A museum “is a not-for-profit, permanent institution in the service of society that researches, collects, conserves, interprets and exhibits tangible and intangible heritage. Open to the public, accessible and inclusive, museums foster diversity and sustainability. They operate and communicate ethically, professionally and with the participation of communities, offering varied experiences for education, enjoyment, reflection and knowledge sharing”. This is how the I.C.O.M. – International Council of Museums – precisely defines the role and purpose of a museum by paraphrasing its ability to transform what was once still-to-come and innovative into a past of value and worthy of memory.
It is with this in mind that a corporate museum is born, grows and evolves, nourishing its collection with the fruits of research and studies carried out by the company, as a dynamic and ever-changing entity by its very nature, generating innovation.
It was with the same philosophy that the Ocrim Museum was born in 2013, , in Ocrim’s historical headquarters, housed in the shed of the former foundry at Via Massarotti 76, the beating heart of the company throughout the second half of the 20th century. Since then, the museum has continued to expand its collection with works related to the history of Ocrim, milling, and the Italian agricultural and industrial context of the last century, up to the present day.
This year in particular, the museum has welcomed three new works in the historical rooms: a historical weighing machine from the 1920s, restored and placed on a pedestal to celebrate the close link with the sister company Paglierani – whose core business revolves precisely around weighing machines and weighing systems-; a manual millstone from the 1700s further embellished with a wooden casing; and, lastly, a unique piece, a work of art by Carlo Ravaioli, an Ocrim roller mill entirely decorated with a painting from the ‘future cities’ cycle, depicting utopian cities as a metaphor for the future crisis of man and the environment. A unique work of art that encapsulates the dual and controversial meaning of art itself: art as the fruit of human ingenuity, embodied by the mill, and art as criticism and social denunciation, conveyed by the painting.
The goal remains the same: to continue the work of preserving, protecting, and enhancing the heritage that revolves around the world of Ocrim, preserving the memory of the past in order to leave its mark on today’s engineering and milling sector and to inspire our future projects.