A narrative landscape carved in natural stone: this is Fabula Litica: La Foresta Incantata, one of the featured exhibitions at the upcoming Marmomac edition, scheduled to take place in Verona from September 23 to 26, 2025.
Curated by Giuseppe Fallacara, a full professor of Architectural Design at the Polytechnic University of Bari, the exhibition is the culmination of Marmomac Meets Academy. This international workshop brings together universities and companies to explore the design and storytelling potential of natural stone, with a focus on the resulting technological and cultural innovations.
Verona, July 16, 2025 – The dreamlike landscapes and narrative twists typical of fairy tales become the design theme of Fabula Litica, set up at Marmomac in the experimental space The Plus Theatre, which aims to be a place where natural material gives form to design ideas and representations of the real world – just as fairy tales, through storytelling, create imaginary worlds.
The setting for the entire exhibition is a monumental forest of stone trees that hosts the various featured projects of this edition, each one showcasing the diverse potential arising from the synergy between academic research and industrial production.
The exhibition features works created through collaborations between prestigious universities and leading companies in the sector, telling a journey through the diverse techniques of stone processing and its numerous applications. These are multifaceted experiments where imagination blends with the very concept of the fairy tale, giving life to objects that seem to emerge from an enchanted world – an invitation to lose oneself in the forest of fantasy.
Contemporary meets tradition
Highlighting the dialogue between the contemporary and the traditional is Stonetales Box, a project developed with Sapienza University of Rome, which explores the complementarity between the manual skill of Kyoto’s ancient stonemasonry, embodied by Master Saida Sekizai, and the vision of the Apulian company Stilmarmo, long committed to the international promotion of Pietra di Apricena.
3D printing and lithic experimentation
A central topic explored in the 2025 edition of Marmomac Meets Academy is the application of 3D printing to natural stone. Four projects delve into the virtually limitless potential of this technology.
From ETH Zurich’s Pietro Odaglia to Florida Atlantic University’s Dustin White, and the Dutch company Concr3de, comes Baroque Glitch: Portal Fragment, a work that opens new frontiers in stone design and processing. Based on pioneering binder jetting techniques for stone, ceramic, and bio-based materials, the installation merges Baroque tradition with cutting-edge digital technologies.
From the synergy between the New York Institute of Technology, Polytechnic University of Bari, and Archimed, Anthony Caradonna and Alessandro Angione, along with Francesco Ciriello from a company specialising in additive manufacturing for orthopaedic devices, comes Sisyphus Absurd Hero: a monumental, diaphanous support structure 3D-printed in carbon fibre, holding the world aloft. The curators explore the human condition through the metaphor of the myth of Sisyphus, carved into a lithic sphere that unites technology and philosophical narrative.
Francesco Ciriello, in collaboration with the Dutch company Vertico and the Polytechnic University of Bari, also presents Minimal Bridge, a stereotomic arched structure in minimally shaped stone voussoirs, 3D-printed using mortars made from stone waste.
Fabio Tellia, associate at Foster + Partners, with Gateway to Avalon, experiments with an innovative „flexible stone” material – a patented blend of slate and polymer. The arch envisioned by Tellia demonstrates how stone, traditionally rigid, can become a flexible cladding for contemporary architecture through integration with 3D-printed components.
From the symbolism of the San Severo Chapel to new codes in marble craft
The sculptures of the Sansevero Chapel – particularly Cristo Velato by Giuseppe Sanmartino and Disinganno by Francesco Queirolo – are surrounded by technical mystery: the question of how it was possible to carve transparent veils and netting in marble remains a subject of awe and debate. Today, technologies such as ultra-high-resolution 3D scanning, computational modelling, and robotics applied to stoneworking are tackling similar challenges—sculpting seemingly impossible details that surpass human hand capabilities.
