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Monsieur François Staub uses these words to describe his masterpiece (or rather, his pièce) in the fine art of cabinet making, christened with the singular name of “Corte Nascosta”, hidden court in Italian. It immediately brings to mind the title of a Corto Maltese adventure, the “Corte Sconta”, and the reference to Venice is well-founded. Whether folie or obsession, without doubt it represents a passion that has lasted over ten years and is now safely stored in the countryside of Morges, beyond Lausanne, in the heart of the Vaud, where it was created by the hands of a team of artisans and artists which François has orchestrated and directed like a film director. The pièce cannot be described as an object or a sculpture. It needs a long story, not just an explanation, and the story starts at the dinner table, with a little help from an “insolent” Cornalin, a red wine of the Valais all violets and myrtle, the memory of which lingers on together with other unique and indelible impressions. Twenty-five years ago, François Staub was undecided between the arts and the crafts, like many others in this small Europe. He chose the latter because he would not have made a living from the former. And he chose wood, with the training and the work that goes with it and that is necessary for the “construction” of this living material. He had a marked preference for maple wood –
At the beginning of his career he chose the crafts, because the arts would not earn him a living. But the artist emerged from the wood....
érable – hard but easy to work, with an even texture and an ideal density. It was only natural that he should specialise in cabinet-making, a fine and noble craft. He tirelessly dedicated his skill to the production of one-off pieces of furniture, amongst other things; special objects whose echoes and resonances reflect modern and contemporary art, with an awareness that embraces theatre and cinema. Furniture and objects made for architects and designers, at times co-designed and conceived in partnership – in keeping with the finest tradition of design, one half of the duo is often forgotten and only the other is designated as the “creator”– and at other times completely on his own, which is where his craft became an art in its own right. A complex corner bookshelf fully expresses the organic nature of this “raw material”, whose carnal curves reveal the mark of Dalì; staircases, shelves, and contemplative objects that evoke the folies or obsessions – again – of Escher and his irrational forms, endless and rambling. And a host of sketches or models of objects that have never been made, but that give us an insight into the minds of their creators (whether artisans or artists), who prefer a particular wood and colour – for reasons imperceptible to the untrained eye, like much of the films dear to the heart of Monsieur Staub, from Sokurov to Bela Tarr – and cover, unhampered, a
SPACIAL EXPLORATION Above, a new model inspired by Maurits Cornelis Escher’s visions. Top left, working materials in Staub’s atelier; the button that releases the opening mechanism is concealed in the Venetian well. Opposite page, the inlays inside “Corte Nascosta” recall the floor of Andrea Palladio’s Redentore Church in Giudecca.
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