Artisanship after Covid19: Some thoughts I felt compelled to share
Paolo Penko; Goldsmith - Florence
I recently received a touching open letter that Sorrento-based terracotta sculptor Marcello Aversa addressed to his "dear friend," his workshop, or bottega. The letter was written in Italian; I won't translate it to English because the sweet sentiment and sincerity of his words simply cannot be translated.
Marcello, like many artisans all over Italy, poured his entire life into that bottega. Countless hours and callouses have afforded him a space for his talent to flourish - something that must be relentlessly fought for and defended in this day and age.
Ironically, in our modern world, the promise of progress brought about by technology has alienated us from abilities that lie dormant within our own hands - uniquely human abilities that have borne singular responsibility for building civilizations since the beginning of time. Unfortunately, despite their merit, they don't have any automation features, upgrades comes at the cost of hours of hard work and it is difficult to scale their output in the global marketplace. As a result, these faculties that qualify us as humans have been marginalized in our society, giving way to “progress” brought about by technology and automation.
In an attempt to counteract this trend, people like Marcello Aversa, Paolo Penko, and countless other artisans like them have devoted their lives to craftsmanship and work tirelessly to defend the relevance of the human touch in the modern world.
I created L’Arte Nascosta because I share the philosophy of these craftsmen, and I am motivated by their determination. As hard as it is for me to imagine how cold and sterile this world would be without the contribution of artisans, I realize that, despite their perseverance, we are headed precisely in that direction: market pressures and inefficiencies of the globalized economy make it very difficult for these talented individuals to stay in business. As a research, storytelling and curation medium, it is L’Arte Nascosta’s mission to overcome some of these inefficiencies. We aim to lower the cultural barrier that exists between Italian master artisans and patrons from around the world in order to make the artisanal process more accessible to them, because we believe that commissioning is a meaningful and enduring alternative to consuming.
Paolo Penko; Goldsmith - Florence
Marcello Aversa; Sculptor - Sorrento
When considering the repercussions that are bound to follow the current Coronavirus crisis, however, it is impossible to ignore the additional challenges that many artisans will face; L’Arte Nascosta’s mission feels more poignant than ever. These people are highly motivated, and there is no doubt that they will work just as hard as before when they can finally return to their workshops; but there is an essential element to safeguard the success of their efforts: the interest and support of people like you and me.
I am proud to stand by Italy’s artisans and contribute to their efforts in any way, great or small, through L'Arte Nascosta, and I very much look forward to involving you in this mission. Over the next few months L’Arte Nascosta will enter into the second phase of its development as we build out the e-commerce portion of the website and transform lartenascosta.com into a curated interface that conveniently connects you to the botteghe and creations of the artisans that we represent.
While masterpieces created by the greats of yore are housed behind bulletproof glass in museums around the world, it is artisans that offer us a singular opportunity to come into direct contact with works of tantamount greatness.
Now more than ever, they deserve our attention.
Paolo Penko; Goldsmith - Florence
Marcello Aversa; Sculptor - Sorrento
Sorrento, Italy