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Q&A: Fabien Cappello at Depot Basel

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At Depot Basel, open this week, 13 designers will take part in Craft & Drawing, where each will exhibit a set of works alongside an original drawing. The idea is to celebrate the spontaneity and rawness of drawing as a visual communication tool, compared to the desire for designers to present finished products in a more polished way. London-based designer Fabien Cappello will show a domestic clock based on his research on those designed for the public realm.

Tell us a little about yourself as a designer.
I am a Paris-born, London-based designer working in different contexts – including limited editions, public installations and commercial objects. I aim to create objects with a feeling of generosity.

What will you show at Craft & Drawing?
I will show a new object that was motivated by one of my personal research projects on public clocks and clocks for communal areas. These kind of clocks are disappearing these days, but I think they make a great feature capable of making a real difference to an indoor or outdoor space. For the drawing I didn't want to show something personal or expressive, but more a part of the design process. So I created this non-exhaustive inventory of clocks that were originally designed for public spaces. The idea was to depict a context which the new clock will belong to.

Describe your style of drawing and making.
It is a technique I often use: I draw an existing object in order to understand what is essential, different or characteristic about it and its construction. For me, the action of drawing is a tool for understanding rather than a stylistic generator.

What did you learn from being involved in the show?
We are learning every day, aren't we? While working on this project I learnt a bit more on the life of Hans Hilfiker and some great stories about the clock dial of the Royal Liver Tower in Liverpool.

The exhibition runs from 10-29 June at Uferstrasse 90, CH-4057, Basel. For details and the full list of participants, see www.depotbasel.ch

Photography by severafrahm

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