Energitismo is today a tool for small businesses and artists who want to make themselves known and reach new markets in an original way. It is a portal that technically promotes "content marketing" and philosophically "story telling". In essence it is a group of scientists and poets who enhance the value of small businesses by telling the stories of creations, people and places to raise the perceived value of their creations. The absence or international weakness of the brand is reinforced with a motivated selection, the history of the person and the area where the workshop is located.
FIRST ARTE – We ask Claudia and Gavin how their idea was born
It all began a few years ago with a degree thesis in the Geopolitics course for small businesses within a master's degree at the University of Rome. The Manifesto of theEnergism su Art e Technology e Claudia Bettiol e Gavin Tulloch they decide to go all the way and put it into practice by starting a search that takes them all over Italy (and the world) contacting and talking to hundreds of SMEs and artists.
The starting point was the conviction of recreating the conditions of that Renaissance which has created wealth for many centuries and is but to do so we need to understand what and who allowed it in the 1500s. Among the preconditions are a strong demand and willingness to invest in art and an offer of creativity from artists with their shops. We often forget the role of the workshops and think only of the great artists, but these alone could not have created all the works that still today create Italy's tourist wealth.
With the Manifesto in hand, Claudia and Gavin, a couple even in life with a soul divided between different hemispheres and cultures coming from Italy and Australia, decide to go and challenge the companies to create "masterpieces" and find the Treasures of Humanity (the Energitismo claim referring to man and his value).
FIRST ARTE – Years of research and work to arrive today at…
Exact! It took three years of research to figure out how to promote the "little ones" and define a business model that was a win-win solution for everyone. Today however, the demand exists: we are in the presence of a very strong demand for beauty and art but this demand is spread throughout the world and is not focused on Italy. So let's analyze the offer: today's small businesses can play the role of Renaissance workshops…
FIRST ARTE – In a path that marries synergy and participation, what role does the creativity of the individual or "small" play in a globalized context?
There are two problems to address: creativity and how to reach the growing markets. Many small businesses have stopped focusing on artistic collaborations to compete only on cost or to be subcontractors of other famous brands. It is as if the "artistic head" of the workshop were missing: there are the skills and know-how but creativity is not given vent. On the other hand, small businesses don't know how to tell each other, they are too didactic and they still think that it is the others who have to find them and not them who show off.
FIRST ARTE: the first contacts, the first projects…
The story of Energitismo as a company begins to take shape when we meet Giampietro Zonta of the D'Orica goldsmith company and together we decide to create a real technological jewel, a necklace that produces energy following the principle of photosynthesis. We also make a documentary on the history of the series and by showing it around we have tried to convince other companies to combine Art and Technology according to the Energism Manifesto.
After two years of visits to entrepreneurs, paralyzed by the fear of making mistakes or by the lack of knowledge of what is happening in the markets beyond the Italian borders, we decide to focus on the web and create the www.energitismo.com portal aimed at small artists and craftsmen of the world and to start the journey from Italy.
FIRST ARTE – Interdisciplinality, creativity, online communication, is there more in the future?
Energitismo is not just a web tool, the way it was born and its history have given rise to a connection between artists and entrepreneurs/craftsmen that is materializing in new creations. Apart from the first series "with photosynthesis" created by a collaboration between goldsmith, technological and electronic companies, the case of an encounter between a sculptor and a door and window company is emerging. Toni Venzo and Luca Tondin (Tondin Porte) have decided to be "emotionally and philosophically aligned" (in their own words) and to start collaborating together. But the opportunities that are emerging around the rediscovery of the Italian silk road on which Energitismo is very active are also very interesting.
Energitismo has its own history and is always evolving, it started as a movement, then became a web portal with a London-based company that will soon have an e-commerce. Its future is enclosed in an articulated business plan which provides for the opening of Ateliers in various parts of the world according to an innovative formula between an art gallery, a sales point in museums and a lounge bar.
