A MESA AT FABRICA.

Hi there.

Fabrica, Benetton's Communication Research Center, in Italy, was very influential in Mesa's history. It was there that the first document that ever existed about Mesa was written. It was called The School and it started with the formula:

1 leader
+ a diverse team
+ a project

That's how it's written there.

That's how it's written
there.

A coincidence made us feel it was time to revisit our origins: Brazilian artist Vivi Morais – who is part of a network of professionals, trained by us in the Mesa Method – was selected as a Fabrica art resident for the first semester of 2022.

Going back to Fabrica meant going back to the original Mesas, the ones in which we are not in service to a client. Instead we give the head of the table to someone we believe is a master at what they do. The participants, in this case, are a group of professionals who are eager to learn from that person.

A brilliant doer, when going up a stage, can share a lot of their beliefs and stories. You may get inspired by them. They will talk about perfect examples or hypothetical situations and, even when they speak about mistakes, you will feel like it was something pretty to live through. But you won’t really learn from them.

It’s only through working together that we are able to learn from someone for real.That’s when you see how someone makes decisions, how they solve unexpected problems, how they navigate through the mess and ugliness that creating something requires.

"For this piece, I did 5 different worlds". Gabriel Massan told Serpertine’s artistic director, Hans Ulrich Obrist, on stage at the opening of the Venice Biennale 2022. Building entire universes is what he does best.

The Brazilian Digital Artist Gabriel Massan was born in Nilópolis, on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro.

“My passion for computers came when I discovered The Sims.
I went almost every day to the Internet cafe to create
a doll, a house, a story. Then, when I had a computer, I dived in.
I started to set up studios, record soap operas,
series, clips. Nothing was far away, the more impossible, the
more time I devoted myself
to accomplishing it.”

[in Portuguese]

The Brazilian Digital Artist Gabriel Massan was born in Nilópolis, on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro.

“My passion for computers came when I discovered The Sims. I went almost every day to the Internet cafe to create a doll, a house, a story. Then, when I had a computer, I dived in. I started to set up studios, record soap operas, series, clips. Nothing was far away, the more impossible, the more time I devoted myself to accomplishing it.”

[in Portuguese]

These soap operas he created became an internet frenzy and, by the time he was 14, he was working for ad agencies and design studios, producing digital work for some of the most respected brands in the world when it comes to production craft.

Today, at 25, Massan has a decade of experience with an art field that is still new for nearly everybody. He lives in Berlin and is doing work that includes a year-long commission for Serpentine Gallery, in London, and a piece for X-Museum, in Beijing.

Fabrica had a total of 16 young artists from all over the world as residents for the first semester of 2022. Nine of them were participants at this Mesa. Vivi Morais was able to define one pillar for each of them, allowing both the leader and themselves to understand the skills and knowledge they brought to Mesa.

Fabrica had a total of 16 young artists from all over the
world as residents for the first semester of 2022. Nine of them were participants at this Mesa. Vivi Morais was able to define one pillar for each of them, allowing both the leader and themselves to understand the skills and knowledge they brought to Mesa.

Pillars

Avani Vidhani,
Mumbai, India

An energetic technologist who transforms concrete inputs into surprising and innovative pieces

Bobby Fay,
Dublin, Ireland

A bold photographer who is not afraid of experimenting with her many different skills

Charlot Denis,
Southampton, United Kingdom

A playful sculptor able to bring a comic and funny perspective to complex problems

Faith Shields,
Cape Town, South Africa

An audacious visual artist capable of perceiving and showing beauty in ordinary things

Giorgia Burzio,
Torino, Italy

A wise storyteller who knows the power of social and ecological responsibility

Daniele Pietro,
Milan, Italy

A curious multimedia professional that knows sometimes some laws need to be broken

Tom Heath,
London, United Kingdom

A resourceful designer commited to simplicity and to delivering elegant work

Tom Davis,
Dublin, Ireland

A fresh digital artist who knows the power of intimacy and honesty

Ziaire Sherman,
Cincinnati, United States

A jazzy decision-maker, eager to give his heart and soul to solve a problem

Gabriel Massan met all of them for the very first time at dinner, on Monday evening.

