Días de Verano

In today’s hyper connected and globalised world, in the overwhelming system in which we live, with the unbearable speed at which we move from one thing to the next and the exasperating sensation of being late for everything, it was such a privilege to suspend time for three days in which to coexist, become acquainted with thirty people in the field of art, design and architecture, and reflect together with them.

Christian Maroselli, founder of Studio Fenice, had a clear idea of what he wanted right from the beginning. He did not want the event he was organising to be perceived as corporate. He knew that by having the right resources at his disposal, the gathering would be a success.

The different activities in the Días de Verano programme were structured around two main themes: Travel and Personality. Both were present throughout the three days, from the welcome dinner at DUM, to the boat trip across the Gulf of California, and even in the group conversations where we reflected on these two ideas from the perspective of creators, architects, designers, curators and photographers.

The first of these gatherings for joint reflection revolved around travel as a powerful weapon for personal and professional growth. Inspired by the written work by Giulia Bruno Atlas of Emotion: Journeys in Art, Architecture, and Film, the keyword with which we started the dialogue was emotion, given its shared root with motion.  

Emotion is not a customised personal psychological space, but a way of understanding the movement of passions and desires. It is a journey that very often serves as a turning point to the creation of one’s own path, a change of direction.

Movement is thought of as two parallel layers: what moves in thought must move in bodies. Imaginary journeys are another part of this extension of travelling from the geographical to the mind, through disciplines such as design or architecture. The journey changes us, whether we want it to or not. That path somehow chooses us, and at the same time we dare to follow our instinct, to discover where it leads us.

In the second gathering of the event, we wanted to take it further, to delve not only into the journey, but into the path that leads us to define our identity as individuals and as designers. The personality that is consciously and unconsciously stamped on a work of art not only originates in the mind of the designer but also from their relationship with the society in which they live, as well as their relationship with tradition, the development of a craft and the artisans who are experts in handling the material.

It is the result of recognising ourselves as the interconnected multidimensional organism that we are. Now that we have access to resources all over the world, we focus our efforts on what identifies us, on that which tells a story. Getting to know the person behind the hands that make the pieces, the tradition that lies behind each technique, as well as passing this knowledge on from generation to generation are key aspects that turn each piece into something of significance.

Studio Fenice was founded in 2021 as a new way of thinking, of searching and of celebrating boldness in design. A virtual space that promotes the work of participating designers who express a unique personality in their craft. Artists who question and transform our perception by going beyond the principles of design.

Through said path, which configures Studio Fenice’s particular atlas of emotion, this space is imbued with a character of its own. In the words of the notionalist Frantz Fanon, “In the World through which I travel, I am endlessly creating myself”.