Ugo Marano has been an Italian artist (Cetara 1943 – 2011), he studied at the Mosaic Academy in the Reverenda Fabbrica of St. Peter, in Vatican City Rome, and attended also the Mosaic Academy in Ravenna. One of his first artworks was the restorations of the mosaic’s of the chapel of St. Andrew (V sec.) at the Archbishop’s Museum of Ravenna. To follow his personal artistic vision Ugo started since 1967 to create artworks aiming to merge art and daily objects. The radical idea to bring back art in people’s daily life made him to create in 1971 the project Museo Vivo (Alive Museum). This project was realized installing a ceramic oven in the middle of a forest full of trees, a place rich of “positive radicalism”. During this project Ugo started the co-operation with the musician Stockhausen developing many beautiful artworks. In 1974 he has been a member of the Il laboratory of Mercato San Severino, a group of experimental artists who mixed various forms of art from poetry to music. In 1975 Ugo was invited to exhibit at the Quadrennial in Rome and the Biennial in Venice, where he was invited again, in 1976, to propose the project “Ambiente come sociale” (Environment as sociality). In 1979 Ugo exhibited at the Triennale in Milan. In 1980, he displayed again at the Biennial in Venice during an event called “Il tempo del museo” (The Time of the museum). The same year he also created the project “Fabbrica Felice” (Happy Factory), in which Ugo tried to build a new space for a new man. In this space the new man is supposed to find an emotional relationship with art which will give him motivation and will sustain him in the daily life struggle. In 1982 he exhibited at the Centre Pompidou in Paris his “Manifeste du livre d’artiste” (Manifest of a free artist). In 1990-1991 and in later years he again exhibited for the Triennale in Milan and at the Groninger Museum in Holland. In 1995, he exhibited in Paris at the Carrousel du Louvre and in 1996, he realized two utopian pieces of art: the “Fontana Felice” (Happy Fountain) in Salerno and the “Museo Citta’ Creativa” (The Creative City Museum) a Rufoli in Italy. In 2001 he created the artwork called “La fontana di Napoleone” (Napoleon’s Fountain) in the town of Cetara. In 2002 he was called to create two amazing artworks for the subway in Naples, in co-operation with the Arch. Mendini. In 2003 he inaugurated “La Fabbrica Creativa” (Creative Factory), an initiative funded by the union of the Councils around the town of Copparo. For the occasion Ugo worked very close with the economist Pasquale Persico to produce artworks inside the factories. The aim of this work was to produce a “cultural glue” which can merge and unite a vast territory, expressing with each single artwork values of union and identity. In 2004 he co-operated with the group STS (Latz, with Pession and Cappato) and won the international contest for the creation of the Park Dora Spina 3 in Turin and exposed at Paray Le Monial, in France for the exposition Mosaique de design (Design’s Mosaic). In 2005 Ugo won the national contest for the creation of a monument for Mamma Lucia (Mother Lucy) and attended the international show 100 Faccie 100 Progetti (100 faces 100 projects) in Verona. Ugo also participated to the show Mundus vivendi (Living world), with Sottsass, Branzi, Coppola and Hosoe, creating a whole floor painting. In 2007 he attended the meeting of the poets, whit Lawrence Ferlighetti, Jack Hirschman, Agneta Falk and the talented photographer and filmmaker Chris Felver. In 2010 he received a career award for the ceramic and mosaic in Pordenone and presented his new artworks, the mosaic vases called “Canopi”.