Dinners are a tradition at Mesa Company. Designing one allows us to make the best use of tables, the object that gives us our name, a symbol of both pleasure and commitment. It's where you drink, eat, share laughs and stories. It's also where you make decisions, address people and get to work.

Day 2

Tuesday morning, we were back at Fabrica.
Time to open our mission.
A mission in a Mesa like this is decided by the leader.
Mesa is a tool for them to explore a vision.

Tuesday morning, we were back at Fabrica. Time to open our mission. A mission in a Mesa like this is decided by the leader. Mesa is a tool for them to explore a vision.

Massan wanted to work with installations, something he doesn't do often and for which we had the team: there was plenty of experience with sculpture around the table and our technologist was very comfortable building hardware.

When we open a mission, we talk about it. Not to change it, but so everyone can fully understand the direction we are going and what we have to deliver at the end. After everyone is feeling that they get it and that they are committed to it, we move into a classic "get everything out of your system" session.

Day 3

Massan wanted everyone to draw on day 3. It was the first time I saw a leader move so
quickly into making and I mentally filed it under "genius move".
Making allowed the team to shape ideas, of course, but most importantly, it
allowed them to build a common vocabulary.

Massan wanted everyone to draw on day 3. It was the first time I saw a leader move so quickly into making and I mentally filed it under "genius move". Making allowed the team to shape ideas, of course, but most importantly, it allowed them to build a common vocabulary.

Eventually someone said Bagheera's House. Massan smiled the second he heard it. That's it: Bagheera's House. The sentence Fabrica residents (aka Fabricanti) use to explain Bagheera is: the one non-human living thing that is surviving at Fabrica.

It may sound too dramatic but the concreteness of Tadao Ando's building combined with the climate of the Italian campana (“te lo mangia”, you will hear an old Italian man say every now and then – it will eat you alive) gives Fabrica a hostile edge.

Bagheera was able to win a place, a name and the care of this group of Fabricanti, something pretty unprecedented. She infiltrated herself where there was no way

From then on we worked to create a universe called Bagheera's House: a physical thing to be placed inside Fabrica where other artists – artists who weren’t selected by Fabrica trial process, artists who cannot afford to spend six months in Italy without a salary, artists who do not have the brand of century-long institutions vouching for them, great artists; artists like Massan – would exhibit.

Massan is used to building entire worlds, so he can handle a lot of complexity. When the team gave him a character, with a story, with a personality, he was able to see it and was ready to start building. You can tell having a character is what triggers his imagination.

One of the best learnings I had from working with him was watching a conversation between him and the team of graphic designers, who, at a certain point, were uncomfortable that things didn’t have a concise art direction. Massan’s response sent a clear message: we are building an entire world, it makes no sense to restrict it to 2 fonts.

Day 4

The universal name is polyurethane foam. We saw a can
at the workshop area at Fabrica.
We would be able to control shape and have it
dry in time. Are we sure? It’s the best bet
we have.

The universal name is polyurethane foam.We saw a can at the workshop area at Fabrica. We would be able to control shape and have it dry in time.Are we sure? It’s the best bet we have.

Thursday, day 4, glory and despair. You build. It doesn't work. It's missing that. It's not stable enough. I would need more of these sensors. We can't get them in time. Let's try this way. I need to focus on this now. Who is writing the text? Go buy more cans. It's not stable yet. Is it too low that we have to kneel? Kneel is good. You can activate the sensor. Kneel is good. You need to give it attention. Writing. Designing a website. What art? Who? How?

Everything was messy, everyone moved from feeling this-can-be-good into feeling this-will-never-be-good all the time. Leader included. Me included. You can’t really afford to stop on those. You move forward.

Some people stayed at the building. Some people went back to the leaders' apartment. We may have had more pizza and prosecco than necessary.

Day 5

There is always so much work to be done in the hours before a Mesa final presentation (or any deadline) that you can’t help feeling like you are late.
But you are not late.

There is always so much work to be done in the hours before a Mesa final presentation (or any deadline) that you can’t help feeling like you are late. But you are not late.

You are sharper than you have ever
been about the decisions you
need to make.

Change that.
Yes, the entire thing.
I know, but yes.
Fuck. You are right. Ok.
That 's it. That works.
We need to fix this.
What if it messes with the other side?
You can’t let it.