On the occasion of Homo Faber a public exhibition of the finest European craftsmanship organised by the Michelangelo Foundation and staged at the Fondazione Giorgio Cini in Venice (Italy) from 10 April to 1st May 2022, ECAL presents a series of projects by Master of Advanced Studies in Design for Luxury & Craftsmanship developed in collaboration with Association Mec-Art.
For a number of years, the MAS in Design for Luxury & Craftsmanship programme at ECAL has enabled its students to work in close collaboration with prestigious maisons to further their design education in numerous areas of excellence.
The university’s partnership with Association Mec-Art is fully in line with this approach, creating the opportunity for students to collaborate with artisans based in Sainte-Croix, the town in the French Swiss Jura which is home to all the know-how involved in the creation of art mechanics. Here, artisans perpetuate their time-honoured expertise in the mechanical arts, including music boxes and automatons—traditions recently added to UNESCO’s List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. This ambitious project has brought together international students and world-renowned artisans in order to combine design, innovation and engineering.
“Mechanical Marvels” features five interactive installations that mix visual and sound effects and enables visitors to operate the mechanical masterpieces by winding a crank, thereby bringing the various automatons to life.
Curator: Nicolas Le Moigne
Tutor: Fiona Krüger
Design and scenography: Charlotte Therre
Students: Chia-Ling Chang, Ebony Lerandy, Sunny Oh, Charlotte Therre
Assistant: Clara Martin
Photography: Santiago Martinez
Animation: Benjamin Muzzin
Graphic design: Chi-Long Trieu
Watchmaker: Denis Flageollet
Automaton maker: François Junod
Watchmaker: Nicolas Court
Mechanical technician: Boris Masur
Wood marquetry maker: Bastien Chevalier
Cabinetmaker: Luigi Mondia
10.04–01.05.2022
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