Mapei has become a technical partner for another major project and one of the main emblems of Expo 2015: "Il Seme dell'Altissimo" by Emilio Isgrò.
The work - conceived by Emilio Isgrò and produced by Henraux SpA - is deeply rooted in Sicily, the artist's homeland: "Il Seme dell'Altissimo" replicates an orange seed, which symbolises the origin of life and thus perfectly interprets the theme of Expo 2015 "Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life".
The majestic orange seed, which is enlarged one billion, five hundred million times compared to its actual size, stands seven metres tall and is sculpted from white marble extracted from the Cervaiole quarry on Monte Altissimo in the Apuan Alps.
The work stands on a fan of steps made of Versilys, a grey marble which also comes from Monte Altissimo, and is situated at the West Gate main entrance to the Expo Center, in a privileged position that makes it visible to all the visitors expected to attend the Expo from every corner of the globe.
Mapei took part in the construction of this extraordinary sculpture by supplying KERAFLEX MAXI S1 (a high-performance, deformable cement-based adhesive with zero vertical slip, Low Dust technology, and low VOC emissions - class C2TES1 as defined in EN 12004), for the installation of the marble base, and ULTRACOLOR PLUS (a high-performance, quick-setting, quick-drying grout that's water-repellent thanks to DropEffect® and mould-resistant thanks to BioBlock technology, belonging to class C2G2WA as defined in EN 13008) for grouting the marble coverings.
