During this week dedicated to craft in London, the Michelangelo Foundation will present the work of the twenty duos of artisans who took part in the first edition of the Homo Faber Fellowship, an education programme supported by Jaeger-LeCoultre.
After a one-month creative and entrepreneurial course taught by ESSEC Business School, fellows spent six months in the workshops of their paired master artisans. They were based in one of the following six countries: Ireland, Portugal, Spain, Greece, France, or the United Kingdom.
Creativity, but above all, the transmission of knowledge and artisanal techniques, were at the heart of these months spent working and collaborating together. Twenty objects created by the artisan duos will be on show in London from May 14 to 18 at Cromwell Place. Visitors will discover a diverse range of crafts and techniques , including ceramics, textiles, wood marquetry, stone sculpture, silversmithing, feather working and basket weaving.
Echoing this celebration of craftsmanship, Jaeger-LeCoultre will showcase its watchmaking expertise in its boutique at 13 Old Bond Street, London.
On May 15 and 16 2024, visitors can discover the engraving technique used on the case of the Reverso watch. The Reverso watch, created in 1931, with its unique pivoting case system, offers its owner the choice of personalizing the back of the watch with an engraving, or a miniature enamel work, mastered within the walls of the Manufacture Jaeger-LeCoultre, in the Vallée de Joux.
The 20 duos of master artisans and fellows participating in the inaugural Homo Faber Fellowship who will exhibit their co-creations at London Craft Week are:
Ceramics: Mike Byrne & Noel Donnellan (Van der Kelen Logelain, BE)
Silversmithing: Seamus Gill & Claire Mooney (Ulster University, IRL)
Cabinetmaking: Stephen O’Brian & Richard Butler (Atlantic Technical University, IRL)
Furniture making: Sasha Sykes & Jackson Byrne (Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology, IRL)
Bicycle building: Sébastien Klein & Tom Even (Ecole Boulle, FR)
Metalworking and engraving: Cédric Lamballais & Léandre Le Bail, (Ecole Estienne, FR)
Feather working: Julien Vermeulen & Matéo Laurent (Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs, FR)
Jewellery making: Akis Goumas & Karolos Vlachiotis (Art Jewellery School, GR)
Ceramics: Giannis Zois & Shokhrukh Rakhimov (Kamoliddin Behzod Institute, Uzbekistan)
Stone sculpture: Tom von Kaenel & Clara Coujaty (Ecole Boulle, FR)
Stone sculpting: Alzira Antunes & Corentin Fossemo (L’Association Ouvrière des Compagnons du Devoir et du Tour de France, FR)
Textile design: Vanessa Barragão & Yaroslava Shkurat (Ecole Duperré, FR)
Basket weaving: Isabel Martins, & Alba Fernandez Castro (Escola Massana, ESP)
Cabinet making: Tomás Viana & Soraia Santa (Ricardo Espírito Santo e Silva Foundation, PT)
Wood sculpting: Andreia Algudes & Manuel Pinto (Ricardo Espírito Santo e Silva Foundation, PT)
Engraving: Dan Benveniste & Guillermo Garcia (Artediez, ESP)
Gold thread embroidery: José Luis Sanchez Exposito & Gonzalo Garcia Cuevas (Centro de Formación Profesional Dolores Sopeña, ESP)
Textile design: Camila Puya de Arcos & Sofia Lausero (Escola Massana, ESP)
Metal working: Ramón Recuero Ibáñez & David González Parrilla (Escuela de Herreros Ramón Recuero, ESP)
Textile design: Nicola Cliffe & Emily Criddle (University of Edinburgh, UK)
About Jaeger-LeCoultre – The Watchmaker of Watchmakers™
Since 1833, driven by an unquenchable thirst for innovation and creativity, and inspired by the peaceful natural surroundings of its home in the Vallée de Joux, Jaeger-LeCoultre has been distinguished by its mastery of complications and the precision of its mechanisms. Known as the Watchmaker of Watchmakers™, the Manufacture has expressed its relentlessly inventive spirit through the creation of more than 1,400 different calibres and the award of more than 430 patents. Harnessing 190 years of accumulated expertise, La Grande Maison’s watchmakers design, produce, finish and ornament the most advanced and precise mechanisms, blending passion with centuries-old savoir-faire, linking the past to the future, timeless but always up with the times. With 180 skills brought together under one roof, the Manufacture creates fine timepieces that combine technical ingenuity with aesthetic beauty and a distinctively understated sophistication.
jaeger-lecoultre.com
About the Michelangelo Foundation
The Michelangelo Foundation for Creativity and Craftsmanship is a non-profit institution based in Geneva, which champions contemporary craftspeople worldwide with the aim of promoting a more human, inclusive and sustainable future. The Foundation seeks to highlight the connections between craft and the wider arts and the design world. Its mission is to both celebrate and preserve craftsmanship and its diversity of makers, materials and techniques, by increasing craft’s everyday recognition and its viability as a professional path for the next generations. The Foundation presents Homo Faber, a cultural movement centred on creative artisans worldwide.
Homo Faber’s signature projects are education programmes for the next generations, an international biennial celebration and an online guide.
homofaber.com