An interview on the values of craft with the director of the Crafting Cyprus documentary series, fashion critic and curator, Filep Motwary
Resilient and evolving, traditional and forward-facing: crafts tell the stories of the world through objects and techniques, helping us understand where we come from, and where we are heading as a global, inclusive, diverse community.
Crafting Cyprus is one of the many interesting initiatives to reactivate the stories of local craft and present them to an international audience. Crafting Cyprus takes the form of a series of videos written and directed by Filep Motwary, independent fashion curator, author and critic, currently Editor-at-Large of Vogue Greece and Dapper Dan Magazine, in collaboration with the Cyprus Handicraft Service. The series premiered in July 2022 at Révélations International Biennial of Crafts and Creation, and is now touring the world.
To celebrate November as Crafting Heritage month, Filep shares with us his views on crafts - their persistence, their ability to resist time and evolve, while still being true to tradition - and their relationship to the fashion world.
How do you define ‘craft’ within your editorial and curatorial work?
Originality in the making is the most important characteristic of craftsmanship. The importance of craft consists of so many parameters. In the lengthy process of object-making by hand, one needs to consider the personal input of the artisan, the knowledge, the emotion, and the time consumed until its finished.
For example, when a couturier sends out a press release, the garments are described in detail from the materials used to the hours it took to make them. The clarification of the process and materials immortalises the object as a case of study for the future. Handicraft, embroidery, and hand-beading were quite present during the first years of my career when I was working as a designer for a maison de couture, while living in Greece. However, my perspective on handicrafts was enriched when I moved to Paris in 2004 and worked for Dior and John Galliano as an intern for both Houses. I started to understand handmade objects in a different way.
Today, within the exhibitions I present to the public as a fashion curator, my aim is to offer the opportunity to spectators of all ages to acknowledge the significance of craft and how it is produced, treaded, and preserved as well as valued and projected.
What is the relationship between crafts and the established fashion system? Are there initiatives you admire that try to connect traditional craft with the system?
Craft may have been devalued with the rise of prêt à porter in the late 1970s, but not for long. Haute Couture’s great comeback in the mid-1990s was re-established through collections that were designed merely by young designers at the time (Viktor & Rolf, John Galliano, Alexander McQueen). High-end luxury fashion often relies heavily on the concept of expert craftsmanship and this is used to demonstrate quality and expertise, which results in high value and profit. Each of Chanel’s Métiers d'Art shows, for example, honours the fine craftsmanship that its artisan partners bring to the house’s collections.
There are so many wonderful examples of bridging the past with the present. Look at Dries Van Noten and his long-lasting collaboration with Indian craftsmen. Maria Grazia Chiuri is also someone that embraces craft in her work for Dior in many different ways while putting the spotlight on other matters such as feminism and inclusivity.
What fascinates you about the craft of Cyprus? How did you discover them and why did you decide to work on these videos?
My grandparents, from my mother’s side, were farmers. They lived in a humble yet beautiful home, filled with traditional pottery, wood-carved furniture, incredible hand-embroidered tablecloths, pillowcases and sheets, hand-weaved bed covers, and so on. Such treasures! As a young boy that I was, I found all that to be heavy and boring and sometimes ugly even. Going there was always linked to hard work. My memories from back then are filled with strange smells and habits that I couldn’t understand and did not resonate with my daily life in the city.
Up until the age of ten, it was 1987, I would join them every fall to harvest olive trees and again in August for the grapes. I remember my brother and me riding my grandmother’s donkeys, each of them carrying two huge hand-weaved baskets, one on each side, on the bumpy, narrow path to the fields. 34 years later, through an open call, the Cyprus Handicraft Service announced the making of a series of short films that would focus on local crafts. I shared my proposal immediately in the hope that this new possibility would link with my past and challenge me productively through the angle of a visual storyteller.
With the guidance and great support of Maria Anaxagora, the head of the Cyprus Handicraft Service, we started locating the craftsmen and artists per category while I built the script and the moodboards of the story I wanted to tell. I chose to name this series #craftingcyprus as an ode to the excellency of the work made by hand in Cyprus and how this through punctual artisanship existed for centuries, in the end, it becomes our identity, who we really are as a nation.
Why is it important to preserve craft and - as you did with the videos - tell the stories of different local crafts?
Once you document something that you own and share it with the rest of the world, it becomes official, an establishment.
What did you enjoy the most while working on this project? What do you hope to achieve?
It was truly an emotional journey. I loved the conversations that emerged, and I loved listening to the artisans describing their craft. Many of them continue what their parents did while others devoted their lives to craft by choice. Both kinds are admirable. It's important for me to continue this documentation or similar ones in the future. I feel blessed to have worked with the Cyprus Handicraft Service for something so valuable.
This blog was written as part of the CRAFTED project, which aimed to enrich and promote traditional and contemporary crafts.