Page 36 - Exploring Taste Magazine N.2

EXPLORING TASTE—SANTA MARGHERITA GRUPPO VINICOLO

“Put it this way: in the factory we’re used to living alongside great artists, and our workers too
are in some way minor artists, producing fabrics which are themselves artworks.
This is why our fabrics – created out of ongoing trial and error – have started to become special.”

olvena, in the Italian province of Vicenza, is the time the foundation is the beating heart of production. Here, over
home of the Bonotto factory, which produces the last four decades, more than three hundred artists have worked
some of the most prized fabrics to grace the cat- to produce seventeen thousand pieces. Our factory has become a
Mwalks of big fashion houses, from Chanel to Dior museum. This is the f rst time that a contemporary art foundation
to Gucci. Since 2007, these fabrics have been produced using only and a corporation – two utterly dif erent legal entities – have been
mechanical – rather than electronic – machines, and nothing is au- brought together.
tomated. These slow machines are a world away from the ones used
in low-cost bulk production. The factory was founded by Luigi in And this is where the “artistic craftsmanship” you mentioned
1912 and has become a point of pride for Italian fabric production, comes from, which makes Bonotto fabrics benchmarks of Ital-
as well as an example of new ways to run a business. It also acts as ian excellence.
a contemporary art foundation (and is famous for its vast collection Put it this way: in the factory we’re used to living alongside great
of Fluxus art in particular), a “slow factory” and a place where young artists, and our workers too are in some way minor artists, produc-
people can rediscover the value of artistic craftsmanship, which cre- ing fabrics which are themselves artworks. This is why our fabrics
ative director Giovanni Bonotto believes lies behind Italy’s success. – created out of ongoing trial and error – have started to become
In a conversation with us, Bonotto (who was given recognition by special. It’s akin to the wonderful obsession Dante describes in the
the Masi Foundation in 2013 for his ef orts to assert and pass on Divine Comedy [“That sun which erst with love my bosom warmed
values such as social engagement, entrepreneurship and science) / had of fair truth unveil’d the sweet aspect / by proof of right and
set out his entrepreneurial vision, told us about his favorite foods false reproof” – The Divine Comedy, Paradise, Canto III – ed].
and wines, and shared his hopes for the future. Leonardo da Vinci takes the same approach in seeking to paint air,
which was the catalyst that set the Renaissance in motion. At our
It’s been ten years since you introduced your “slow factory” con- factory we, too, try to have that attitude: if artists had never “pol-
cept, and it was clearly the right step. Can you give us an outline linated” our ways of working, we’d have never gone on to be what
of how things have gone? we are now. The slow factory is a new vision for Italian manufactur-
Well, from outside there are two perspectives on the slow factory: ing. It’s expensive and highly specialized, and can endure only for
on the one hand we still have a lot of business people thinking I’m as long as it doesn’t sell out. It’s also important to know what kind
naïve, because they f rmly believe you can’t be in business and value of craftsmanship we are talking about. Craftsmanship, artisanship,
slowness. I think this is because they’ve never really grasped what means handmade, but doesn’t necessarily mean one-of . We at
the true value of this slowness is. A lot of others, though, start- Bonotto are not looking to the past. We produce things which have
ing with my own clients, the stylists and designers I work with, as a contemporary appeal. This is why Alessandro Michele from Gucci
well as the people who are closer to the cultural sphere than the chooses to produce half of his collection with us.
business one, like my methods. The slow factory has been hugely
successful internationally. To give a recent example, we were invit- A decade ago, you said that “brand dictatorship”, i.e. advertising
ed to the Centre Pompidou in Paris, where we worked together to dominating over quality, was partly responsible for hollowing
create the Prix Littéraire Bernard Heidsieck-Centre Pompidou [a out the fashion industry. Even the concept of Made in Italy
prize for high-brow literature and experimental poetry in particular became very vague and full of meaningless soundbites which
– ed]. We wouldn’t have been able to do this had we not set up a everything revolved around.
contemporary art foundation within our facilities. It would be easy Exactly, and it’s not by chance that that sort of “faux artisan, faux
to say that production keeps the foundation going, but at the same Made in Italy” fashion often comes out with ugly, cheap products

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