What is it about Venice and biennales? The city is now home to three of these great recurring rituals: the one for art, another for architecture and, since 2018, a third consecrated to contemporary craft. Held every other September among the cloisters and gardens of the Fondazione Giorgio Cini on the island of San Giorgio Maggiore, the Homo Faber Biennial is a month‑long paean to the joy of making.
For Hanneli Rupert, the 41‑year‑old at the event’s helm, the allure of Venice as a location is as simple as it is subtle. “It’s a city that could never be created by AI,” she says. “It’s the result of years and years of imperfection. And I think that, as humans, we crave imperfection.” Every uneven surface and crooked building is a rebuke to the homogeneity of digital culture.
The story of Homo Faber began more than a decade ago over dinner in Milan. Rupert’s father, Johann Rupert, the chairman of the Swiss luxury conglomerate Richemont, whose portfolio includes Cartier, Montblanc and Van Cleef & Arpels, was lamenting the closure of G Lorenzi, the Milanese purveyor of cutlery, razors and all manner of other bladed objects to the discriminating few since 1929. The disappearance of such a wonderful and unique shop prompted Johann to envisage a platform that would showcase endangered family ateliers and obscure craftmakers, and connect them with a sophisticated, global clientele.
