Founded in 2006, Officina d’Arte Ponte di Ferro is an associative sculpture workshop that provides a well-equipped and accessible space for stone carving in Carrara. The association was created with the aim of offering a point of reference for artists, students, and artisans, and over time, it has become a dynamic cultural hub, open and accessible to all.
Over the years, it has helped to create a network of sculptors, artisans, and creatives working in a collaborative and international environment. In addition to being a sculpture workshop, the Officina is also a space for cultural exchange, hosting artist residencies, workshops, and activities ranging from sculpture to photography, writing, and 3D modeling. This multicultural environment fosters learning and innovation, establishing a constant dialogue between young and experienced professionals, both Italian and international.
Throughout the years, we have welcomed hundreds of sculptors from all over the world, strengthening a European network of exchanges and collaborations that extends beyond local boundaries, with connections in cities such as Genoa, Paris, Vienna, Athens, and Lisbon.
The Officina is a fundamental resource for young artists who, with our support, can make the transition from the academic world to the professional sphere, gaining experience, visibility, and job opportunities. We provide them with a place to complete their first commissions and connect with gallerists, collectors, and industry professionals. Through our ongoing commitment, we continue to promote art, culture, and professional growth, helping to make Carrara an even more vibrant and inspiring city for artists and creatives.
PONTE DI FERRO is an art association and a living organism.
It is a monument to labor, artistic collaboration, and a symbol of culture. Like a benevolent hydra, with its many limbs, it is more mobile than its marble masses might suggest. It is a heterotopia: an orphanage of history and art, in a society where both are given only limited space. It is resilient and can withstand even the harshest winters. It speaks many languages and has thick skin, made of multilayers of material.
Some say it is a place of transit, just like those who have departed from here, and the sculptures that will travel from here to everywhere. It has no flag and does not end at its gates, nor with the final touches. A fertile environment, its dust is like pollen, and its offspring always bloom somewhere. It is an estuary, a delta where internationality, intermediality, and interdisciplinarity blend as collective memory and a living archive in a transfer of knowledge.
Its hands have more than two hundred fingers; they sculpt, from 3D modeling to clay, and wherever something is about to close, they place a doorstop. It encourages individual creation as much as the dissemination of culture. It is a host of symposia and gatherings, a space for experimentation and a professional workshop. It has many faces: a mosaic of mirrors, and within it, a singular plural. It is a necessary possibility, social justice, and opportunity. It is a crossroads to which one constantly returns—not only to understand where one has come from, but also to grasp where else to go. It is a bridge. It connects distances, making what was once only air now passable.
(Katharina Klein)