Wilmotte Foundation Gallery presents the exhibition DOPPIA V from Verona to Venice with aiming to tell the story of the combination of three materials produced in two different places, Venice and Verona. Each artifact symbolically encapsulates the values and experiences of the person who created it. The DOPPIA V collection exhibits eleven unprecedented design objects created thanks to the blending of research and tradition and to highlight the relationship between the designer and the master craftsman, who has been able to grasp and interpret every single detail of the projects by the architect Jean-Michel Wilmotte.
Wilmotte Foundation Gallery presents the exhibition DOPPIA V from Verona to Venice with aiming to tell the story of the combination of three materials produced in two different places, Venice and Verona. Each artifact symbolically encapsulates the values and experiences of the person who created it. The DOPPIA V collection exhibits eleven unprecedented design objects created thanks to the blending of research and tradition and to highlight the relationship between the designer and the master craftsman, who has been able to grasp and interpret every single detail of the projects by the architect Jean-Michel Wilmotte.
Wilmotte Foundation Gallery presents the exhibition DOPPIA V from Verona to Venice with aiming to tell the story of the combination of three materials produced in two different places, Venice and Verona. Each artifact symbolically encapsulates the values and experiences of the person who created it. The DOPPIA V collection exhibits eleven unprecedented design objects created thanks to the blending of research and tradition and to highlight the relationship between the designer and the master craftsman, who has been able to grasp and interpret every single detail of the projects by the architect Jean-Michel Wilmotte.
Three materials were chosen by Jean-Michel Wilmotte to experiment with new assemblages. Calacata Borghini Noblic marble was a starting point, a material from the marble industry, which consists of an agglomerate of debris on a cement base. This mixture is made into blocks in Verona and then cut into planes just like stone. The work was entrusted to Andrea Luciani from the company Elle Arte, who has carried out numerous projects over the decades. For the making of the steel structures, Jean-Michel Wilmotte collaborated for the first time with the well-known blacksmith Francesco Zanon from the Zanon workshop. Now in his eighties, Zanon has fulfilled his expertise through dialogue and exchanges with Venetian institutions and thanks to fruitful collaborations with artists and architects, including Carlo Scarpa with whom he constructed many public and private buildings in the unique venetian lagoon. As far as the glass components are concerned, the prolific collaboration with Simone Cenedese’s Furnace in Murano persists, since it started in 2022 with the Aqua e Fogo exhibition, which was inaugurated in the historical venue of the Wilmotte Foundation in Venice. It was subsequently exhibited at the Wilmotte Studio in Milan in 2023 on the occasion of the Salone del Mobile fair. The smooth crystal glass vases, lamps and bowls are handcrafted by Maestro Simone, using one of the oldest glassblowing techniques in the world, the result of a long process of craftsmanship famous throughout the world for its ancient tradition. Working with craftsmen is an enriching and stimulating experience for Jean-Michel Wilmotte. The objects in the collection are designed by playing with the cantilevered balances of the vases, bowls, lamps and tables, some made in extra-clear and tempered glass, others in fumé glass, which are sustained by structure in drawn and painted steel or in recycled marble. Each manufactured piece is not just a product but a symbol that represents the culture, the values and the experience of those who created it. Spacing from marble to steel and glass, craftsmanship embodies a bridge between the past and the present that helps to keep the cultural heritage alive. Crafts often use local materials and traditional techniques, reducing the environmental impact of industrial production and making a significant contribution to the concept of sustainability. At a time when consumption and the accumulation of waste are constantly increasing, recycling is emerging as a key strategy for promoting the responsible use of resources.
