ISSUE #1 - AUTUMN/2009

“Don’t think about the origin of the body but about that of the mind, for nobility derives from the soul. Even if your origins are high, your nobility has no value if you have no soul; on the other hand, if a man of intelligence was born in the mud and manure his nobility is authentic. One’s birth is not superior to one’s genius, but genius is superior to birth. That’s what real nobility is.”

With this phrase judge Riccardo da Verona limpidly expressed an opinion that was commonly shared at the court of Frederick II. In fact, the emperor wrote in a 1238 letter to his son Corrado that a man’s virtus is indeed dependent on an illustrious birth, but that such birth is not sufficient if not accompanied by magnanimitas and an active, capable behaviour.

This is the idea that inspired my project, whose aim is to exalt the value and nobility of an art which hardly survives today, that of craftsmanship. Men/Workers who spent their whole lives creating unique objects with their hands and their experience, challenging our industrialized society’s mass production. Even more worthy of esteem for being able to proudly keep their trade alive in a hyper-industrialized, “modern” city such as Milan.