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About Fabrica

Benetton's Communication Research Center

Fabrica, Benetton Group's communication research center, is a workshop for creativity situated in an 18th Century Villa in the Veneto countryside, restored and expanded by the Japanese architect Tadao Ando.

Producing creativity (writing, composing, design, interactive, photography, film for cinema or video) means having input into the world. That's what the young artists invited to Fabrica do to uncover the future. The centre is divided into various areas and is dedicated to the realization of ideas.

Artists/researchers work under the guidance of professionals who are experts in their field and learn to become confident with the latest communications technologies. They work both on independent projects and on commission.

The guiding principle of Fabrica is exploiting diversity as the basis of global communication and finding images which concentrate and express strong, universal issues, such as racism, fear and world hunger. In an era of economic and cultural 'globalization', creativity cannot afford to be ethnocentric.

So the challenge for Fabrica is to bring together different cultural stimuli from all over the world in order to pick out completely new concepts which everyone can understand, and which carry messages with strong emotional content. This is not a 'school' in the conventional sense. At Fabrica there are no lessons or exams. Students' work is subject to constant scrutiny and judged only on completion. Accordingly, the work completed by Fabrica students over the last ten years (exhibitions, conferences, publications, advertising campaigns, concerts, films and videos) is proof that Fabrica has already won the challenge it has set itself.

Fabrica: les yeux ouverts exhibition	Fabrica: les yeux ouverts: An exhibition to visualize the future and explore the different worlds that form the backdrop to human existence. Following its world premiere at the Pompidou Centre in Paris in 2006, Fabrica: les yeux ouverts was hosted at the Milan Triennale, at the Shanghai Art Museum in 2007 and in Tokyo at the Shiodomeitalia Creative Center in 2008.
Fabrica Features, a space dedicated to communication	3D Design: Materials, style, shapes for products, interior and industrial design and exhibitions. Fabrica's young designers work on various projects with a wide range of style and languages, from the design of new shop layouts to collections of clothes made of paper, recycled denim or, in general, alternative materials. their creations are meant to communicate social messages but still manage to remain innovative in the world of industrial design.
Benettonplay, a new online games site	Interactive: From websites to videogames to experimental installations. Fabrica Interactive's design team brings on its challenge to find new ways to communicate with new technology. Experimentation and research are key to this process and the team is committed to exploring innovative ways of interaction using new forms of networked systems, input and display devices.
No Man's Land, Oscar for Best Foreign Film 2002	Video and Cinema: Digital systems for spots, shorts, documentaries and long-length film co-productions. This department began in 1997 with the aim of "telling the truth" about controversial topics. It offers support for the new independent voices of cinema of the "rest of the world" (particularly Eastern Europe, te Arab world, Asia, Latin America and Africa).
I see project	Photography: Documentary, fashion, advertising, art photography and editorial collaborations. It is still the most direct way to express a point of view and to prove that photography is not still, catching the glimpses of life that turn into art. the eye of the photographer is behind the Benetton's campaigns and many of Fabrica's social campaigns.
Credo, a multimedia project	Music: Live performances, digital manipulation of sound for music, but also for video and multimedia. Young musicians come together to give new forms of expression to music through the artistic use of multimedia resources and the exploration of alternative languages in sound. the various cultures that meet through different sounds give life to a constant investigation of the world of music.
The Rocinha project	Creative Writing: Lyrics, stories, scripts, fiction and non-fiction. Young writers with different backgrounds and styles work on scripts, short stories, reportage and all those situations where the written word is essential to describe a particular feeling and vehiculate a message.
Colors 73: Money	Colors Magazine: As part of Fabrica's editorial activities you can also find Colors, a magazine about the rest of the world sold in more than 40 countries. Today Colors is not only a magazine, it is a way of communicating and of using diverse media languages to interpret the world.

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