The Luxury Design & Craftsmanship Summit 2019 has officially started today at Pavilhão Multiusos in Gondomar, Oporto – Portugal! On day 1 the event focused on topics such as the importance of dialogue between Design and Artisanal Excellence, as well as on an interesting discussion regarding the Present and Future of Craftsmanship. Foogo Blog will tell you all the top moments that have kicked off this luxury event.

The second edition of the Luxury Design & Craftsmanship Summit kicked off with the opening ceremony with the intervention of Amândio Pereira (Founder & CEO of Covet Group), as well as Marco Martins, Mayor of Gondomar. In the opening monologue, aside from thanking the participants and master artisans present at the event, enhancing the importance of preserving craftsmanship as well as working to make these arts evolve with the times, enhancing the fact that “The Summit is part of that Preservation mission!”

After the opening ceremony came the time to pay tribute to master artisans with the Masters of Excellency awards. A total of 10 craftsmen (and women) received an award each. The Mayor of Gondomar Marco Martins followed up with a speech in which he highlighted the work of Covet Group, while at the same time congratulating the artisans for all their hard work, congratulating them for “resisting when the market went through hard times”.

Carlos Sousa, who represented the Department of Tourism of the North of Portugal followed afterwards, in a speech in which he underlined the importance of quality tourism in the city, enhancing that the classical arts and crafts have a role in this which is why they have to be preserved and cherished by the present generations.

This first day of the event then proceeded with the intervention of Nicole Segundo, current Network Developer for Portugal at Michelangelo Foundation. She introduced the audience to the history and main purposes of the Michelangelo Foundation, which are mainly centered around promoting, preserving and perpetuating the classical arts and crafts in order to ensure that the future generations take that mantle and preserve these complex traditions. This company is also responsible for the organization of two international events dedicated to traditional arts and crafts: Homo Faber and Doppia Firma (which has represented designers such as Emmanuel Babled, Christian Haas and Sam Baron).

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After that came the first panel discussion which was focused on the Dialogue between Design and Artisanal Excellence. Nicole Segundo was the moderator of this initiative, which had the intervention of two good examples of designers who made a living and career in Portugal: Christian Haas (a German designer who’s been living and making a sold career in Oporto for years), and Emmanuel Babled (a French Designer who works in Babled Design studio, located in Lisbon).

Joining them was artisan Miguel Duarte from FRESS (Fundação Espírito Santo) in a dialogue in which all three of them expressed the importance of traditional arts and crafts from each personal perspective. Despite their different backgrounds, all three speakers agreed that Portuguese craftsmanship is rich in history and culture being art that should definitely be preserved.

The final main panel for that day was focused on the Present and Future of Craftsmanship and it had the intervention of João Barros (CEO and Creative Director at Pullcast), Rui Pinto (Master Jewellery Artisan at Pullcast), Conceição Amaral, the current CEO of FRESS (Fundação Espírito Santo), Joaquim Paulo from Creative Hub and Vitor Querido an Artisan of Culture.

Their intervention opened with a presentation video of Hardware brand Pullcast, followed by a speech by João Barros who aside from speaking about the complexity that goes into the manufacturing of a piece of hardware he also used the topic as a pretext to underline the Portuguese arts and traditions that are being honoured throughout this event. The hardware brand was one of the main focuses of the intervention being referred to as an example of preservation and promotion of the classical craftsmanship behind the conception of the jewellery pieces.

Conceição Amaral followed by mentioning the training that FRESS has for several ambitious future craftsmen and women, taught by masters of arts and crafts. She also presented FRESS as an ambitious project which seeks to teach and preserve these classical arts to future artisans by giving a reinforced priority to training. After a presentation that allowed participants to be aware of the artisan projects of FRESS, it was Vitor Querido’s turn to talk about his personal experience within the Culture Project emphasizing the importance of human contact with master artisans.

If you attend the event either on the 26th or the 27th you will be able to see for yourself a couple of arts and crafts that are a deep part of Portuguese history. Among them we can point to Ceramics, Tiles, Stucco, Sacred Painting, Porcelain Painting, Silver Chiseling, Chiseling, Filigree, Metal Working, Jewelry, Wood Working, Bobbin Lace, Embedding, Notch, Gilding, Woodwork, Spring Wadding, Wadding, Weaving, Shoemaking, Embroidery from Madeira and Torno.