The Manufacto manifesto
A festival to make visible what comes before the product and makes it possible — skills, materials, techniques, relationships.
AI-generated image Manufacto is the festival of design-oriented Sicilian manufacturing. It was born in Palermo to recognise, connect and promote companies, workshops, foundries, designers and producers who combine high craft expertise with a contemporary culture of design.
Its founding principle is the intelligence of hands: the ability to transform materials, techniques and knowledge into objects, languages and new productive opportunities.
Not nostalgia for the workshop
Representing a traditional technique is not enough. Manufacto looks at makers able to develop contemporary products, collaborate with designers, experiment with materials and processes, and build a recognisable productive identity.
Ceramics, stone and marble, metal, wood, glass, textiles. And then graphics, publishing, architecture, hospitality and food culture: fields in which design helps build new productive identities.
Palermo on the map of design
Manufacto aims to bring Palermo and Sicily back onto the map of contemporary design, bringing together makers, designers, institutions, businesses and the public. Its core is Sicilian, with a natural openness to national and international exchange.
During the festival, a guide to exploring the city. For the rest of the year, a living archive of Sicilian making.
