Together with the Urban District of Commerce we met Gigi, who with care, skill and passion creates Cornici d’Arte (Art Frames) in Bergamo. Here is his story:
“Cornici d’Arte” is the name of Mr. Luigi Ghilardi’s workshop. Known as Gigi, he spends every day here with his wife Angela - grandmother and head of quality control - and his son Simone.
Gigi isn’t a talkative man, he holds his hands behind his back, he looks around, he reflects, he seems at times far from everyone, as if he were engaged in another world, perhaps a museum or a library.
As soon as he starts talking, we understand the value of that "art" in the name of the store, because in that word there is all the great work that Gigi has done over the years.
"At one point I understood one thing: every object speaks and has a story to tell.
All we need to do is listen. "
His silent and careful wanderings between the photos and the paintings that the clients bring to frame is actually an intimate, absorbed dialogue, in which Gigi does not stop asking himself questions.
The choice of the right frame is never instinct and does not concern the mere combination of colours - he explains - it takes time and wisdom and this can be learned only if moved by "a passionate curiosity."
"In this work the talent is in the eyes, then it’s the perseverance of continuing to study and the good hands to do the rest. If you stop learning, you suddenly become old!"
He listens and listened even as a boy, when he brought the colours to a painter from Via Verdi and stopped there with him: watching, learning and drinking a hot cup of tea with the artist.
With him and the many painters who have passed through his workshop, he has learned to recognise the chemical compositions of colours. He studied the properties of each pigment, which is not just a colour, but a substance with indispensable and different requirements. Gigi knows what’s best for each support and also for every "story" that is on canvas, paper or wood.
Then the tours began in the museums and in the flea markets, where each meeting with an artwork became an opportunity to grow again.
Gigi studied and mastered eighteenth and nineteenth century art, but with even greater commitment he looked at and listened to the works of contemporary artists, so that each chosen or realised frame was in full harmony with the subject.
In his shop, in Borgo Santa Caterina, Gigi wanted to put chairs: "We have no customers, we have only friends."
And, in fact, the shop is a bustle of people who ask, above all, for advice. "It also happened that someone brought paintings of little value and wanted to combine them with important frames. I dissuaded them. It would have been a mistake.”
The painter Trento Longaretti often visited him, asking politely: "Can I stay here for a while to look at the frames?"
He also stopped here. Absorbed in his thoughts.
There are innate talents, like Gigi's, that listen to the voice of things, because everything speaks and everything asks for listening, and understanding is part of the human and that is what makes it better.
An ancient craft and a white-haired artisan accompany us in a reflection on time, the slow gaze, the one full of listening, that of an empty chair where you can stop for a while to savour even the silence.
Together with the Urban District of Commerce we met Gigi, who with care, skill and passion creates Cornici d’Arte (Art Frames) in Bergamo. Here is his story:
“Cornici d’Arte” is the name of Mr. Luigi Ghilardi’s workshop. Known as Gigi, he spends every day here with his wife Angela - grandmother and head of quality control - and his son Simone.
Gigi isn’t a talkative man, he holds his hands behind his back, he looks around, he reflects, he seems at times far from everyone, as if he were engaged in another world, perhaps a museum or a library.
As soon as he starts talking, we understand the value of that "art" in the name of the store, because in that word there is all the great work that Gigi has done over the years.
"At one point I understood one thing: every object speaks and has a story to tell.
All we need to do is listen. "
His silent and careful wanderings between the photos and the paintings that the clients bring to frame is actually an intimate, absorbed dialogue, in which Gigi does not stop asking himself questions.
The choice of the right frame is never instinct and does not concern the mere combination of colours - he explains - it takes time and wisdom and this can be learned only if moved by "a passionate curiosity."
"In this work the talent is in the eyes, then it’s the perseverance of continuing to study and the good hands to do the rest. If you stop learning, you suddenly become old!"
He listens and listened even as a boy, when he brought the colours to a painter from Via Verdi and stopped there with him: watching, learning and drinking a hot cup of tea with the artist.
With him and the many painters who have passed through his workshop, he has learned to recognise the chemical compositions of colours. He studied the properties of each pigment, which is not just a colour, but a substance with indispensable and different requirements. Gigi knows what’s best for each support and also for every "story" that is on canvas, paper or wood.
Then the tours began in the museums and in the flea markets, where each meeting with an artwork became an opportunity to grow again.
Gigi studied and mastered eighteenth and nineteenth century art, but with even greater commitment he looked at and listened to the works of contemporary artists, so that each chosen or realised frame was in full harmony with the subject.
In his shop, in Borgo Santa Caterina, Gigi wanted to put chairs: "We have no customers, we have only friends."
And, in fact, the shop is a bustle of people who ask, above all, for advice. "It also happened that someone brought paintings of little value and wanted to combine them with important frames. I dissuaded them. It would have been a mistake.”
The painter Trento Longaretti often visited him, asking politely: "Can I stay here for a while to look at the frames?"
He also stopped here. Absorbed in his thoughts.
There are innate talents, like Gigi's, that listen to the voice of things, because everything speaks and everything asks for listening, and understanding is part of the human and that is what makes it better.
An ancient craft and a white-haired artisan accompany us in a reflection on time, the slow gaze, the one full of listening, that of an empty chair where you can stop for a while to savour even the silence.
