As a graduate project for the IM Masters in Conceptual Design in Context from the Design Academy Eindhoven, Andrea Trimarchi and Simone Farresin have developed a project inspired by both the history and culture of one Sicilian city. The result is a unique collection of traditionally inspired, hand-crafted vessels that comment on current prejudice towards recent immigrants, who have in fact been a part of the area's history for centuries. 'Moulding Tradition' will be shown during the dutch design week at Design Academy Eindhoven (17-25 October 2009).

Above: The collection of vessels

Caltagirone is a small city in Sicily, famous for its ceramics and its purported local tradition. Three hundred craftsmen are working in the city. In Caltagirone, craft it is not rare.

Different historical ages, styles and forms are mixed together into the world of tradition: a non-historical magma where objects lose their original meaning to become traditional.

Some questions emerge:

As an iconic base and as inspiration, we used one of the most famous traditional Sicilian artwork: "teste di moro". These are copies of vases of the 17th century that display the face of a native African - or Arab. These artefacts refer to a period of Sicilian history when Arab-African people conquered Sicily. Due to this invasion the tradition of majolica started in Italy and later in other European countries.






Above: The making of the project

While craftsmen are working, making vases with African features referring to the history of 10 centuries ago, the same people that once occupied Sicily, bringing their culture and the material Majolica, are returning not as conquerors, but as immigrants. Every day during the summer, 500 clandestine travellers from Africa are debarking in Lampedusa, a small Sicilian island in the middle of Mediterranean Sea.

Based on a recent public-opinion poll, 65% of Italians believe that immigrants are "a danger for our culture and our religion". With a similar attitude towards change, craft maintains its constant repetition of objects which belong to the past.

Our project is a statement on the ephemeral concept of tradition and shows the contradictions of a decadent culture: if as Italians (and Europeans) we are able to represent our culture with a "Moor vase", at the same time we must be able to go beyond prejudice and fear, and to let our culture change in the course of time.


Above: The making of the large bowl

In the collection of objects presented, the artefact "teste di moro" and other traditional vases, have been re-thought based on the actual clandestine immigration from Africa to Lampedusa Island in Sicily.

The comparison to the Moor invasion of long ago reveals the a-historicity of the 'living' folk tradition, and shows the connection between the forming of a local culture based on historical events and the translation of culture in objects.

During the design, seemingly distant worlds - such as the traditional artefacts and illegal immigration - began to blur together, revealing unusual correlations: News report, historical and contemporary data, iconic images, different materials and techniques, are mixed up creating unexpected narrative decorations.

Defects and necessities of local production in Caltagirone became useful restrictions in the design.


Above: The flask


Above: The big bowl, seen from above

The need to increase production speed has impoverished details and finishing: most of the decors and handles are roughly applied on top of the vase. To avoid this way of working, we decided to emphasise it; all the elements are applied with an external material such as rubber bands, ribbons etc...  

All the faces depicted in the "Teste di moro" vases are characters of an unknown story. Instead, all our new designs are differently portraiting an existing person. In this way we substituted the fiction with an element of reality in order to stimulate questions and conflicts in the user.


Above: Two moor vases


Above: The wine flask

The traditional wine bottle has become the support where to speak about the use of clandestine immigrants for fruit's harvest, and the majolica flask is transformed in a personal object that tells details about a trip between Nigeria and Lampedusa.

Even craftsman's tools are now iconic elements to recall the African boats retired in the naval cemetery in Lampedusa.

Any folk tradition can be invented or reinvented: even our new objects can become part of a new tradition, operating in some specific contexts.

As The anthropologist Fabio Dei mentions "...one important element in all folk traditions is the involvement of the community, in this way the language of the new tradition is shared and so comprehended."

In the video, three elements of Caltagirone's folk group are performing the traditional song "Arabs in Palermo" that refers to the African invasion in the 10th century. Normally a vase is used as a wind instrument during performances of the group.

The video documents the first appropriation of one of the new "originals", a flask, within context of the choreography.



To find out more, visit: www.formafantasma.com

Photo credits: Luisa Zanzani

This article has been republished with permission from the designers.


For more information, please contact:

Andrea Trimarchi and Simone Farresin
IM Master-Design Academy Eindhoven
e:
w: www.formafantasma.com