The sublime sculpture Danza del Mare was created for the MSC Foundation in partnership with Venini, one of the world’s most esteemed glassmakers in the world which this year celebrates its 100 Anniversary. As a work of art, the creation, symbolises MSC Foundation’s dedication to protecting and promoting the natural environment of which we are a part and upon which we depend: our Blue Planet. The sculpture was designed by Monica Guggisberg and Philip Baldwin for MSC Seashore and is located in the MSC Foundation Centre, rising from deck 5 to deck 8, surrounded by a mirror wall that proliferates the light and colours emanating from it, lit by a spotlight located in its base.
The design uses the magical, fluid medium of glass to express the fluidity of the seas and everything in them, animal, vegetable and mineral, coral, fish, seaweed and oxygen. The immense depth and expanse of the sea, covering 71% of our world’s surface, is contained in the imagery of the sculpture, in its great height and the density of its contents, as if it were the sea itself in a soaring prism of charged and moving constituents. Partly an image of Earth’s lungs, partly an image of Earth’s nutrition and partly an image of simple beauty, it symbolises the sea’s indispensable role in our and our planet’s wellbeing. We are dependent upon it. It is not dependent upon us.
The Cruise Division of MSC Group has officially taken delivery of its new flagship MSC Seashore – the largest cruise ship to be built in Italy. Sister ship MSC Seascape is currently under construction at the Monfalcone shipyard and is due to come into service in winter 2022.
An intimate ceremony was held to mark the occasion as tradition dictates at the Fincantieri shipyard in Monfalcone and was attended in person by MSC Cruises Executive Chairman Pierfrancesco Vago, other members of the Aponte and Aponte-Vago families, Giampiero Massolo and Giuseppe Bono, Chairman and CEO of Fincantieri, as well as representatives from MSC’s new builds team along with executives and workers from the shipyard. During the ceremony, which pays tribute to centuries-old maritime traditions, Roberto Olivari, Fincantieri’s shipyard director, presented to Giuseppe Galano, Master of MSC Seashore, an ampoule containing the water that first touched the hull when the ship was floated out earlier this year.
MSC Seashore will commence her inaugural season in the Mediterranean offering the popular West Mediterranean itinerary calling the Italian ports of Genoa, Naples, for visits also to Pompeii, and Messina in Sicily; Valletta, Malta; Barcelona, Spain and Marseille, France.
On 31 October, the ship will depart Genoa for an epic 18-night cruise as the ship repositions to North America. From 20 November the ship will then offer 7-night cruises in the Caribbean calling San Juan in Puerto Rico, Charlotte Amalie in St Thomas, Puerto Plata in the Dominican Republic and then Ocean Cay MSC Marine Reserve in The Bahamas – MSC Cruises’ private island.
MSC Seashore Key Specs:
Length/beam/height: 339 /41m/76m
Gross tonnage: 170,400
Guests: 5,877 (max capacity for short international voyage)