Trama – Our Publication No. 2 Hands Memory and Future
Hands: Memory and Future.
The Hand: A Journey from the Everyday to theExtraordinary
The desire to explore and transform the world is what drives civilisation. Every tool designed, every work of art created, every structure built, exists thanks to hands. There is a constant dialogue between what we imagine and what we are capable of bringing to life. Hands are the extension of the brain, the place where thought gains weight, texture and volume, the means by which ideas become tangible.
We spend our lives seeing, hearing, smelling and tasting, but touch completes our experience of the world. Hands are our direct connection to the outside. They hold the knowledge accumulated through centuries of evolution and discovery. Invisible in their prominence yet essential. Without hands, there would be no art, science, architecture or writing to record the memory of whole populations. There would be no history and perhaps no love either. Hands are also a language in motion.
We use gestures to communicate without words, directly, instinctively and powerfully. A Roman could convey ideas and concepts to others with just a specific movement of his hands. The multifaceted Bruno Munari compiled the most important of these in his Supplemento al dizionario italiano. This non-verbal conversation creates complicity and strengthens communal bonds among those who practice it.
Since ancient times, hands have been much more than physical tools. In the cave paintings of Altamira and Lascaux, they ceased to be mere instruments and became brushes that told stories. The handprints on the walls are acts of memory, manifestations of the desire to endure and an effort to connect with the transcendent. Through these paintings, hands became humanity’s first chroniclers, marking the birth of art and the connection with the divine.
Our Publication
Cada edición es un experimento. Un viaje inesperado narrado en múltiples lenguajes: fotografía, literatura, arquitectura, ilustración, música y más.
The importance of gesture
The illustrations in this edition are delicate sketches by artist Xavier Orenes, created within the intimate space of our workshop in Terrassa (Barcelona). There, he observed and captured the soul of our team, the objects that surround us, and the cherished tools that breathe life into each thread of our artisanal fabrics.
With this issue, we open our workshop from the heart—seen through the eyes of a local illustrator from Terrassa, a city woven deeply into the legacy of textile tradition.
Remarkable Tools and a Map of Destiny
With their delicate combination of strength and precision, hands are one of the most remarkable marvels of human evolution. Thanks to their unique anatomical design – opposable thumbs, tactile sensitivity and complex movements – we not only manipulate our environment but transform it. With them, we learned to carve stone, shape tools and record our first ideas in cave drawings. Each worked fragment, each line drawn on rock, symbolises an intellectual leap and a small step in evolution.
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