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The Romans used to say that truth is the daughter of time: veritas filia temporis. The “necessary” time, and as such inevitable: the time needed to communicate truth and also to create beauty. Two qualities that are rarely separated. Truth and beauty are also the paradigms around which education should always be centred. And education cannot be effective if it is not given sufficient time to unfold. Hence the young people who want to become the creators of tomorrow’s beauty, who wish to transform their talent into a profession, must have the time, the opportunity, the desire and the courage as well as be willing to take risks, to listen, to discover the truth and the beauty of an age-old knowledge. The 2014 edition of the European Art and Craft Profession Days is dedicated to the critical
yet rarely debated subject of time and the transmission of knowledge. Every year during the first weekend of April, the network of activities guided by the Institut National des Métiers d’Art of Paris transforms some of Europe’s most important cities into strongholds for the promotion, exhibition and protection of craftsmanship. Belgium, Germany and Spain are among the participating countries, and initiatives will range from events aimed at raising institutional awareness to free access to artisan workshops. Some of the most effective projects will be presented in Europe’s time-honoured capitals of outstanding craftsmanship: Milan, Florence, Paris, Geneva and London, where luxury and métiers d’art have cemented their partnership in the course of the centuries, and know-how
and savoir-faire still revolve around the themes of fashion, design, jewellery and beauty in its broadest sense, generating culture and jobs. Vacheron Constantin, traditionally committed to the protection and valorisation of the métiers d’art, will sponsor and support exhibitions, events and initiatives dedicated to the theme of time: the right amount of time necessary to make and to create, as Paris reminds us, but also the time that must be invested to train a new generation of masters, as the Cologni Foundation for the Métiers d’Art sustains in Milan. Thus the events organised by Cologni Foundation in the Lombard capital are centred around the transmission of know-how. A concept spectacularly interpreted by photographers Gianni and Tiziana Baldizzone, who have trav-
In Milan, the Cologni Foundation is organising a convention at the Bocconi University entitled “Made by Hand” and the workshops in the historic Cinque Vie district will open their doors to the public
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