Homo Faber is looking to the future, exploring how craft, creativity and beauty can be a salve for this distressed world—an idea emphasised by Devlin, Cavalli, Gianfelice Rocca, president of the Fondazione Giorgio Cini, and Simone Venturini, mayor of Venice. In this edition of Homo Faber, Devlin divides the displays into 15 sections spread across what used to be a centuries-old monastery. One could easily spend an entire day poring over the works, but if you have limited time, ensure you do not miss these:
A Language of Hands
We start at the very beginning, with an intimate look into the artisan’s studio, where each piece begins. The walls are covered in materials, and workstations are littered with fragments of objects—some completed, some in progress, and some waiting to take shape. The space is not staged; it thrums with the energy of creation. Walking through the space gives one the impression that the craftsmen have just stepped out, and will return to continue making at any moment. The large open space is occupied by myriad crafts—woodworking, metalworking, papermaking, ceramics, embroidery, sewing, and weaving to name just a few. Visitors are encouraged to sit and become a part of the process—to embody the maker, rather than merely be a spectator.
An Alphabet Of Objects
In the room An Alphabet of Objects, where more than 100 works are back-lit so their silhouettes fall across the facing walls as an ideographic language, Indian terracotta answers Devlin’s brief for intricate outlines and earthy tones. Suraj Sahu builds architectural sanctuaries in clay; Dolon Kundu and Kunal Ukey work in terracotta, the latter in a wooden frame holding more than a hundred vessels; and Rajka Pottery contributes a trio of horses.
Courtesy of the Michelangelo Foundation
Handmade objects have always had distinctive silhouettes—as evidenced by the fact that people of the modern age can still identify the form of an urn or bowl drawn into the walls of a cave by humans who lived centuries before us. These objects form the alphabet of a larger craft language that all of humanity speaks. Here, light illuminates the complex forms and textures of craft objects, and also reveals their shadows. As the library of objects slowly rotates, these shadows get animated across the walls—harking back to fire-lit caves engraved with drawings.