Rediscovering Enamel on Copper with Zanellato and Bortotto

When was your studio born and why did you decide to open it together?

Daniele Bortotto: The studio was born 10 years ago while we were studying in Switzerland at ECAL [École cantonale d'art de Lausanne, Ed.], where we met and became friends. In 2013 Giorgia was invited to the Salone Satellite and asked me to participate with her. After so many years spent abroad, we decided to create something related to our place of origin, because we wanted to tell the story of our territory through techniques, materials and artisanal knowledge. The Acqua Alta project was the beginning of our joint research.

Territory, craft techniques, and savoir-faire are themes that have characterized your research ever since: what pushed you in this direction?

Giorgia Zanellato: The work of the hand, of man, has always fascinated us. Having lived and worked abroad, we realized the privilege we have in Italy, the variety of techniques that exist and their history. All techniques that have been perfected over time, requiring know-how that has matured over centuries. As for Venice, we started our research there because it is the territory where we come from, and it is a very rich territory. Even now, despite some projects geographically move away, we still go back there.

What are your design assumptions?

GZ: The desire to tell a story through the craft techniques of an area, making them contemporary.

DB: We mainly tell how time has marked places: from Acqua Alta onward there is always the idea of overlapping traces, layers, levels. For example, the theme of nuance is very important to us: it comes from the marks that high water leaves on Venetian plaster. And so the nuance left by time, the reaction of the techniques on the surface of the object, for us are always more than a purely aesthetic and graphic repetition, they are a hallmark of our work.

Your projects range from the small scale to the furniture element: does the design method change from one to another?

GZ: No, it is identical. The result does not depend on the scale, but rather on the client's request. There are projects where research takes more space and others where it takes less. DB: For some projects you have to meet commercial and functional demands, product standards. But even then it's not enough for us to work on form, we always work a lot on materials, we always look at the possibility of collaborating with local craftsmen who maybe draw on techniques from a few centuries ago. We like to work with businesses that have the right size to launch into design challenges.

You work with lots of different techniques, mastering which, as you mentioned earlier, often takes a long time. How is this research done in practice, is it autonomous or do you rely on the knowledge of artisans?

GZ: The beauty of our work is to keep learning: it is very stimulating when a project enriches you personally as well, at the level of knowledge. When we encounter a technique that we don't know we are intrigued by it, it comes naturally to us to explore it, to go deep. It happens to us, trivially, to pass by artisanal workshops, and to go inside to find out who they are and what they do.

Was it like that with enamel on copper?

DB: We fell in love with enamel on copper in 2017, working together with a collector who had pieces of enamel on copper made by Paolo De Poli together with Gio Ponti. The history of those pieces really struck us and we started researching, wondering why there was no trace of this technique anymore, except in small artisanal productions mostly related to the world of goldsmithing. The lesson of De Poli and the other enamellers of the 1960s had disappeared.

GZ: We started looking for someone who was still using this technique, in Italy and abroad. But those who do, at the hobbyist level or in the jewelry industry, use very small kilns, and we wanted to work on larger objects. The one with Incalmi was a lucky meeting.

DB: A beautiful coincidence. We met them by chance, they invited us to visit the workshop, and we started working together. Usually a company contacts you because they want to make a product to put in the catalog, to have commercial feedback. Incalmi, on the other hand, wanted to do research first. We started with Play with fire, with the idea of experimenting on color. Incalmi made his knowledge available to us, gradually translating our ideas into chemical formulas that took temperature and time into account. This allowed us to experiment with the complexity of this technique. Personally, it is the most exciting work I have done so far. Every time seeing the result is magical.

GZ: We've always been involved, it's really a four-handed job. Often with companies you just give directions, but you are not present during production.

How did the project Specola come about then?

DB: We were invited to Doppia Firma [the Fondazione Cologni project that brings designers and master craftsmen together N.d.R.] and we proposed to work with Incalmi. So we translated the chromatic research we were conducting in the Play with fire project into the Specola lamps, which we named after Padua, De Poli's city, and also because they have a somewhat galactic image.

GZ: We wanted to tie our research to the idea of light. The enamel on copper changes a lot depending on the light, the surface is very reflective and the color changes depending on how you move it, so the lamp seemed like the most sensible object to start with.

Then the collection came to include other objects.

GZ: We continued to explore the round shape because we wanted to pursue research on concentric shading.

DB: In October we presented plates, handles and hangers, as well as all our color research, at EDIT Napoli.

What evolutions do you envision?

GZ: We are working on linear shades and different shapes. But this long research on the round shape has served us well because often what we do, if not explored enough, disappears quickly, is not fully understood. On enamel on copper we would like to push a little more, going deeper, slowly. And then we would like to experiment with larger sizes, getting to the meter diameter. I think the largest plate ever made so far, the one by De Poli for the Venice Biennale, measured 60 cm in diameter: to go beyond that would allow us to do something we haven't found a trace of yet. If we ever succeed, because the technique is really complex.

The project has been very well received in the design world: did you expect this?
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DB: It's as if people have never seen a technique that instead is thousands of years old - leaving out De Poli in the 1960s, there is a book that talks about enamels that were produced centuries ago, and they were just called "Venetian." But it has disappeared to such an extent that people have found it new. We sent our Play with fire research to a number of people who we imagined might appreciate it, and among them Patrizia Moroso, who was immediately enthusiastic and with whom we are working.

GZ: It is a technique that fascinates because it is a continuous discovery, each time it is a surprise.