Experience Venice’s creative side with Homo Faber in spring 2022
Explore the city in a new way by taking a bespoke, self-guided tour of
Venice’s hidden crafts workshops
Piece crafted by rowlock maker Piero Dri ©All rights reserved
Every visitor to Venice has seen St Mark’s Square, the Doge’s Palace and the Rialto bridge. But have you visited the 18th century looms of one of the city’s oldest weaving workshops? Or watched one of the only remaining gold leaf beaters at work? Or witnessed how a gondola maker meticulously crafts one of the city’s iconic boats?
Venice is a city built on craftsmanship. Whether in its striking architecture and finely restored hotels, the exquisite staging of its opera productions and the cuisine of its top restaurants, the artisanal touch is apparent wherever you go. But away from the tourist crowds, the true charm of Venice lies in the workshops and small artisanal businesses tucked away in the city’s backstreets. Homo Faber Event invites you to experience the lagoon city in a different way on a self-guided tour of the city’s hidden artisanal addresses through Homo Faber in Città, an immersive, city-wide addition to the main exhibition on San Giorgio Maggiore island next April.
Using the dedicated website and app, take yourself on a unique, creative journey through Venice and the surrounding region, which will open your eyes to the creativity and savoir-faire embedded within its streets. Experience daily life in a workshop, have a go at age-old crafts, experience an exhibition and buy custom-made gifts you’ve seen being made in front of your eyes.
With more than 60 artisans, manufacturers, workshops, galleries and museums taking part, there are myriad ways to experience Homo Faber in Città. Either follow one of the specially curated thematic itineraries available through the website and app, or create your own bespoke tour based on your particular desires and interests.
On your experiential tour you could:
• Delve into the backstage creative workshops of famous opera house La Fenice, where the sets are brought to life by a team of skilled master artisans, from decorative painters to woodworkers.
• Watch 18th century wooden looms being operated by skilful hands at the traditional family-run textile manufacturer Tessitura Luigi Bevilacqua, and browse the company’s exquisite soprarizzo velvets, damasks, brocades, silks and satins.
• Explore the last furnace operating with fire in Venice, Orsoni, which produces hand cut artisanal mosaics. Discover the infinite shades showcased in the colour library and marvel at each creative step required to create the ‘smalti’ (hand cut glass pieces).
• See how the pastry chefs of family bakery Pasticceria Dal Nono Colussi craft the finest macaroons, baicoli (Venetian biscuits) and fugassa (Venetian fruit bread) using all natural ingredients, just as they did three generations ago.
• Visit the workshop of glassmaker Massimo Micheluzzi, whose eclectic body of work is inspired by the traditions of the glassmaking island of Murano and the life and history of Venice.
• Enjoy a two-hour jewellery experience with Venetian native Valeria Sacchi Boncompagni, which gives you the chance to handcraft your own piece of jewellery using the lost wax casting technique.
• Learn about the glaçage leather polishing technique at the workshop of talented young shoemaker Gabriele Gmeiner, who settled in Venice from Austria to pursue her craft. Witness the art of made-to-measure shoemaking and perhaps have your own pair made.
• Understand how master tailor Franco Puppato’s work is characterised by the personal relationships he builds with his loyal following of clients and by applying the technical method of trigonometry, which allows him to create made-to-measure suits using mathematical calculations. Maybe you’ll even want to order a bespoke suit for yourself!
• Witness gondolas being made with a trip to Cantiere Nautico Crea, where master gondola makers use meticulous manual woodworking skills to bring these iconic Venetian boats to life. • Take a boat to the island of Burano, with its colourful fisherman houses, to discover the Venetian lacemaking tradition at the workshop of Martina Vidal. Meet the few lacemakers still safeguarding this cultural heritage, browse the museum’s collection of antique laces and discover more contemporary creations at the showroom.
The Homo Faber in Città experience complements and runs concurrently with Homo Faber Event, allowing visitors the chance to fully immerse themselves in the creative delights of the capital of craftsmanship. Venice has long been at the forefront of contemporary evolution in the arts and is a place that brings people together to exchange creative visions, making it the perfect location for this groundbreaking exhibition and cultural experience.
The full programme, with details of participating artisans, ateliers, museums and galleries, will be launched in early 2022, available on
homofaber.com
Notes for editors
homofaber.com
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Homo Faber Event
Crafting a more human future
Fondazione Giorgio Cini, San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice
Organised by the Michelangelo Foundation for Creativity and Craftsmanship, the Homo Faber Event is an international exhibition that champions artisanal talent, showcasing an impressive variety of materials, techniques and skills through live demonstrations, immersive digital experiences and imaginative displays of handcrafted creations. From functional everyday objects to outstanding decorative pieces, this edition highlights craft’s role in creating a more sustainable and inclusive future. The event offers a rare chance to admire the prestigious work of a selection of Japan’s National Living Treasures and to experience craft and its connections to the arts and to the design world. Visitors can join guided tours of the 15 exhibition spaces led by passionate students participating in the Young Ambassadors Programme. Imagined by a team of world-renowned curators and designers, the scenographic event transforms the magnificent spaces of the Fondazione Giorgio Cini, located on San Giorgio Maggiore Island in the heart of the Venetian lagoon. On top of the event, the Homo Faber in Città project gives visitors a chance to experience craftsmanship across Venice through tailor-made itineraries. homofaber.com
The Michelangelo Foundation for Creativity and Craftsmanship is a non-profit institution based in Geneva, Switzerland, which champions contemporary craftspeople worldwide with the aim of promoting a more human, inclusive and sustainable future. The Foundation seeks to highlight the connections between craft, the wider arts and the design world. Its mission is to both celebrate and preserve craftsmanship and its diversity of makers, materials and techniques, by increasing craft’s everyday recognition and its viability as a professional path for the next generations. From engaging educational programmes such as the Summer Schools, to its signature digital project the Homo Faber Guide and the international exhibition Homo Faber Event, the Foundation is fostering a cultural movement centred on master artisans and rising stars. michelangelofoundation.org
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