materia.lise.design : design.magazine

Giampaolo Babetto : Jewellery and Furniture

Design Vlaanderen is holding an exhibition of one of the masters of contemporary Italian jewellery, Giampaolo Babetto, until december 10. We met with Giampaolo during the opening-night of the exhibition.

materia.lise.design : Hi Giampaolo Babetto. You are coming from Padova in Italy and you are with us tonight for the opening of a major touring exhibition at the gallery of Design Flanders in Brussels. What attracts you in our Belgian capital city?

Giampaolo Babetto : Brussels is a city I really like. It needs time to appreciate it. Before I could not understand its urban developments but I have discovered there beautiful people and places. There are some small villages in the town, I really like this particular atmosphere.

m.l.d. : In your work, you are working on silversmithing, jewellery and furniture (Pastoe, NL). What is linking all those fields? Is there a common formal dimension or a need for interdisciplinarity?

G. B. : My central work is jewellery. I have started by working on jewels before drawing furniture. I only tried to design a table with colors and lines, without any particular ambition, for a friend, actually!

m.l.d. : Do you feel that, in a way, you are part of a kind of Italian design-led crafts tradition?

G. B. : Yes, in fact, there is a long and identifiable tradition for design in Italy. When the responsible for Pastoe, a well-known Dutch design company saw my tables, which were exhibited in a gallery in Milan, he ordered me one special model for his brand.

m.l.d. : You are sometimes refered to as the master of the school of Padova, especially in jewellery. What does it mean for you, do you feel belonging to a kind of movement or so-called school?

G. B. : The School of Padova only means a way to design jewellery and it is not exactly related to a particular high level training programme like in Pforzheim (Germany). There is in fact a regional tradition and a feeling that Padova has developed itself as a center for contemporary jewellers.

m.l.d. : Compared to a school or an academy, do you feel that there is a different conception of the jewel in Padova in terms of contemporary visions and meanings than elsewhere?

G. B. : The Padova School is not an academic course. It cannot be compared to the one in Pforzheim in Germany, for instance, which is including much more theory in parallel to the practice. It is a shame that in Italy, we have not been able to create such level of intensive training. It could be much more attractive for the young people willing to go into this field of contemporary jewellery design.

m.l.d. : We have also faced this progressive disappearance of schools in Belgium and with the Bologna convention, there will certainly be more effects than expected. In Flanders, we are keeping a tradition for contemporary jewellery, but less in Brussels, where we had only be able to keep the Arts and Crafts Institute with professional courses. There is therefore a real problem of transfer of know-how and knowledge to the young professionals. Having traveled a lot in Germany, Austria and the United States, as an invited guest and professor, what has been your most exciting and constructive experience abroad?

G. B. : I have always worked the same way. I am not changing my methodology in Italy or abroad. I look for working as free as possible, following the tradition. I try to deliver the beauty of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance periods in a contemporary language without being perceived as ‘old fashion’. There are no worst or best schools. When I enter a particular course, I always work following my personal concepts and vision. I will not try to adapt, but to give a lot I know to my audience and pupils in the workshop.

m.l.d. : What time value do you invest in a jewel? I had the privilege to wear one of your necklace at your exhibition at the Nardini’s Bolle built by M. Fuksas two years ago. Wearing it made me feel the weight of the material (gold) and also the deep meaning of the jewel towards the body and soul. Who are your clients collecting and buying your creations?

G.B. : I try for create jewels, not utopias. Most of my clients are architects and art amateurs and collectors.

m.l.d. : Do they wear them?

G. B. : Yes, of course. They are normally buying more than one piece, becoming progressively addicted to my work. At the beginning, the buying process starts slowly, but after trying the jewels on, it is quite easy to seduce them into becoming collectors.

m.l.d. : I was impressed to see all the women collecting your jewels who were attending your exhibition opening at the Nardini’s Bolle. You are becoming yourself a kind of ‘brand’ and label of quality. Do you have a good relationship to your clients?

G. B. : Yes, many of my clients have become friends. It is always the case knowing that a jewel is an intimate, precious and valued object.

m.l.d. : This client’s relationship is rarely seen when talking about industrial design and designers. It is certainly unique to the world of collectors. Within the exhibited jewels, I see that you are introducing some Plexiglas or other contemporary materials. Is it a personal and radical choice?

G. B. : In an exhibition, I like to mix past and present. When I look more objectively at my work, all my pieces have the same value, there is no difference between the jewels. I know the experience, why I did create each piece and which process there have been following. Sometimes, I create new things, sometimes I go back to the antique or I gather both in one piece.

m.l.d. : How do you introduce and value color in your work?

G. B. : It has spontaneously come out. I was only working with gold and metal and I was keen to explore and explode jewels with colors. Adding colors does not mean transparency but opacity, structure and surface. There are true colors: real pigments. Colors are introduced for destroying the form and avoiding rigidity. There is a structured aspect… to be compared to the sky (cielo). I try to bring poetry into the objects. I still and always seek further…

Interview at Design Flanders, Brussels, Lise Coirier, 9 November 2006, 8 pm. Video: Guillaume Bokiau