De que forma é que a prática, a cobertura jornalística, a curadoria e a crítica académica do design brasileiro estão a misturar origem com identidade, oportunidade social com oportunismo de design, ’gambiarra‘ com inovação frugal, realidade com estereótipo? É sobre isto que falarei dia 15 de Novembro de 2011 na Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, como participante do próximo Observatório da África e América Latina do Próximo Futuro.

O Brasil é hoje mais do que uma nação tropical de praia, samba e futebol. É uma superpotência do século 21. Está por isso na hora de o mundo, ou pelo menos o mundo do design, prestar a devida atenção ao design brasileiro. Mas também está na hora de os designers brasileiros tratarem o seu povo, um de seus principais valores, com o respeito que ele merece.

Este é o lede do meu artigo de 6 páginas para a revista Projeto Design de Junho 2011, agora nas bancas. Nele eu falo de como os recursos humanos são um factor de destaque no design brasileiro do início do século XXI. E de alguns bons e maus exemplos de como os designers brasileiros estão a explorar estes recursos.

Obrigado à Evelise Grunow, editora de design da revista, pelo convite para integrar este longo artigo na revista, que surgiu no seguimento de uma longa conversa em Lisboa. Este texto é ainda uma adaptação da palestra que eu dei em Janeiro de 2011 na Royal College of Art, em Londres.

The image above is the first slide of my latest talk on Brazilian design, which I delivered on April 7th in Salamanca, Spain. It reads: “Fruit hats or frugal innovation? The contemporary challenges of Brazilian design.” In the last six months I’ve had the pleasure of speaking about my findings and reflections on Brazilian design in four cities and rather different contexts.

First up, and upon an invitation from Susan Yelavich, I spoke at Parsons the New School of Design in New York as part of the Global Issues in Design and Visuality in the 21st Century Lecture Series. It was a huge honour for me to come back to Parsons as a speaker, as I had been of Professor Yelavich’s Global Issues recitation leaders during the Spring 2010 semester. In this talk, which I named “Beyond the Fruit Hat: Brazilian Product and Furniture Design Today”, I addressed the 300-or so undergraduate students sitting in the New School’s Tishman Auditorium and highlighted the perils of being culturally pigeon-holed, as so much of Brazilian design is – hence the term “Fruit Hat”, which Brazilian artist Vik Muniz mentions in this extremely interesting interview with brothers Fernando and Humberto Campana.

Then on November 4th and 5th, I included a few examples of Brazilian designs in my “Is Happiness for Sale?” talk I gave in a research workshop dedicated to happiness, part of the amazing Next Future programme at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon. António Pinto Ribeiro, the programme’s curator, had invited me to speak about happiness and design. Quite a tough call to answer! The talk’s pdf is available (in Portuguese) here.

In January 2010 I spoke specifically about designer-driven community projects, at the request of Martina Margetts, the organiser of the stimulating, one-day symposium Brazil: the cultural contemporary at the Royal College of Art in London. My 40-minute talk – where I blatantly ran out of time, as did the other speakers – was probably my most polemic to date. The evening’s round panel discussion was particularly lively, too. It was quite an honour to speak at this academically demanding event, amidst many Brazil art, design, architecture and culture specialists and scholars. It was also a privilege to have enjoyed a travel grant from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation.

After having taken a one-week intensive Summer course on Latin America at ISCTE last September, I got to know about the “Los BRICs. Brasil potencia emergente” 2-day symposium, which took place in Salamanca in April. I submitted an abstract for a 15-minute talk and was invited by the organisers at the Iberoamerican Institute to speak at a panel named “Brazil: an emerging economic power”. I was the only speaker not affiliated to a research institute – so much so, my name badge said Frederico Duarte / Fabrico Próprio, which is the title of the book I co-edited and launched in 2008. My talk was rather well received, if only for being quite a departure from other lectures mostly on economic, sociological, political and juridical aspects of contemporary Brazil. No one was really expecting a Portuguese guy to talk about Brazilian design – from the Havaianas to the Campanas –, connecting it to the country’s burgeoning consumer society, its still frail manufacturing sector and challenging what people think they know, and don’t know, about consumer products designed and made by Brazilians.

