Clara Tosi Pamphili and Alessio de’ Navasques to curate Artisanal Intelligence Grand Tour, July 8-10

Starting from the 17th century, what was defined as an unrepeatable experience to reinforce the old preconceptions and prejudices about national characteristics, culminated in Italy amidst the ruins of ancient Rome, Palladian villas or the excavations of Pompei.

Traces of the appeal of the tour are still apparent in works by artists who never returned home including H.C. Andersen whose collection of sculptures was so large that it could have filled the spaces of a marvelous small Roman museum, literary documents written by Goethe, Baron de Montesquieu and Charles Dickens, films such as ‘Journey to Italy’ by Roberto Rossellini or ‘Room with a View’ by James Ivory right up to ‘The Belly of an Architect’ by Peter Greenway.

Rather than a meeting with people of other cultures, the Grand Tour is the exploration of a place or of ourselves, it is the romantic search for experiences dictated by other memories, other forms of architecture and other monuments: a personal quest that involves finding the courage to look beyond, aided by beauty.

Based on these concepts, A.I. Grand Tour presents the creations of several designers and artists inspired by travel. Like a symbolic centre, heritage, the deepest of all roots, is represented at this July edition by the last artists /artisans who still make micro mosaic: historic and contemporary works, small pieces of jewelry that represent the first form of the visualization of the image of a memory, the first ‘screen’ where micro tesserae represent the origin of today’s contemporary pixels.

The designers chosen express all the characteristics of research, the result of their identity as the researchers and explorers of other worlds empowered by the study of tradition. Subjects like ‘Romantic Chemistry’ or the re- visitation of the luxury of 19th century headgear crafted by young milliners, elements of Hungarian cultures inspired by Cosmatesque flooring and elegant shoes that describe the complex creativity of a sophisticated traveler.

The dream-like vision of the concept of an element that composes everything, of a tile cut like the archetype of a pixel is created by Livia Cannella who, for years, has worked with screen projections as a form of storytelling, projecting images at sites of archaeological and cultural interest, like museums, in what she defines as Scenes of Light.

One of this year’s highlights will include an installation referencing travel by Ophelia Finke, the artist defined by the Art Catlin guide in 2014 as one of the most talented young British designers of the moment. Finke has already made a name for herself in the world of fashion following her collaboration with McQ Alexander McQueen for the brand’s SS 2015 campaign.

DESIGNERS

Boglàrka

Boglarka Bagos is a young Hungarian designer who studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome and at the Moholy Nagy Institute of Art and Design in Budapest with a thesis on Rome. Her knitwear transforms the signs of ancient recollections into refined woven patterns that are reminiscent of the inlay of Comatesque flooring and the techniques used by goldsmiths to set stones: the garment becomes an artistic artefact thanks to experimentation with working techniques.

Celeste Pisenti and Stefano Russo

The design duo presents ‘Romantic Chemistry’, a project consisting of clothing, accessories and images that explores their shared love of experimentation based on a cultural meld of science and philosophy that culminates in beauty. A journey marked by their encounter with neo-classical garments made from precious