1660612134 Who claims the wise hands of the craftsmen

Who claims the wise hands of the craftsmen?

Craftsmanship must be promoted; it needs to be in the spotlight again: when you present meaningful, inspiring pieces to the viewer, they rediscover it. Craftsmanship is still crucial in Venice. You just have to get to know it better, love it more,” explains Alberto Vanderbilt Cavalli, General Curator of Homo Faber, the craft fair that attracted 55,000 visitors last May on the small island of San Giorgio Maggiore next to Giudecca and a short boat ride from Venice. Two months have passed since the event closed and Vanderbilt Cavalli is pleased beyond the numbers. “It’s a good character, but the most important thing is that everyone felt welcome because they were aware of being part of something unique, of a project that puts the man, the craftsman, above everything else. I think people felt part of this movement.”

The project is huge. On this occasion, 17 curators, coordinated by Vanderbilt Cavalli and selected from among the elite of design, architecture, scene or automobile – a 1962 Ferrari GTO on loan from Simon Kidston – colonized 15 different works of art at the Cini Foundation: an architectural one Complex with gardens, a Benedictine monastery and a 16th-century church. Its majestic marble facade, designed by Andrea Palladio, seems to reproduce the whiteness of the boats moored on the jetty next to it.

Porcelain sculpture by Katsuyo Aoki. Porcelain sculpture by Katsuyo Aoki. Angela SuarezDetail of the installation curated by Robert Wilson. Detail of the installation curated by Robert Wilson. Angela SuarezGlass sculpture by Lino Tagliapietra.Glass sculpture by Lino Tagliapietra.Ángela SuárezA box made by a Japanese master craftsman. A box made by a Japanese master craftsman. Angela SuarezGianpaolo Fallai makes a lithograph of an original by Dario Fo.Gianpaolo Fallai makes a lithograph of an original by Dario Fo. Angela Suarez

This second edition of Homo Faber, four years after the first (it is planned to function as a biennial), has explored the crossroads between Italy and Japan. “Craft is very important there, it’s considered an art form,” said on the day of the inauguration, veteran architect Michele de Lucchi, one of the curators who set up a paper craft space. “The Japanese are raised to celebrate: their idea is that you have to study from 10 to 30, work from 30 to 50, and teach from 50. This is how old traditions are preserved.” For another curator, Japanese designer Naoto Fukasawa, “craftsmanship reflects the Japanese philosophy and mentality. Those who are considered living national treasures—living national treasures—are people who have accumulated the knowledge of their ancestors but have also been innovative. What we show here, only they can do.” Curated by Naoto Fukasawa, the exhibition, which consists of 12 examples of the work of these national treasures, has shown the excellence and fragility of these professions. Moving around a black lacquer panel, one discovered that the center was decorated with almost microscopic inlays: a mist of gold particles that shimmered in the light. Laid-flat kimonos featured intricate geometric designs. And a rectangular piece of thinnest material that looked solid was actually a semi-transparent woven fabric. A virtuosity that has just disappeared: the author died just before the show and had no students.

In this sense, homo faber is a celebration, but also a sign of emergency, since many of the trades it promoted are about to disappear, victims of a consumption increasingly based on immediacy. The rediscovery of Venetian artisans is the second leg of the fair: Homo Faber in Città offered a tour of more than 60 places that represent the city’s handicrafts, from the magnificent palace where Mariano Fortuny lived – creator of his unmistakable folds, and from the prestigious ones Printed fabrics company that bears his surname – to the looms where the precious velvets of Tessitura Bevilacqua are made, or to the modest premises on Calle de Fallani, a silk-screen printing workshop. In 1970 the Venice Art Biennale established an experimental screen printing studio and Fiorenzo Fallani, its founder, was appointed director, earning the trust of the avant-garde of the time. Today his son Gianpaolo runs the business, although the future is not guaranteed either, as he does not know if his children, who are still young, want to inherit it.

Bringing life to serial versions of sculpture is creative but repetitive and tedious work, beautiful if not particularly lucrative, just like making mosaics, brocades, glass or plaster mouldings. In this constellation of trades, Venice has the hands of its rich decorative heritage, a legacy that Johann Rupert and Franco Cologni, founders of Homo Faber and the Michelangelo Foundation, an NGO that seeks to protect craft trades and strengthen their connections, are now attempting with design, and whose director is Alberto Vanderbilt Cavalli. “Crafts and industry are not antagonists. They need and need to work together,” says De Lucchi, one of the last remaining members of the generation of radical designers from 1970s Italy. He worked with Ettore Sottsass, one of the men who knew how to breathe magic into everyday objects. For Fukasawa, that’s key: “In Japan, crafts are valued, the problem is from a historical point of view. It is not viewed as an everyday source, but as antiquities. We need to tell people how important it is to keep these traditions alive.”

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