Bvlgari Spreads The Light With Its First-Ever Global Diwali Initiative

With ‘Passing the Light’, Bvlgari presents India’s festival of lights, Diwali, to a global audience through a collaboration with artist Doyel Joshi. The project celebrates both the festival and the terracotta craftsmanship that artisans of Rajasthan have inherited. A new global digital campaign by Bvlgari traces the artwork’s journey from earth to kiln to finished installation.

At the centre of Bvlgari and Joshi’s collaboration is a massive installation comprising 4,500 hand-sculpted terracotta elongated hexagons, inspired by the traditional diya and shaped to resemble the iconic scales of the Bvlgari Serpenti. Each element has been handcrafted by members of the Kumhar potter community and local craftswomen through a social enterprise, adding relevance and authenticity to the project. Terracotta has been integral to India’s cultural and daily life both as functional objects as well as artistic expressions. At Diwali, a terracotta diya burning bright becomes the receptacle of light, hope, renewal and renewal. Doyel’s installation channels this spirituality of the clay forms that harden under a trial by fire. It anchors the installation’s narrative. 

The ‘Passing the Light’ installation was unveiled at the Jaipur Centre for Art, attended by Stéphane Larher, Managing Director, Bvlgari Middle East, Africa and India; art patron Noelle Kadar, co-founder of the Jaipur Centre for Art; author and columnist Twinkle Khanna; and Doyel Joshi. For Khanna, the collaboration offered a meaningful distinction between cultural appropriation and appreciation. “We have seen international luxury brands making our Kolhapuris, our jhumkas and more recently our mirror work their own without due credit to India and Indian craftsmanship. The difference between appropriation and appreciation is very clear, and this is clearly an appreciation.”

Talking about the significance of Jaipur, Noelle Kadar comments, “Jaipur is a city known for its relationship with colour and craft, history and beauty. And old buildings, and within all of those buildings, there’s a new story. The gems are still being cut. The gold is still being set. Men are still haggling with the stones in Johri Bazar. Maharaja Padmanabh Singh still lives in this palace. We’re all finding new ways to talk about it without leaving anything behind. Jaipur is a very special city in India because it’s allowed itself to be both incredibly forward-thinking but also incredibly traditional.”

Joshi’s work brings attention to the knowledge held within the material: the skills, rituals and traditions passed from one maker to the next. This continuity finds an echo in Bvlgari’s ateliers, where generations of goldsmiths preserve and develop the Maison’s craft. For her, the partnership began with an exchange of ideas, grounded in mutual respect. “Working with Bvlgari on this installation has been a conversation between two very different histories, one shaped in clay, the other in gold, that speak the same language of transmission. The conversation with the Bvlgari team never started from the products; it was always what we could offer as our provenance and practices, keeping jewellery and Diwali as the theme.”