As Homo Faber 2026 Comes to a Close, What It Leaves Behind Is Permanent and Relevant
As Es Devlin’s “Island of Light” ends, Homo Faber Finds, Homo Faber Experiences, outposts through Venice, and more will remain
Homo Faber, the biennial celebrating craftsmanship at the Fondazione Cini in Venice, will close in three days. It’s been a massive success this year. Creative director Es Devlin has set the most compelling stage to place the work of more than 500 artisans in the limelight. And just by walking in, every visitor becomes a protagonist of the narrative she crafted. The message is: pick your tools, develop your language, stay in tune with nature, seek out beauty—you can do it. “We are all artists,” she declares, “look at your fingers and toes. Intelligence floats around in numbers, digits, and codes, but consciousness comes from the body, from the tip of our fingers.”
As her “Island of Light” dissolves, it will leave behind something permanent: all the connections it built through extraordinary programming, including a Summit that featured speakers such as Bénédicte de Montelaur, the CEO of World Monuments Fund, Clare Mattreson CBE, the General Director of the Chelsea Flower Show, and Zesty Myers, the founder of R & Company.
It will also leave an online platform through which everyone can interact with artisans and buy their products with ease after Homo Faber ends, via a system implemented by the foundation called Homo Faber Finds—not to mention a workforce trained in the storytelling that accompanies the various craft iterations. They are called the Young Ambassadors.
Outposts of Homo Faber in Venice also acted as branches connecting the dialogue to commercial endeavors. In the handsome building of Casa Sanlorenzo just behind Santa Maria della Salute, an exhibition called Ca’ Riflesso, curated by Artemest, is imagined as the exploration of a luxurious apartment with pieces by artisans from Venice and the Veneto region that visitors can acquire: a gorgeous side table lined with parchment by Luca Polato, a steel fruit holder by Bottega Vazzoler, and a decagon-shaped marble tray by Del Savio 1910.
The network of artisans will prove itself again in physical iterations like Milan Design Week and London Craft Week, as well as virtual ones. The latter feel solidified. I interacted with at least a dozen artisans working away at their temporary desks at Cini and asked them what Homo Faber means to them. The overwhelming responses were: I am not alone; I am surrounded by like-minded people; what I do matters. For all of them, it was heartwarming and emotional to see so much desire to understand the craft that usually happens behind the scenes. It puts everything into perspective—the time it takes, the skill, the sourcing of materials.
Another feature that is here to stay is the Homo Faber Experiences. Through the app, you can book a workshop with an artisan almost anywhere in the world—there are 1,236 experiences available currently. From leatherwork and glass engraving to lamp making; from calligraphy to bookbinding to lithography, Homo Faber is enabling a new form of arts education—one that stimulates the senses and connects our bodies to a real task, making us doers rather than observers.
Homo Faber 2026 set a very high bar. It will be hard for the team at the Michelangelo Foundation to beat this year’s success in two years’ time.