Pietro Salini: Italy's recovery also by supporting art

Rome, July 13, 2021 - 'Being here is a dream that has come true', declared Pietro Salini, Webuild CEO, during the revelation to the public, held today in Rome, of the Farnese Bridge, the temporary installation of the French artist Olivier Grossetête: a totally eco-sustainable 18-meter-long cardboard 'flying bridge' raised over the Tiber River with three large balloons.

'We are not just bridge builders,' said Salini. 'We are art-loving patrons and builders of bridges, and we believe that art and culture, just like bridges, create not only physical 'connections'. We believe in the value of building 'collective' works, like the Genoa bridge, which showed us a new construction paradigm. Just like the Farnese Bridge did. With our Cultural Agenda, we wish to be protagonists in promoting and conserving the world's artistic heritage.'

Pietro Salini subsequently added: 'Just like in the Renaissance art workshops, where collaboration created a fertile ground for the explosion of creativity and innovation, in the same way, we are convinced that to face today's challenges, a great collaborative spirit is needed, which begins from profoundly sharing intentions and objectives. Something positive can be done. Infrastructural works are opportunities: Opportunities for our young people, but also for our territories. We are tailors, who wisely use the materials and different techniques at our disposal, to sew our works within the territories, without hurting them, but enhancing them, instead. We did this for the Genoa bridge, which 'stitched up' two parts of the city, Genoa, becoming a reference model, both for the construction methods used, and for the innovative solutions too. We want to do this for other projects too, with a model that we hope will become a standard in Italy and beyond'.

The initiative was promoted by the French Embassy, with the Institut Français Italia, and the support of the Webuild Group, in collaboration with Villa Farnesina-Accademia dei Lincei.

The event was attended by the French Ambassador to Italy Christian Masset and Webuild CEO Pietro Salini, who welcomed on Ponte Sisto, also with the President of the Accademia dei Lincei, Prof. Parisi, the Mayor of Rome, Virginia Raggi, and the Vice-President of the Lazio Region, Daniele Leodori.