Creative research, experimentation, and talent. Fabrica turns 30 years old!

Fabrica is a meeting place for people, where the exchange of ideas, creativity, and artistic knowledge intertwine. Founded in 1994 by Luciano Benetton and photographer Oliviero Toscani, this space has become a vibrant center of cultural and interdisciplinary contamination. Here, architects, musicians, historians, designers, artists, interaction designers, art directors, philosophers, and sociologists collaborate to create a fertile environment for knowledge and diverse perspectives through workshops, conferences, and training sessions. Over the years, Fabrica has welcomed and trained over 800 emerging artists from 80 countries and has seen the participation of more than 500 world-renowned creatives, including Marina Abramović, Sebastião Salgado, Abbas Kiarostami, Martin Parr, Michael Nyman, William Klein, Samantha Cristoforetti, and many others.

Learning by Doing

Fabrica's method is inspired by Renaissance workshops, where continuous learning and contamination between different disciplines are fundamental. Every six months, a selected group of creatives under 25, informally known as Fabricanti, embark on a research and training journey on a specific theme. This theme is explored through a continuous cross-pollination of disciplines such as photography, visual communication, interaction design, video, writing, music, and much more. Each semester is led by an educational director who has had a successful career in the field of creativity and who, in turn, has attended Fabrica. Their task is to stimulate and encourage the Fabricanti to develop innovative and unconventional projects.

30 years!

This year, Fabrica celebrates 30 years of activity with a series of special events. The theme for the March-July 2024 session is Kinship, a concept that explores the sense of belonging to the same community. To strengthen this bond, the Mentors will be former Fabrica students who themselves have been in residence in past years, fostering new interactions between different generations through workshops, conferences, masterclasses, and concerts.

Speakers include Deborah Latouche, fashion designer (UK), Bill Morrison, filmmaker (USA), Lorenzo Vitturi, photographer (Italy), and Theresa Wong, musician (USA).

The residency program is led by Carlos Casas, a Spanish visual artist and filmmaker, who was a resident at Fabrica in the late '90s.

Fabrica Reunion

Fabrica is synonymous with creative stimulation and teamwork, but also with friendship and family. Therefore, the activities of the Kinship semester will culminate in a reunion where Fabrica alumni from the past and present from around the world will come together at Fabrica on July 5 and 6 to participate in a collective festival.

Fabrica Index

#Fabricaindex is a project designed to celebrate the vast Fabrica community and strengthen the center's legacy by reconnecting the different generations of creatives from 1994 to the present. The project includes an editorial product and a series of activities on Fabrica's social channels, starting in December 2022.

A place where history and contemporaneity coexist

Fabrica is located in a historic villa, restored and expanded by Tadao Ando, one of the masters of contemporary architecture. Villa Pastega, a 17th-century building flanked by two barns and a small church, harmoniously integrates with a structure made of glass and concrete, primarily developed in depth to enhance the surrounding landscape. The complex is characterized by two poles: the historic villa and a new underground elliptical square, representing respectively the full and the void, creating a continuous dialogue between the existing building and the new intervention.

Fabrica's headquarters covers an area of 51,000 square meters and includes, among others, an auditorium, a library, a cinema, a photography studio, and a centuries-old park. The spaces arranged around the square maintain a continuous visual connection with it through large windows.

Fabrica's library has a unique architecture, with a spiral staircase descending into the ground, illuminated from above, and houses a collection of 8000 volumes on art, photography, graphic design, industrial design, and other subjects related to visual communication. Inside, there is also an extensive collection of magazines, over 400 music CDs, and around 300 DVDs of films from around the world. Recently, the library acquired a collection of 1500 volumes on the architecture of color by Manlio Brusatin, exploring color theory and its applications throughout history.

For the occasion, I asked some questions to Angela Quintavalle, Media & Public Relations Manager at Fabrica.

#1 answers

Good morning Angela, what are the main skills that residents acquire during their time at Fabrica?

Fabrica is a communication research center that hosts young creative talents under 25 with a six-month artistic residency. It is a space where people from all over the world exchange experiences and knowledge, where art, culture, and research come together to create something new. Fabrica uses an approach based on learning by doing inspired by the Renaissance workshop. Continuous training and contamination between different disciplines are the pillars of this method. At Fabrica, one learns to communicate and cultivate their art.

#2 answers

Which artistic disciplines are most represented at Fabrica?

Each semester, the research path focuses on a specific theme and is explored through a constant contamination between disciplines such as photography, design, video, writing, music/sound, art, and digital media.

#3 answers

How many nationalities are currently represented among Fabrica residents?

Australia, Bulgaria, Germany, India, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Dominican Republic, Russia, UK, USA, Uzbekistan, Vietnam.