On the Notes of Time
Crafting Wonder is an initiative organized by Sara Sozzani Maino, Deputy Editor-in-Chief of Vogue Italia & Head of Vogue Talents and International Brand Ambassador for the Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana, during the last edition of Milan Fashion Week.
A new initiative, produced by Civita Tre Venezie and funded by Venetian Heritage and the Ministry of Culture, in collaboration with Gagosian and the Fondazione Cologni dei Mestieri d’Arte and supported by the Michelangelo Foundation for Creativity and Craftsmanship
News
April 2021
Research in the area of the culture of ‘women’s’ design, united with that of female artisans, skilled in the use of the most diverse materials, has always gone hand in hand with the activity of the association DcomeDesign.
April 2021
‘As a little girl I was silent as a fish and wished to be like them, living in wordless peace in the tranquil and limpid waters of a river or a pond. Now that I’ve grown up and become a Master of Paper, and have been invited to put on a new exhibition at Origami Do
March 2021
Crafting Wonder is an initiative organized by Sara Sozzani Maino, Deputy Editor-in-Chief of Vogue Italia & Head of Vogue Talents and International Brand Ambassador for the Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana, during the last edition of Milan Fashion Week.
March 2021
Fondazione Cologni and Valore Impresa Italia have embarked on a collaboration to develop a programme of studies devoted to restoration of the applied arts: a moment of exchange of ideas and a challenge to enhance and promote the training of the artisans of the future.
March 2021
Thirteen excellent projects that are looking beyond the crisis with creativity and courage: this is the most important result achieved by the ‘Premio Maestro di Mestiere’, awarded for the first time this year.
February 2021
Triennale di Milano until 4 April 2021
Interviews
The Milanese master luthier Carlo Chiesa is one of Italy’s finest craftsmen. Trained at the Civica Scuola di Liuteria in Milan, he constructs modern and baroque bowed instruments in his renowned workshop. He combines this practical activity with the study of antique instruments and historical research into various questions regarding Italian instrument makers and their techniques. He also carries out an intense teaching activity and takes young people who want to improve their skills under his wing: in particular he welcomes the apprentices of the ‘A School, a Job. Training to Excellence’ project promoted by the Fondazione Cologni, facilitating the transmission of his expertise to new generations.
Eva Seminara has taken up the mantle of a bookbinder’s workshop founded in 1966 and located in Palazzo Brazzà, Udine. In 1999 she became its proprietor, with the desire to preserve the artisan atmosphere and expertise of the workshop, while adapting and modernising some of its equipment. Her liberal arts education and great love of books has led the artisan/artist to give them a new lease of life with refined bindings of a traditional character as well as in a contemporary style, through the utilization and insertion of unusual materials.
The Great Design Disaster is a highly original and innovative project stemming from the creative exchange between the expert on art and design Joy Herro and the interior designer and gallerist Gregory Gatserelia, who have come up with a new way to approach the experience of collectable design. In a now saturated market, TGDD aims to introduce a new modality based on creativity rather than on acquisition. A market that puts an end to the traditional structure of demand and supply and that develops from ideas; a way in which people with creative imagination can meet up with talented artisans, to give rise, with the help of one of TGDD’s agents, to a product with an exclusive and unique spirit. TGDD is bringing in a completely new conception of the system of collecting, edging out the phase of acquisition and focusing exclusively on that of creation. And in this way collectors are able to become designers in their own right, relying on the collaboration with highly skilled artisans, carefully selected by Joy and Gregory: talents who can turn fantasies into objects. Joy Herro, who moved two years ago to Milan, enamoured of the craft know-how of North Italy, tells us how The Great Design Disaster works.
EL was born in 2015 out of the encounter between the graphic designer Isabella Attanasio and the architect Marina Migneco, united by their passion for the contemporary and for the crafts, for sinuous and dynamic forms and for experimentation in all its possible facets. They conceive, design, make, assemble and apply the finishing touches to their objects at their two small workshops in Catania and Venice, relying on companies in the Veneto to do the electroplating and precision casting. Recently they have also set up an e-commerce platform.
Orsola Clerici took a diploma in painting and restoration in 2002. Fascinated by the world of art and conservation, she decided to specialize in the restoration of contemporary art at Milan’s Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera in 2005. In 2007, capitalizing on her training and the skills she had acquired, she and Chiara Troglio set up Pictalab, a workshop of decoration located in Milan. In 2009 Pictalab started to specialize in the production of decorations on paper, alongside the decoration of walls, favouring themes linked to nature. Thanks to her commitment, manual ability and great expertise, Orsola Clerici received the title of MAM (Maestro d’Arte e Mestiere), awarded for the third time in 2020.
For over twenty years Elena Palossi, decorator and set designer, has been the proprietor of the Milanese studio LargheVedute, a well-established enterprise in the city, recognized for the design and realization of customized works and bespoke products. Each project is the fruit of a passionate work of creative research and study that leads to a contemporary, evocative and poetic end product, always strictly crafted by hand.
Events
May 2021
A new initiative, produced by Civita Tre Venezie and funded by Venetian Heritage and the Ministry of Culture, in collaboration with Gagosian and the Fondazione Cologni dei Mestieri d’Arte and supported by the Michelangelo Foundation for Creativity and Craftsmanship