Metro Design, Rio de Janeiro, June 2001;
Itau Cultural, Belo Horizonte, March 2000;
Itau Cultural, São Paulo, November 1999
Curator
Furniture, lighting fixtures, clothes, fabrics, jewelry, dishes and curtains created by Brazilian designers in the 1990s, from material trivial, prosaic and devalued materials, were the focus of this exhibition, perhaps the first to address the issue of recycling in Brazilian design. Among the participants, Flavio Verdini, Julio Sanazzaro, Fernando and Humberto Campana, Eduardo e Beth Prado, Lino Vilaventura, Mauricio Castro and Nido Campolongo. Some of them reversed the natural course of the consumer society and made of waste, the last link in the chain, the starting point for creating something new. Others take prefabricated components and subvert its original function. The unorthodox genesis of pieces is not hidden nor explained as a “curiosity” by the designers. In a counterpoint to the exaggerated glorification of technology, they appropriate low-tech materials and processes to fashion things of great formal sophistication. Exhibition design by Janete Costa.
Photos Antonio Saggese / Itaú Cultural
