Creations rising from the Venetian lagoon
- Gabriele creates wooden objects from wood that tells the story of the city
- From discarded wooden poles he creates objects with new shapes and uses
- He collects wood himself by navigating the canals of Venice
It was only in 2023 that Gabriele Zornetta's craftsmanship found a home in a workshop, Atelier1083A, which he shares with a ceramicist. Gabriele works with wood: he salvages driftwood from the lagoon with his boat, and stores the wood collected on his travels in his camper van, before turning it into commonly-used objects. Sometimes he embellishes these with collaborations and creations by Murano's master glassmakers. Gabriele's pieces are designed to bring beauty into everyday life, reinterpreting traditional craftsmanship with a contemporary approach, and always with a practical purpose. Each piece is uniquely crafted to showcase the reclaimed wood, its form and grain, and the metamorphosis wrought by the natural elements over years in the lagoon.
INTERVIEW
As a boy, my mother used to encourage me to get out of the house and experience things. In the summer holidays, I used to head over to my uncle’s carpentry shop. That was where I discovered how much I enjoyed smelling, touching, and shaping wood.
Venice is where my roots lie. My grandparents lived on the island of Pellestrina: they transported goods, but to support the family, they had to move to the mainland. That was almost a hundred years ago. I was born and raised outside the lagoon, but now that I live here, I truly feel at home.
It started as a hobby with the idea of salvaging broken 'briccole' – the navigation marker poles from Venetian canals – to give them a new lease of life. So in my free time, I found myself imagining how to repurpose them.
I love its scent and strength, its flexible, dynamic workability, and its potential for being recycled. The possibility of creating a circular economy from felled trees by reclaiming scrap wood stimulates my creativity.
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