A pixel of stars: when jewellery dances with light

Una delle opere multimediali dei fuse*, alias Luca Camellini e Mattia Carretti, i creativi digitali che hanno ideato lo spettacolo di lancio della collezione Eclettica di BULGARI Alta Gioielleria a Villa Arconati, a pochi chilometri da Milano. (© Matteo Torsani)

In Bulgari’s high jewellery collection, Eclettica represents a significant milestone, not only in terms of the number of creations, 160, but also in terms of value (over 50 pieces are worth more than one million euros) and the extensive research devoted to the concept of versatility, which has given rise to 14 transformable pieces that can be taken apart and reassembled, changing both their form and their purpose. “Eclecticism is not a style, it is a movement,” as creative director Lucia Silvestri is fond of repeating; she is the orchestrator of this dialogue of “languages, memories and contradictions”, and of infinitely diverse yet converging skills.

For reasons of space, we must employ a figure of speech here and choose to describe (and show) the part to represent the whole. We have selected two pieces from the collection. Serpenti Infinia, a white gold bracelet in which the snake’s head emerges from a flat, rough-cut crystal, sculpted into a unique cut – conceived for the first time and exclusively for this creation – weighing 7.49 carats. The body’s contours follow the serpentine anatomy and coil, scale by scale, in a continuous rhythm of brilliant-cut and baguette diamonds. The same fluid sense of change is conveyed by the functional flexibility of Serpenti Spira, a clasp-free bracelet where the sinuous form of the snake extends in the uninterrupted, fluid continuity of the links. It can expand and glide over the hand before tightening around the wrist, like a living animal that seems to breathe, unfurling and closing again, all thanks to a modular structure comprising over three hundred elements, with an ingenious internal mechanism, set with diamonds even on the hidden surfaces. An illusion of continuity of light amidst the fragmentation of movement. This boldly engineered and visually sumptuous creation serves to illustrate the interweaving of disciplines that accompanied the launch of the collection: not only painting, sculpture and architecture, but also digital art, exhibition design and writing. Fuse* have devised an immersive, perspectival backdrop that amplifies the volume and transformation of the objects as they dance; Formafantasma have defined a spatial narrative – rather than a chromatic one – a metaphysical installation capable of alluding to the underlying enigma, just like de Chirico’s deserted squares, mannequins, arches and long shadows. The stonemasons, chisellers, engravers and master goldsmiths have brought to life pieces imbued with the dynamism of many hands and just as many souls. ‘I feel like a conductor,’ says Lucia Silvestri.

Bracciale di Serpenti Infinia in oro bianco. Al centro della creazione un diamante di eccezionale purezza e trasparenza, tagliato appositamente per BULGARI, poi segue un ritmo continuo di diamanti taglio brillante e baguette che ha come effetto finale un prisma di riflessi infiniti. Con 1.385 ore – sulle 1.800 complessive di lavorazione – dedicate al taglio dei diamanti.

Around 15 years ago, NY University’s Movement Lab carried out a series of recordings using high-speed motion capture cameras of Alan Gilbert, conductor of the New York Philharmonic. The aim of the research was to explore the physicality of sound, to understand how gesture influences performance. The movements of the baton, facial expressions – even the slightest variations in the curve of the lips or eyebrows and the opening of the mouth – were captured as data. Observing these lines and trajectories reveals how they directly shape the musical phrasing, not just the rhythm or the timing of the notes. It is almost like a score within a score, where the right hand represents precision, the left hand emotion, and where the conductor’s body transmits the soul of his movement to the collective body of the orchestra, which, in turn, translates it into music, moving hands, bows, breath, fingers…

It’s as if you can see before your eyes those trails of pixels (or stars or sparks) imagined by fuse* for Bulgari’s Eclettica fashion show. And so the circle is complete, just as in the recurring theme of the vitality and rebirth of the serpent, the ouroboros, where the end is also the beginning.