abbiamo avuto assieme alla fine degli anni ‘90,
sia nel master.L’ho visto recentemente al
convegno per il 60° di AIDI e abbiamo parlato di
ieri, oggi, domani e di due nostre due passioni:
lo sci e l’illuminotecnica.
Di Mario ricordo le competenze senza eguali,
la serietà, l’affidabilità e la capacità di aggiornarsi
continuamente. Avendo collaborato anche nella
didattica ricordo il suo realismo, la sincerità
e l’estrema obiettività.
Mario lascia un vuoto incolmabile, sia dal punto
vista tecnico che umano.
Andrea Solzi
Direttore ASSIL
È difficile non rimanere affascinati da una
personalità carismatica e coinvolgente come
quella di Mario Bonomo.
Quando, nel 2016, ASSIL e AIDI hanno dato vita
a un percorso culturale e formativo comune,
dedicato alla formazione dei progettisti e
professionisti e che potesse concretamente
contribuire allo sviluppo di un’industria di
qualità, è stato fin da subito chiaro che Mario
Bonomo sarebbe divenuto un pilastro
del progetto “Formazione in Luce”.
Nell’ambito del corso “Illuminazione delle opere
d’arte, degli allestimenti museali e delle chiese”
è emersa con estrema forza la passione
e l’entusiasmo per la materia, la competenza
tecnica e scientifica e la profondità culturale
di Mario Bonomo. Il suo intervento, con il quale
affrontava con indubbia capacità e sensibilità
l’evoluzione tecnologica e le sfide del nostro
tempo, è stato sempre tra i più apprezzati
e acclamati. Grazie ai suoi insegnamenti siamo
certi che le nuove generazioni di progettisti
della luce saranno in grado di acquisire nuove
competenze, attribuendo alla qualità e alla
professionalità un valore che permetta di
differenziarsi ed essere più competitivi a livello
nazionale, europeo e mondiale.
Margherita Süss
Lighting designer, Studio GMS
Presidente AIDI 2015-2017
Nel dicembre 2018 arrivò in AIDI un’accorata
lettera di Mario Bonomo che raccoglieva i suoi
trasparenti e sinceri pensieri, espressi e ribaditi
come sempre con incondizionata passione,
relativamente all’approccio di comunicazione
e di operatività che l’associazione avrebbe
Mario Bonomo
A Master of light and in life
T
his July, a telephone call and a news deeply
saddened the world of Italian Lighting:
Mario Bonomo had left us for good. Together
with the sadness and grieving, in those minutes
I remembered, quite expectedly, another
telephone call, in July 2018, with the news of
the death of Barbara Balestreri. Both were great
figures in the world of Italian lighting.
Remembering Mario Bonomo in the September
issue of LUCE, as for Barbara last year, has
brought touching memories to the minds
of friends, professors and lighting designers.
We remember his intelligence, his lighting
design projects for the Vatican Pinacoteca
(Art Gallery), for the Saint Mark’s Basilica in
Venice, for the Basilica of Saint Francis of Assisi,
for the Sanctuary of Loreto, for the cathedrals
of Lecce and Spoleto, the Church of Saint Louis
of the French in Rome, and for the Basilica
of San Lorenzo Maggiore in Milan.
We remember the bond of over half a century
with his AIDI, the direction of LUCE from 1988
to 1989, after a long collaboration that dated
back to 1965, his participation in national and
international conferences, his teaching activity
at the Polytechnic of Milan, and much more.
A tireless tennis player, we remember how he
loved the mountains and the ski runs in his
Livigno, his long walks in the valleys of Trentino,
where he used to go in summer to take a break
for a week or so from his great, one and only
true passion: the light, of which he knew so
much about.
He leaves behind a deep emptiness in the world
of Italian lighting: from lighting designers to
enterprises, from the academic world that
shared the class rooms of the Polytechnic with
him to the young students that followed his
lessons with great attention and admiration.
