Opening on Saturday 10 October at 11.00 at Palazzo Tadea, in the Castle of Spilimbergo (Pordenone), the exhibition “CREAttivo. Eccellenze FVG fra arte e impresa” (CREAtivity: excellence from art to business), the first public appearance of the project conceived and directed by Sabrina Zannier for the Maravee Cultural Association with the support of the region of Friuli Venezia Giulia, the partnership of CRAF, the Municipalities of Spilimbergo and Gemona del Friuli, the Opera Viva Cultural Association and the Slovenian Obalne Galleries Piran. 

Sedia Dining di Michele De Lucchi per Very Wood / intervento musivo Polina Kazanovskaia, ph. Valentina Cunja

Launched during full lockdown with the Mosaic School of Friuli through the Mosaic & Design Competition, aimed at inserting a mosaic piece into three items of furnishing – the worktop of the Loft kitchen designed by Michele Marcon and produced by Snaidero, the Brick ottoman designed by Paola Navone for Gervasoni, the Filla chair by Michele De Lucchi for Very Wood – the CREAttivo project then moved to the next stage. That of collaboration between the winners of the competition of ideas – the Spaniard Luis Guerra Sobejano, the Italian Beatrice Tagliapietra, the Russian Polina Kazanovskaia — and the companies that produced the prototypes to be customized with the mosaic elements.

After the companies had completed their work, the products were delivered to the School at Spilimbergo, where the artists achieved their design objective of creating a mosaic work able to communicate with the design of the object, while keeping in mind the sustainability of combining the two pieces in the context of business rationale. 

CREAttivo, Scuola Mosaicisti del Friuli, ph. Valentina Cunja

Initiated to develop two objectives by means of a concrete experiential dialogue, the CREAttivo project intends to feed into the manufacturing sector ideas, projects and artisan skills which pull together art and teaching; bringing company methods and logic into the artistic and didactic system in order to encourage sustainable creative production. The ultimate aim is to start from creative research in order to promote and disseminate the process of bringing aesthetics and culture into everyday life. 

Set up within a living area, the four furnishing accessories become a metaphor for creative projects linking home and design studio: the bookcase designed by Shiro Muchiri with the artist Alexandre Arrechea and built by Gervasoni becomes a place for thought and research; the Snaidero kitchen worktop symbolizes existential and cultural conviviality, but also the place of creativity and planning; the ottoman by Gervasoni and the chair by Very Wood represent dialogue around the planning table.

The production processes of these four pieces of furniture have been immortalized – within the companies and at the Mosaic School of Friuli — in the photographs of Valentina Cunja, the young and talented creative trained at the University of Ljubljana as a stylist and photographer whose work reveals an interest in hybrid forms of creativity, and in the video by Stefano Marzona with editing by Cabiria Lizzi. 

 

Scuola Mosaicisti del Friuli, ph. Valentina Cunja

 

At Palazzo Tadea the exhibition is divided into three rooms. The first gathers together the entire production process conception to creation, while the other two rooms of the exhibition are dedicated to photographs by Valentina Cunja. 

The curator Sabina Zannier states:

What has taken shape is an excellent and exciting operative group which allowed us to carry out the different stages of a project conceived as a way of articulating the work in progress which develops from creative idea to manufacturing production. The gaze of the photographer and video-maker will feed not only into the exhibition, but into two conferences in the factory on the themes of the vision and use of materials linking aesthetics and technology and in conferences where the entire project and the videos will be presented.

 

CREAttivo, Snaideo, ph. Valentina Cunja

CREAttivo, Scuola Mosaicisti del Friuli, ph. Valentina Cunja

CREAttivo, Scuola Mosaicisti del Friuli, ph. Valentina Cunja

 

 

For the Gervasoni ottoman the winner is the Spaniard Luis Guerra Sobejano.

With his mosaic proposal he expands the poetics of an object inspired by nature. The ottoman is a washed and polished log, furrowed with smooth cracks. Inspired by his personal experience of walking along river-banks, the Spanish mosaicist based the inset on the idea of a pivotal line that crosses the Gervasoni seat, making a furrow in  it. Into that groove he inserted the mosaic in baked white clay as if they were stones caught in the rolling of the tree in the water. 

Pouf Brick, design Paola Navone per Gervasoni / intervento musivo di Luis Guerra Sobejano, ph. Valentina Cunja

 

Winner for the Snaidero kitchen worktop is Beatrice Tagliapietra.

By inserting the mosaics in a hollow linear band, Tagliapietra sets up the idea of an archaeological discovery: a mosaic composition inspired by ancient Roman flooring, making use of two different motifs – one of basket-work and the other inspired by opus sectile (a technique that uses marble or glass paste inlay). 

Piano lavoro della cucina Loft progettata da Michele Marcon e prodotta da Snaidero / intervento musivo Beatrice Tagliapietra, ph. Valentina Cunja

Piano lavoro della cucina Loft progettata da Michele Marcon e prodotta da Snaidero / intervento musivo Beatrice Tagliapietra, ph. Valentina Cunja

 

The Russian Polina Kazanovskaia is the winner for the chair produced by Very Wood.

With a mosaic inset on the rear of the backrest, declaring a choice that promotes an unusual viewpoint on the piece, encompassing it in the round. Inspired by the seat-padding and the texture of the fabrics, the inset mosaic suggests an intertwining that only at first glance reflects the textile weave, before pointing out the difference from  the mosaic texture, personalized by combining the formal variety of the tiles with a more informal and fluid pattern. 

Dining di Michele De Lucchi per Very Wood / intervento musivo Polina Kazanovskaia, ph. Valentina Cunja

Dining di Michele De Lucchi per Very Wood / intervento musivo Polina Kazanovskaia, ph. Valentina Cunja

 

 

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