Milano. Hidden on the roof tops, in the Tortona area of Milan, among the ex factories, now used as fashion and design studios, through a charming, wild overgrown terrace you arrive into the world of Giorgio Vigna. Vigna’s studio is fascinating, one could spend the day just looking at his sculptures, his sculpture jewels, his hand-blown vases designed for Venini and Salviati, or his vast and unusual collection of ethnic aluminum-ware pieces. Though he is an artist, designer and lecturer, he likes to be called a researcher. His jewels are really wearable sculptures because he believes that sculptures should be touched and in scaling them down to wearable pieces, one is less intimidated to touch them. He explains “If sculpture is a jewel, you will immediately be attracted to it and will touch it even before wearing it. A child’s game which makes the existence of things perceivable by touch.” He has produced designs and costume jewellery for opera, films and television, directed by the likes of Pier Luigi Pizzi, Bernardo Bertolucci and Peter Greenaway. And, he has also designed special jewels for international fashion designers. Don’t miss his exhibition at the Design Museum in Helsinki in May.
Note: the bracelet sculpture, to be worn as an ornament. Vigna’s jewels reflect geological adventures of earth and water, fire and wind – a combination of the natural and artificial, common and precious, a daring meld of everyday experiences and audacious daydreams.
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