Colloquium: The art of living

When philosopher Javier Gomá thinks of craftsmanship, the first thing that comes to mind is its usefulness. “Thanks to it we have a glass to drink water, an object that if we reduce to this strict sense, helps us to live,” says the also director of the Juan March Foundation. “But there is a moment when it is not only about surviving, but about living a human life worth living. In that case we appreciate craftsmanship, which not only has a function, but in itself produces a beauty, a perfection, a pleasure, a friendship that has more to do with the values of dignity. I like to think of craftsmanship as something that satisfies these two values.”

Everything that is made by hand has a weight in our existence. However, there is no single answer to the meaning of this significance. On March 15, a colloquium was held in our El Invernadero The Sibarist with the intention of discussing these concepts. The philosopher, writer and essayist Javier Gomá, participated along with Chema Terol, Anthropologist and CEO of Mazda, Álvaro Catalán de Ocón, product designer and member of SACo, whose personal proposal is the clearly contemporary alliance of design with craftsmanship, and was coordinated by Elena Goded Rambaud, president of SACo and founder of Ábbatte.

The colloquium was held on the occasion of the exhibition The House of the Future. A project that The Sibarist has orchestrated hand in hand with Mazda and SACo, to learn about the path that leads to the art of a selection of talents of craftsmanship. The exhibition is part of the fifth edition of the Madrid Design Festival, and has been developed by designer and interior designer Lorna de Santos.

We leave here this very interesting talk for you to enjoy it as much as we did.