An excellent conversationalist, he was curious
and his culture was deep, he loved music,
theatre, history, and he believed in research
and study; his character was rigorous, and yet
he was generous, cordial and ready to smile
at friends and colleagues. He listened willingly
and rarely did not express his opinion, also
passionately, as he did on every occasion with
precision, politely, and always constructively.
An honorary member of AIDI, author of
important and successful books on lighting
design, he offered his great competence,
conviction, and dedication to AIDI and LUCE,
to collaborators, members, and students, filling
them with confidence, advice, and passion.
The young and the less young, yes, because
at the age of 93 many generations of men and
women and students knew him and appreciated
him professionally, remembering him today
as a pioneer of Italian lighting design.
Paraphrasing the thought of Harold Bloom on
Wordsworth, we will remember his “canonical”
memory, because for decades he has carried out
for us the selection of this technical-scientific
discipline, and as a Hermes told us what to
study, what to remember, what to do, “not so
that we will be saved or become prudentially
wiser, but because only the myth of memory
can redress our experiential losses.”
A Master who deeply marked the history of AIDI,
he enhanced the meaning of the words Culture
of light to a precious and fundamental value.
Mario Bonomo has left us and today we are
all a little more alone, but his memory, his
dovuto adottare verso i propri soci.
Dare indicazioni “su come si risolvono
problemi più comuni, semplici e anche
complessi, di progettazione di luce, non solo
artificiale, ma anche naturale, con spiegazioni
chiare aventi come obiettivo non l’auto
referenzialità”, citando espressamente le sue
parole. Esse ricordano a tutti coloro che lo
hanno conosciuto esattamente quanto queste
righe lo rappresentino.
Perché Mario era un Maestro, buono, onesto,
ma sempre modesto… eppure avrebbe potuto
insegnare a tutti noi senza alcun carattere
di presunzione, perché chiunque gli avrebbe
riconosciuto l’autorevolezza per poterlo fare.
Ricordo quanto fossi stata felice, nel leggere
tra le sue parole, un riferimento molto positivo
al mio impegno personale nei confronti
della nostra Associazione: riferimento che non
poteva che essere schietto e sincero.
Perché Mario non avrebbe mai detto o scritto
qualcosa che non pensava realmente.
Perché Mario ha sempre fatto dell’onestà
intellettuale la sua cifra professionale.
È stato un Maestro per molti… e per me
anche un amico davvero speciale
e indimenticabile.
writings, his elegance, his grace, his work ethic
– tempered by his youth studies in that forge
of talent which is the Politecnico di Milano, first,
and from a career in a prestigious company such
as Enel and as a professional lighting designer,
then – will hardly fade away from our memory.
One day, when the great book on light will be
written, his name will run next to the other great
protagonists, in the golden and luminous pages
that will tell the story of the world of Italian
lighting, of its lighting designers, scholars,
entrepreneurs, and of AIDI, APIL, and ASSIL.
We are grateful to him for all he has done, and
for what he was for us, who from tomorrow will
face a new day imagining that another star,
faraway, so close, will light the sky above us,
like Wim Wenders’ angels.
Silvano Oldani
Gian Paolo Roscio
President of AIDI
I met Mario Bonomo in 2003, when I was elected
for the first time in the National Board of Directors
of AIDI. And I must say that the first times we met,
I looked upon him with a certain reverential fear.
He was a well-established professional, while
I was almost a beginner in the fascinating
and legendary world of Italian lighting.
From the very start I noticed his helpfulness, his
courtesy, and especially his ability to make you
feel at ease. As the years went by, we discovered
that the beginning of our professional life was
almost identical, as we both worked for electric
power distribution networks – he had worked
at Enel, as I worked at AEM in Turin.
His competence, his rigour, and his professional
qualities were well-known; everyone knew
Mario, his projects, his research work, his
publications, his teaching activity at the
university, and much more. He always carried
out these activities with enormous generosity,
LUCE / LUCE 329
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