Designers and artisans come together for third edition of Doppia Firma, exhibited at Homo Faber, 14-30 September

©Laila Pozzo per Doppia Firma - MFCC – FCMA - Living

What happens when a talented designer collaborates with a master artisan?

The gold-leaf artisan finds a new application for his work that could give this highly specialised craft an exciting future.
The industrial designer gives a futuristic, functional twist to traditional papier mâché Venetian masks.
The artist discovers it’s the small variations in a weaver’s loom that bring the fabric alive.
The lace-maker creates a new combination of stitches based on a pattern on the Doge’s Palace in Venice.

This September visitors to the Homo Faber exhibition in Venice will also have the chance to view Doppia Firma (Double Signature). Now in its third year, this exciting project brings designers and master artisans together to create fruitful relationships and intriguing, boundary-pushing, original works.

For the 2018 edition of Doppia Firma, 13 top international designers from all over the world each teamed up with a master artisan in the Veneto region to create a unique object, or a small collection, that is a true collaboration between the two and bears the signature of each.

Highly-skilled artisans working with lace, paper, silver, ceramics, wood, glass and other materials or techniques collaborated with designers from countries including Japan, Switzerland, Uruguay, the US, Germany and Lebanon, each bringing their different cultures, approaches and perspectives to the project.

“I continue to study, work and design in the hope that lace-makers will not be seen as ‘hands that make lace’ but as artistic professionals with creative minds,” says Burano-based lace-maker Lucia Costantini, who participated in the project, interpreting the creative vision of Designer of the Year 2018 India Mahdavi. “This is precisely the concept I see in Doppia Firma: for the very first time the lace-maker has been placed on equal footing with the designer.”

The project was developed by the Fondazione Cologni dei Mestieri d’Arte and Living Corriere della Sera with the support of the Michelangelo Foundation for Creativity and Craftsmanship to further their mutual aim to create a dialogue between the worlds of craftsmanship and design.

Doppia Firma 2018 is one of the 14 exhibition spaces that make up Homo Faber: Crafting a more human future, a major new exhibition celebrating European craftsmanship, organised by the Michelangelo Foundation.

Notes for editors

Homo Faber

Crafting a more human future

14-30 September

Fondazione Giorgio Cini, San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice

Free entry upon registration at homofaber.com

Homo Faber is the first major cultural exhibition dedicated to the very best in European craftsmanship. Organised by the Michelangelo Foundation, it aims to put fine craftsmanship on the global map and increase recognition and visibility for master artisans. The exhibition will bring together a vast range of materials and disciplines, from jewellery to bespoke bicycles, from the rarest artisanal techniques to some of the most iconic examples of the finest European workmanship. Created by a hand-picked team of world-class designers, curators and architects, the exhibition stretches over a number of magnificent spaces throughout the Fondazione Giorgio Cini. homofaber.com

Michelangelo Foundation

The Michelangelo Foundation for Creativity and Craftsmanship is an international, nonprofit institution based in Geneva, Switzerland, which celebrates and preserves master craftsmanship and strengthens its connection to the world of design. Rooted in a tradition of culture and excellence and in the realities and challenges of today’s global economy, the Foundation seeks to support men and women who dedicate themselves to the pursuit of master craftsmanship and to foster a new cultural movement built around the values that are essential for their work. The Foundation focuses on Europe as a starting point for its activities, in recognition that craftsmanship has been a vital part of the economic and cultural fabric of the region for centuries. michelangelofoundation.org

Doppia Firma

This year’s designer/artisan duos were:

Ini Archibong (designer) and Elisabetta Bocchese of Miles (knitwear)

Inma Bermúdez (designer) and Giovanni Battista Fadigati of Este Ceramiche Porcellane (ceramics)

Giampiero Bodino (designer) and Gianpaolo Fallani (screen printing)

Serena Confalonieri (designer) and Francesca Merciari of the Abate Zanetti School of Glass (glass) david/nicolas (designers) and Giorgio and Alessandro Morelato (cabinetmaking)

De Allegri and Fogale (designers) and Andrea Zilio of Anfora (glass) Natalie du Pasquier (designer) and Emanuele Bevilacqua (fabric weaving)

India Mahdavi (designer) and Lucia Costantini (lace) Pepa Reverter (designer) and Mario Bertolin of Ceramiche Artistiche 3B (ceramics) Erik Spiekermann (designer) and Silvio Antiga (printing) Studio Swine (designers) and Giampaolo Babetto (silver) Philippe Tabet (designer) and Sergio Boldrin of La Bottega dei Mascareri (papier mâché) Kiki van Eijk (designer) and Marino Menegazzo of Mario Berta Battiloro (gold leaf)

Doppia Firma 2018 was first exhibited at Villa Mozart, Milan, during the Salone del Mobile from 17th-22nd April 2018. doppiafirma.com

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