Elia Bonacina things don’t get thrown away they fix themselves
«Today, we are going to take a journey backwards in time». We are in the car, having just finished lunch at a restaurant in upper Brianza — Brianza, which Milan residents are less acquainted with, is capable of bringing together manufacturing, craftsmanship, industry, as well as historic villages and nature-rich ones. «I’d like to show you the future». I have always been familiar with Bonacina 1889 items. There is no architect who sooner or later doesn’t encounter, the patrimony of bulrush furniture which this company, based in the Como-area town of Lurago d’Erba, has been exporting to the rest of the world for more than a century. I had never before been to the industrial facility purchased by the family company where they produce these items. Hundreds of recently-built wicker armchairs and sofas occupy the central space; an order for a French hotel, he tells me. «These are made-to-order products, different from those you’ll find in our books». These pieces were designed specifically for the hotel? «500 unique pieces, five months of work, fully employing at least fifty people».
I am unsure how this former metalworking factory will show me the future. For now I see only that it is expanding which is clearly good news and means that remains strong. Elia Bonacina shows me a space on the I begin to understand the glimmer in his eyes. A place in which to pass down one’s knowhow, from one generation to the next. A school, I say. Transmitting knowledge enables it. It is what I refer to as intelligence of the hands; culture is also the technique of the body, of artisan craftsmanship, and of the finished product, not only theoretical development.
