Between Collecting, Design and Handicraft
An urgent appeal on behalf of Italian Arts and Crafts has been delivered to the government in these days: a cry of pain and alarm for the sector, in deep crisis owing to the consequences of the health emergency.
The title of MAM (‘Master of Arts and Crafts’), established by the Fondazione Cologni dei Mestieri d’Arte in collaboration with ALMA, the International School of Italian Cuisine
News
February 2021
Triennale di Milano until 4 April 2021
February 2021
Among the exhibitions Homo Faber: Crafting a more human future, September 2021
January 2021
‘Cremona is Music’ is the new campaign conducted by the municipality of Cremona as part of the activities to promote tourism aimed at amplifying the effects of the campaign #inLombardiaComeMe
January 2021
On 15 December last the new and much awaited exhibition at the Museo del Gioiello in Vicenza, entitled The New Permanent Collection, opened in a strictly digital version as permitted by the national safety protocols.
November 2020
Join up with the Michelangelo Foundation to celebrate artisanal know-how and excellence through the online campaign #ExperienceExcellence
November 2020
The Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Biella, in collaboration with the Associazione Fatti ad Arte, is promoting the ‘Maestro di Mestiere’ Prize.
Interviews
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.
The story of Lorenzi Milano commenced when Giovanni Lorenzi, having survived the First World War, arrived in Milan in 1919 from the valleys of Trentino and decided to open his knife-grinding and cutlery shop in 1929, drawing on the experience he had gained as a shop boy over long winters spent in Germany. And so G. Lorenzi was born, a small enterprise devoted to the sale of cutlery and the sharpening of knives located in Via Montenapoleone and frequented by a refined and demanding clientele. Today the tradition of the firm is maintained by Mauro Lorenzi who, thanks to the experience acquired over more than thirty years of work in the family business, has decided to write another chapter in its history by opening a new Lorenzi Milano workshop in Piazza Filippo Meda.
Son of a craftsman, goldsmith and coral cutter, Platimiro Fiorenza took his first steps in his father’s workshop. Born in Trapani in 1944, it was as a child that he began to work gold, silver and coral, to cut his first gems, to get to know semiprecious stones. A craft that he has mastered and that he practices with great skill, producing sumptuous works of art, rich in detail and contemporary in appearance. One of his most prestigious creations is now in the Vatican Museums. For his undisputed expertise and as a worthy heir to an ancient tradition, Platimiro Fiorenza was awarded the title of MAM (‘Master of Arts and Crafts’) in 2018.
Events
April 2021
ArtiJanus/ArtiJanas is the experimental project of the culture of design and craftsmanship promoted and supported by the Fondazione di Sardegna and the Milan Triennale, with the collaboration of Fondazione Cologni.