Segni sul volto: new spaces for discussion and design. Interview with Carla Riccoboni by Le Arti Orafe

Le Arti Orafe:
The seminar/workshop SEGNI SUL VOLTO (SIGNS OVER THE FACE) will take place between October and November 2021, imagined by Riccoboni and organised by Le Arti Orafe, the first school of contemporary jewellery in Italy, founded in 1985 by Giò Carbone. Riccoboni, historic Italian designer and self-producer of jewellery, tells us about the motivations and aims of this initiative, which, taking into consideration the theme of the face, aims to open a collective debate also on the issues that have emerged with the Covid-19 pandemic on a relational, behavioural and identity level...

Carla Riccoboni:
This project was born from two needs, one very personal, related to my age.         
For some time I have been thinking about how to pass on the professional experience I have accumulated over many years of work. To pass it on, in the sense of making it available to the new generations, because the enormous changes that have taken place over the last few decades have made it possible for me to make the most of it. The enormous changes brought about by the development of technology in recent decades have opened up infinite opportunities, but they have also uprooted every certainty, every limit, and this open Pandora's box poses dramatic questions about the future.              
I, therefore, see this confrontation first and foremost as an opportunity to listen and understand what my mind sometimes struggles to accept, in order to contribute, if possible, to the construction of a more human and conscious future.

The second need, on the other hand, stems from the experience of the Covid-19 pandemic, an epoch-making event that we are experiencing at a planetary level and whose consequences are still unclear on a cultural and social level, and even less so in the context of my profession. I asked myself: how is the relationship between people and ornamentation changing?
Many daily gestures and behaviours have changed. The way of meeting, greeting, seeing each other, or participating in events has changed too. The concept of distance has developed: from physical to social and virtual, accompanied by the ritual of disinfecting one's hands or clicking a screen.
We shared the fear of contagion, with isolation and masks: an object/sign used simultaneously by a huge number of people, which inevitably became a symbol of our personal frailties and the frailties of the world. Hence the idea of considering the face, a part of the body that over the centuries has been the subject of much exploration, interpretation and intervention; often decorated with paintings, tattoos and ornaments; sometimes hidden under ritual masks, helmets, iron helmets, cloth veils; sometimes stylised, deformed or disfigured to the point of excess. The face is the most significant, most extraordinary anatomical part of the body: the first instrument of communication of our identity, our emotions and feelings, the first inalienable place of our existence, the first home of our soul.

Designing signs/objects for the face, therefore, means investigating something complex, profound and mysterious, going back to the origins, rediscovering the most authentic needs of our history in order to rediscover meaning and responsibility in our actions, today.
Can an object, a form, help us in this sense?
Obviously, the answers are not to be taken for granted, and for this reason, the project is structured in the first phase of documentation and analysis, with the participation of qualified speakers in the field of art and anthropology and with a broad, open, free debate.

The second phase, on the other hand, will be reserved for a dozen selected participants, and will be a collective project comparison between different skills and generations, to arrive at concrete proposals, and redefine, if necessary, the final objective. The proposed experimental working method, which I would like to define as artisanal/artistic, is based on observation, intuition and creativity, to exploit in real-time the contributions and stimuli that will gradually arrive from the protagonists who will take part in the project. The "ambiguous" sphere of contemporary jewellery, which ranges from art to design, fashion and costume, allows methodological freedom to intertwine knowledge and skills and provides novel solutions.
 

>> Click here to check the information of the seminar/workshop Segni sul volto.

In collaboration and with the patronage of





 

About the Interviewee

Carla Riccoboni, designer and goldsmith researcher, pioneer of self-production, has been included by Alba Cappellieri among the "masters" of contemporary Italian jewellery. Signs, rhythms and writings form the formal basis of her research, resolved in terms of refined geometric sequences such as the ALPHABET chains or aimed at recovering ancient repertoires, such as the VENEZIA and MADREFORME collections. Her pieces are mainly made using the traditional mechanical techniques of Vicenza's industrial goldsmith's art, such as "shearing" and - since 2007 - "stamping", after the discovery of about 2500 old mother moulds from Vicenza's goldsmith's history.

www.carlariccoboni.it