally, these are two different methods to be on the market. Do you think there can be contact points? There must be contact points because the survival of this field depends on them. However, it's important to avoid the standardisation of the whole production and, on the contrary, we should be able to make tradition and craftsmanship experience two fundamental added-values that can justify the final price. Besides, the LOD is like a shop window and has become necessary because it can reach a larger number of users very different from one another. What are your activities and your programmes for the very next future? This is a very busy period for the association. In fact, there are several activities to carry out and we have to take into consideration the most specific issues of our field. We have managed to sign an agreement among the three towns and CNR to create the Virtual Museum of Ceramics. This is a good opportunity of showing the traditional production of our territories on a world - wide stage, that is on the Internet. We're also considering the hypothesis of creating some roads or paths aiming at highlighting all those experiences that are already present. For example, we're thinking about a sort of museum on the territory, that could match with the second name of the association, the ceramics paths. For our association, our full commitment during regional and national cultural activities will be basic. One of these is Settembre Sestese, but we intend to take part in the fairs of Impruneta and Montelupo as well and in an important fair such as Abitare il Tempo, which takes place in Verona next October. From one point of view our association wants to be considered as an autonomous and specific body in the world of ceramics. However, on the other hand, we think it important to establish a network of relations with all the other associations, consortia, institutions and schools (such as Artex, ISIA, Regional Network for Formal Innovation) which are involved in the marketing and the promotion of companies and work in the field of technological and formal innovation.

Text by: Barbara Giannessi I. II. III. IV. V. VI. VII. VIII. in cooperation with: Elena Granchi Sonia Morini TOP