L'INICI DE LA CULTURA
"THE BEGINNING OF CULTURE"
“The primeval man in offering the first garland to his maiden thereby transcended the brute. He became human in thus rising above the crude necessities of nature. He entered the realm of art when he perceived the subtle use of the useless.”
Kakuzo Okakura, The Book of Tea
The gesture of bending down to pick up a flower was the beginning of culture. At that moment, humans became something subtly different from other animals: then culture is born the first time a small thing is valued for the sake of it, it is chosen - it is plucked, it is separated from the rest of things to be put it in relief- and becomes a symbol, closely linked to poetry and artistic expression.
Choosing and sorting out something from among all things to give it an aesthetic or poetic value, apparently useless – as explained by Kakuzo Okakura and Nuccio Ordine– is extremely human. People can choose one thing or another for very varied reasons, with all kinds of criteria that reverse the category of utility.
With a small clamp we can grab all these things. A jewel-clip is a support that permits you to wear whatever you like and you have chosen. And it can change, of course. There are many beautiful things that we would like to wear. As long as we find something beautiful, we can pinch it and turn it into a jewel.