This is demonstrated by projects from the Polytechnic University of Bari, such as L’io invisibile, created in collaboration with SNBR, and La Fanciulla Velata. The first explores perception and identity, reproducing the intricate mesh of Disinganno through 3D printing and marble powders; the second challenges Sammartino’s technical mastery with a robotic reinterpretation of Cristo Velato – a Lecce stone sculpture titled Fanciulla velata, crafted by PiMar’s Robotics Department under the guidance of Prof. Fallacara and PhD student Marco Massafra.
Stone, environmental impact, and new structural applications
Apriti Sesamo applies the principles of kinetic architecture to marble, reinterpreting Jean Nouvel’s iconic moving steel panels of the Arab World Institute in Paris. A collaboration between Sara D’Adamo, PhD student at the Polytechnic of Bari, and the young company Màrlux Marmi, the project represents a novel use of marble: a traditionally heavy, static material becomes a subject of experimentation in unprecedented thicknesses and applications. Thanks to sensors, the stone surfaces open and close in response to sunlight, turning marble into an active architectural component. Unlike steel, marble also offers thermal benefits, acting as an inert material and a natural temperature regulator, thereby aiding passive climate control.
Why Not? is a project from London-based Arup Group Limited, a world-renowned structural engineering company, in collaboration with The Stonemasonry Company and Jakob. Responding to its provocative title, the team explores new structural uses of stone in contemporary architecture. Stone is positioned as a sustainable alternative to more conventional materials, such as steel and concrete.
Other prototypes include Diamond Line, a collaboration between the Italian Design Institute and the Chinese company PFM Imp. & Exp. Co. Ltd; Yggdrasill, the mythological cosmic tree by Ilaria Cavaliere and Dario Costantino from Poliba, developed with Bianco Cave; Lithic Rainbow, in collaboration with Stilmarmo of Apricena; Specchio, specchio delle mie brame, created with Gioia Marmi; and Metamorphosis, the central arboreal installation developed with Màrlux Marmi, a company specialising in complex, custom stonework with high technical content.
The exhibition also features: Janas, a project from the University of Sassari with Pietre Rare, a Verona-based stoneworking firm; Tappeto volante, from the University of Basilicata in collaboration with Mastropasqua Marmi and Tarricone Prefabbricati; Sipario dalle mille storie, from the University of Palermo with Cusenza Marmi; and Branching-Knot, presented by the University of Bergamo with Studio di Scultura d’Arte Giorgio Angeli, concluding the exhibit with a tribute to nature and contemporary sculpture. Finally, prototypes made from reused marble core samples are reborn as design objects by Stoneform in collaboration with young designers, and Germinario Marmi presents a diaphanous column composed of bolted marble tesserae.
The exhibition is part of The Plus Theatre, the cultural space at Marmomac directed by Giorgio Canale. This year, Le Corbusier’s famous Plan Voisin inspires the global installation geometry, reinterpreted through the timeless language of natural stone. The space represents a regenerative, dynamic cultural infrastructure, where ancient material meets future design visions.
From September 23 to 26, 2025, The Plus Theatre hosts three exhibitions, a wine bar, and a restaurant, offering a multifaceted narrative about natural stone, a protagonist in the major transformations in living, architecture, and design.
Marmomac 2025 | September 23–26 | Veronafiere | Hall 10 – The Plus Theatre
About MARMOMAC
Marmomac is the leading international trade fair for the entire natural stone supply chain—from quarry to finished product, including technologies, machinery, and tools. Founded in Verona, in one of Italy’s main marble districts, Marmomac is today the industry’s top international hub—a premier venue for innovation, culture, and education. With over 1,400 exhibitors from more than 50 countries and a global community of over 50,000 industry professionals from 150 nations (as of 2024), the fair continues to strengthen its role as a strategic platform for the sector, fostering connections among companies, designers, institutions, and stakeholders worldwide. A visit to Marmomac offers not only product innovations and the latest in machinery but also curated exhibitions, insights, and accredited professional training, with a special focus on the intersection of business, design, and cultural value—a globally recognised added value.
Partener Principal
MATEK Build Smart