Salt, Capitalism and Cabinetry: The Magistrato Al Sal Nero Cabinet by Trent Jansen.

The Magistrato Al Sal Nero Cabinet by Trent Jansen designed for the Venice Design Biennial. Trent collaborated with the talented artisans at Vetralia Collectible who hand-crafted the collectible design piece.

Tile assembly process shot in Vetralia Collectible’s workshop.

Photo by Veronika Motulko.

The ever-talented Australian designer Trent Jansen has developed a fantastical new cabinet during his trip to Venice as a guest of the Venice Design Biennial and the collectible design market Vetralia Collectible. The event aims to build bridges between design lovers across the globe, and the vital community of designers, architects, craftsmen, makers and brands from Venice and its region. At each edition, participants are invited into unexpected places for design such as historic palazzos, hidden cloisters, private galleries and other intriguing sites.

Now in its 4th year, the Venice Design Biennial asked artists and designers to respond to the theme Auto-Exotic. Alongside Ada Sokół for Moooi, Anna Resei, Arjan van Dal and Arianna De Luca, Trent exhibited The Magistrato Al Sal Nero Cabinet inside the Spazio Arte Contemporanea, a Venetian apartment turned exhibition space in the heart of the city.

The piece is based on research conducted as part of his residency focused on the influence of salt on the evolution of Venetian civilisation and its legacy as one of the birthplaces of capitalism, with the Magistrato Al Sal Nero Cabinet embodying this historical and contemporary context through its physicality.

The cabinet is built on a column-shaped base seemingly constructed from black salt. Paying homage to the important role of glass production in the Venetian Lagoon, the base is actually constructed from thousands of small glass granules, each one the same size and profile as a grain of salt in black.

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The base of the cabinet also appears to be crumbling, causing the entire piece to teeter as its foundations appear to falter. This is a reference to the contemporary effect of salt on Venetian architecture, rupturing the brickwork and undermining the foundations of these ancient buildings.

The top section of the cabinet consists of hundreds of ebonised timber tiles, a homage to the archetypal terracotta tiles used throughout Venice. These tiles take on a randomised construction and appear to break apart and tumble as the salt column below seems to falter and sway. There are two doors in this top section, hidden by the tile composition, when opened, these doors reveal a further ebonised interior.

The collectible design piece was painstakingly hand-crafted by the talented artisans at Vetralia Collectible, combining the ancient art of hand-wood-carving with the innovative use of granulated glass, to create a contemporary, experimental design work that embodies a story of great significance to the evolution of Venice.

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The Magistrato Al Sal Nero Cabinet on show at Spazio Arte Contemporanea. Photo by Giacomo Gandola.

[Images courtesy of Trent Jansen. Photography by Giacomo Gandola & Veronika Motulko.]