An important renovation and reorganization work of the exhibition rooms of the Museum of Carrara Marble took place in 2008. Besides artwork, archaeological findings from the quarry, and tools for the extraction and processing of marble, a new multimedia narrative path was born to highlight the city’s historical memory.

“We work from the stars to the stars”, say the lines of a quarryman poet as he recalls the days spent in the marble quarry. The multimedia narration is a homage to this knowledge, made of hard work and ingeniousness, to the poetry of making that characterized the Carrara community in time. The tales dedicated to the history of Carrara are placed on interactive surfaces that narrate the connection between marble and territory, the extraction techniques, and the usage of marble in art and architecture.

“You need a keen eye, you need passion and strength. It was a very tiring job, because the hammer weighed over 2 kilos and you had to work for eight hours… It wasn’t easy”. This and many other voices surround a big mound of marble dust on which virtual everyday gestures appear in layers, together with working objects and images from the quarryman’s world. The oral tale develops further in the last gallery. A picture gallery of portraits vivants gives voice to several characters bound to the processing of Carrara marble. They each have their history and experience, together with anecdotes, adventures, pains and sacrifices to tell: a mirror for the current population of Carrara to look into their past, but also a way for visitors to delve into the cross-section of a city that built its history on marble.