Milan Design Week celebrates artisanal crafts with Artesanos

Designs by Zaven (left) and Maddalena Casadei (right)

(Image credit: Alessandro Treves)

published 11 April 2024

Artesanos Manufactura Peruana makes its debut at Milan Design Week 2024, offering a narrative of heritage, renewal, and the timeless appeal of artisanal craftsmanship, with contemporary designs by Maddalena Casadei, Giulio Iacchetti, and Zaven. Curated by Luisa Bertoldo and Fabio Colaci, the project is on view at the revitalised Ex Cinema Casoretto in Lambrate until 21 April 2024.

Artesanos Manufactura Peruana at Milan Design Week

Established in the 1970s, Artesanos is an initiative of Operazione Mato Grosso (OMG), a youth movement founded by the visionary Padre Ugo De Censi. The aim of Artesanos is to offer nourishment while nurturing impoverished youth through the language of art, sculpting a future liberated from poverty's shackles. It's a story where beauty intertwines with social transformation, where the hands that shape clay and carve wood craft destinies anew.

Milan Design Week — Designs by Giulio Iacchetti

Over its history, Artesanos has evolved into a lifeline for over 400 artisans, weaving a tapestry of support across the Peruvian Andes and beyond, establishing schools, soup kitchens, hospitals, and more, each a testament to the resilience of the human spirit. In 2021, curators Luisa Bertoldo and Davide Fabio Colaci began collaborating with a cadre of volunteers and creatives, exploring the essence of Artesanos' legacy, breathing new life into the 'talleres' – the workshops.

Among the chosen figures to embark on this new chapter were Italian designers Maddalena Casadei, Giulio Iacchetti, and design duo Zaven (Enrica Cavarzan and Marco Zavagno). For the project, they travelled to the lofty heights of Chacas, the headquarters of Artesanos, nestled 4000 meters above the Andean peaks, to collaborate with the artisans on new designs made of wood.

Here, amidst the whispering echoes of centuries past, the 'ADB24' collection was born - a marriage of tradition and innovation, where the pulse of ancient cultures beats in harmony with contemporary design. As Colaci articulates: 'Our project embodies a transformative process rather than originality per se. It's a delicate interplay, melding the rich memories of Andean artisans with the evolving designs contributed by volunteers over time. It's a layering of symbols and transformations from a distant land infused with our contemporary design culture.'

Artesanos, A Design for Life, is on view until 21 April, during Milan Design Week 2024

Ex Cinema Casoretto
Piazza San Materno, Casoretto / via Lambrate

artesanoscollection.com

Maria Cristina Didero is an independent design curator, consultant and author, who has contributed to many publications over the years. Didero has consulted for companies such as Vitra, Fritz Hansen, Lexus, Fendi, Louis Vuitton, Valextra among others. Based in Milan, she works internationally, curating exhibitions for institutions: some of her most recent projects include Nendo: The Space in Between and The Conversation Show at the Holon Design Museum, Israel; FUN HOUSE by Snarkitecture at National Building Museum, Washington D.C.; SuperDesign a project about Italian radical design, NY; Vegan Design, or the Art of Reduction by Erez Nevi and The Fish and The Crowd by Carlo Massoud, Milan. In April 2022 she curated a Mathieu Lehanneur exhibition at the Triennale in Milan called The Inventory of Life, while in July she debuted a project at the MK&G in Hamburg titled Ask Me if I Believe in the Future, alongside a series of ongoing collaborations. She was appointed 2022 Curatorial Director of Design Miami/. She is currently preparing two projects for Milan Design Week 2023.

Artesanos Manufactura Peruana at Milan Design Week

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