A beautiful image that marks the passing of a trade from generation to generation. A girl who is learning the basics by trying the “tools”. A mother who is refining the art. And the grandmother who is teaching and checking, with the flick of an alert and expert eye, that everything is being done according to tradition. This is the sculpture of the “Merlettaie” (lace makers) making lace pillows, a work by Aldo Sergiacomi, a sculptor of Offida who died twenty years ago in the province of Ascoli Piceno, which has become the symbol of an entire city. People and relationships, careful glances and fast hands, tools and posture, listening and responsibility, present, past and future. It is a sculpture that evokes all of these things, a learning model that dates back to the shops of the Renaissance that should nowadays be encouraged in schools, companies and other places of work. It would make sense. 
This sculpture outlines a civil space where life and work are reconciled according to the Benedictine rule of “ora et labora”. An image that overcomes this dualism through a different balance between public and private space, between suffering and pleasure. It is within this frame of ties and know-how that the sense of work is enhanced to become a daily opportunity for achievement. An industriousness that – favouring technique and knowledge – requires a job done well and in a professional way, seeing it as a source of satisfaction and gratification. A sculpture that invites us to escape from the cage in which we imprison ourselves every day by working only for financial exchange. We can also work for the sake of doing good, glad to be able to share this pleasure. It would make sense for us and for others. Gabriele Gabrielli President Fondazione Lavoroperlapersona
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