L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, AUGUST 20, 2015 www.italoamericano.org L'Italo-Americano 3 R enzo Piano called it the " s t o n e w i t h a l i g h t i n s i d e " . T h e s e p o e t i c words used by the Italian archi- tect to refer to the pietra leccese have become a way to describe t h e u n i q u e n e s s o f t h e s t o n e which can be found around the S a l e n t o a r e a , i n t h e A p u l i a region. This ancient stone has origins dating back between 23- 17 million years: the calcareous rock belongs to the Miocenic limestone family and it consists of a granular mixture including microfossils, fragments of fos- sils, and pellets. Few people know that the Apulia region is the second place, after Tuscany, for the production of stones, whose requests for architectural p u r p o s e s b o t h i n I t a l y a n d a r o u n d t h e w o r l d h a v e b e e n increasing in the last few years. In the United States, some com- panies are now supplying the pietra leccese especially to build columns, fireplaces, and floors and decorate houses. We have met one of the last ten artisans living in the area who have first learned and are now keeping the tradition of crafting the stone: Giampiero Urso, now 55, lives in a small town called Scorrano and he is considered the "maestro dello scalpellino" for being able to use only traditional tools for his art- works. T e l l u s h o w e v e r y t h i n g started for you… I b e l o n g t o a f a m i l y o f builders who have been in the business for four generations. When I was 8, during the sum- mer season, my dad started to take me to the construction site and I ended up spending all day close to other workers. After a long time, at the age of 18, I began with my own activity. My first sculpture was the bust of a live person for a church back- yard. After that, everybody start- ed recognizing me as "the mae- stro" and more and more people asked me sculptures to decorate their houses. How did the tradition in your family change? W e u s e d t o b u i l d h o u s e s using the pietra leccese, also adding some sculptures and spe- cial objects to show symbols of the family or the county. Over time, I started to do something different because I like the art of sculpturing. I consider myself a naive sculptor: in my family, we are five brothers, but only two of us work with the leccese stone. Which is the most impor- tant feature of this stone? This stone is characterized by a white color and high moldabil- ity, made of a homogeneous composition, with calcium car- bonate as main element. The stone is pulled out as it emerges naturally from the ground, and can be extracted from 50 metres underneath. H o w d o y o u w o r k t h i s stone? This is not a marmoreal stone and it is easy to work with it . There are two kinds of stones, the one considered "soft" for objects and sculptures, whereas the other one is mainly used to build houses. Where do you find these caves? There are two only sites in the area, one in Cursi and in Melpignano. At the beginning, t h i s s t o n e w a s c o n s i d e r e d a "poor" stone, only during the Baroque Age it reached its great- est artistic interest. Nowadays, o v e r t h e l a s t t e n y e a r s , i t i s exported to Egypt, Emirates, U n i t e d S t a t e s , S w i t z e r l a n d , England. W h i c h i s t h e d i f f e r e n c e between the past and the pre- sent? In the past, the leccese stone was used by local people for buildings and for churches and monasteries. Now, these artifacts have become unique objects that people order upon request and buy for hundreds euros. Another difference is that in the past, there was no part of this stone left unused, so all the pieces w e r e u s e d t o m a k e d i f f e r e n t o b j e c t s . T o d a y t h e s t o n e i s abstracted just for the purpose of the order. Which kind of sculpture do Giampiero Urso: maestro dello scalpellino and the art of crafting the leccese stone SERENA PERFETTO Giampero Urso with one of his sculptures people love the most? A t t h e b e g i n n i n g , p e o p l e used to order objects which rep- resented mainly mythological figures. Also, the so-called "chi- ave" (key) was used as the main part of the building construction, but local families wanted to keep it unique and decorate it according to the history of their ancestors. How do you see the future of this stone production? I believe it is important that we are trying to keep the local traditions alive since less people are interested on doing this kind of jobs. That's also why some local schools are making an effort to include some work- shops of how to craft the pietra leccese and keep the skills alive especially among young people and the future generations.

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