Quality interior decorating has always required the appropriate level of level of craftsmanship, no matter if we are talking about classic and antique spaces or contemporary ones. Decorators, architects and craftsmen have worked and continue to work together to elevate l'art de vivre and to diversify living environment. In this respect, we at Novetus want to create space for inclusion of people and sharing of knowledge for the development and preservation of traditions of artistic crafts. Their place in the contemporary world remains as necessary as they enable both the preservation of cultural heritage in our country and around the world, and the realisation of large-scale contemporary art projects, in which sometimes part of the participants remain overshadowed by the star of the artist.
The crafts precisely imply the development of fair, equitable and meaningful relationships in a team, in which creativity is a shared process, where it is seen how behind the final the efforts of multiple people who should not remain anonymous. At the same time, the emulsion between contemporary art, contemporary design and creative crafts can and must continue to develop, because this is how new creative horizons and deepens the understanding of the environment that we inhabit.
Many designers and architects use the achievements of creative crafts, giving impetus to the development of conceptual art as well, and savoirs faire themselves. Encouraging research in this field can contribute both to the cross-fertilisation of different artistic fields and to advance efforts to keep craftsmanship relevant.
CRAFTMANSHIP
Among Novetus' values is the promotion of activities with a variety of artistic crafts that are part of the European and Bulgarian tradition. The successful work of Vrai-Faix design has shown the possibilities in the Bulgarian context to setworks at a high European level, to recreate artifacts from the past, to create in the spirit of contemporary trends. This potential we want to use for the training of young people and for the development of their creative skills, thus contributing to the preservation of cultural heritage and to bring it up to date and into the future.
VALUES
The Novetus Foundation was established to develop and explore artistic crafts, and to promote them among young people. Providing access to this knowledge and training in it is an important part of preserving tangible and intangible cultural heritage, which is nowadays a serious threatened. Bulgaria is a country with a long tradition of artistic crafts, which, however, have not always managed to survive the vicissitudes of time and which are often reduced to ethnographic and folklore examples.
The connection with Europe and the Middle East, the migration of ideas and techniques, the internationality of the processes of artistic artifact creation and the presence of Bulgarian craftsmen in a wider context is part of a story that should be continued, preserved and developed in the context of contemporary artistic pursuits and the need to engage with more and more diverse traditions in order to reinventing ourselves. We can say that against the background of the massive production and standardized production worldwide, one feels a loss of his individuality and a levelling of individual differences in consuming almost the same objects that flood the globe.
Thus, interest in handmade objects, in all that is vintage, and retro is growing more and more, insofar as it gives hope for an alternative and for reinventing and/or reinventing new identities. The return to the past is also a gesture of critique or at least a renegotiation of the present, to which we can experience disagreement or in which we may not fully find our place. Interest to everyday life and the various ways in which it can be aestheticized, made sense of, spiritualized or preserved is shared among us and is at the heart of of this project.
GOALS
Environmental commitment is also important to us, insofar as the creation and maintaining beautiful, long-lasting and environmentally friendly artifacts would allow conserve resources, human labour, and reduce environmental pollution the environment, insofar as the use of natural materials is key to the qualities of craft production.
Environmental and social sustainability are among our main priorities, insofar as we hope that by maintaining and developing creative crafts, we can waste fewer resources and create more quality products to be used for generations to come. In this respect, modern technology can also help us to be more appropriate and economical use of resources, both labour and nature, insofar as they can save working time that can be used for improving skills and develop creativity, and to save resources and better costing. Thus, by preserving and developing past traditions we hope to invent a better, more human and more nature-friendly future.
ENVIROMENT AND CONTEMPORARY TECHNOLOGIES
We firmly believe that drawing hard and insurmountable boundaries between classical and contemporary art, between art and craft, between the work of genius and anonymous labour has long been overcome, and there are numerous examples of this that are important for us: the Arts and Crafts movement, the Wiener Werkstatte movement, Wagner's idea of Gesamkunswerk, the total interiors of the Secession, Art Deco or Bauhaus styles, whose ideology the idea of equality between the artist and the craftsman and the the transformation of everyday objects into works of art.
Thus, becomes possible an idea of man, his work and the environment he inhabits, aimed at the utopia of overcoming current forms of alienation and creating a better world to live in. The direct contact with matter, the creation from it of shapes, colours and volumes, learning the subtleties and secrets of its formation and the education in the manual labour necessary for this not only change the individual, but also bring joy and pride in the finished product and enables a more comprehensive development of the man and society. In the same way, more personal relationships can be maintained between producer and customer, in which individuality should be valued, the history and personal qualities of all involved in the process.
CRAFT AND CONTEMPORARY ART
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