These talks have allowed me to reflect, and reconfigure my findings, about a subject I’ve learned quite a lot in the past two years – and am still learning. If you’re interested in knowing more about what I’ve been talking about, do get in touch –frederico[at]05031979.net.

On our last morning in Montreal, Becky Quintal and I paid a short visit to the Canadian Center for Architecture bookstore just before heading to the airport. Even though we spent a whole week inside CCA’s building, we left a visit to what is one of the best architecture bookstores anywhere to the very last minute – on purpose, as we could only afford so many impulse purchases. I came in allowing myself to leave only with a few postcards, but couldn’t resist picking up Richard J. Williams’ Brazil: Modern Architectures in History. If only all impulse purchases were this gratifying.

For a few minutes, I did try to weigh in some pros and cons. The cons: Brazilian architecture history is of tangential interest to my research; I already have a few books on Brazilian architecture criticism (some of which remain unread, but I’m taking care of that this Summer); I wasn’t too impressed by its design (I do judge a book by its cover, but I’m always willing to change my mind) and photo illustrations; it looked more like a thesis dissertation than an illustrated book (which is not necessarily a bad thing). It cost C$36.95, which made it an indulgence for someone on the very last day of a 6-week trip across North America and with little money left and no room for excess baggage.

But then I succumbed to a very important pro: the writing. After a quick glance into its almost 300 pages, I realized this was not a stuffy account of Brazilian modern architecture, but a rather compelling read.

And compelling it was. In eight thoroughly researched, but highly enjoyable chapters (six of which addressing different “Politics” – of the Past, Eros, Progress, Poverty, Liberation, Spectacle and Public Space) Richard J. Williams takes us, in a heartbeat, from the 1922 Modern Week to Curitiba’s bus network, the private development of Alphaville and “The Rise of Paulo Mendes da Rocha”.

And boy, is Professor Williams critical. No words are spared to give praise where praise is due, but also to critique the most sacred of Brazil’s cows. Above all, Oscar Niemeyer and Brasília (a topic he has written extensively in the past), but also Lúcio Costa, Max Bill (such a treat to read Bill’s views on the MES/Gustavo Capanema building), Vilanova Artigas, Jaime Lerner, Paulo Mendes da Rocha or Ruy Ohtake – I was however puzzled not to find any reference to Isay Weinfeld.

In the book’s sections on Niemeyer’s Memorial da América Latina in São Paulo (1987-89), the Museu de Arte Contemporânea in Niterói (1997) and the Museu Oscar Niemeyer in Curitiba (2002), Williams is particularly ruthless. Relying on his own recent observations and on other contemporary accounts and criticism, Williams exposes these works in their crude, pathetic existence. He describes the latter with nothing else than “a giant glass eye on a stick”, but goes in greater detail about the other two, revealing Niemeyer’s disregard for such “earthbound matters” as construction, finishing and purpose, in exchange for what he calls a Postmodern preoccupation “with the creation of icons that may or may not be related to their supposed functions.”

What I found most rewarding about this book, apart from a certain disenchantment with any kind of ‘grand narrative’ of modernism, was the way it dealt with Brazil as a subject. Unlike so many other non-Brazilian authors writing about the country (and especially the ones writing about its architecture and design, even in the so-called “trade media”), Williams’ knees are not trembling, his pulse isn’t high, his head isn’t light. In case you’re looking for a love letter to Brazilian modernism, its architecture or its heroes, this book isn’t it. And that’s why it’s as significant as it is compelling.

Williams’ restraint is particularly manifest in the book’s conclusion, which includes this quote from a 2001 article on the re-emergence of Brazilian architecture in international architectural discourse, by Brazilian critic Fernando Luiz Lara: “Brazil retains a peculiar, and ultimately peripheral, character: the country is always cited in terms of the ‘exotic, erotic, or chaotic’; the country is always a curiosity rather than something more serious.”

Such words never made more sense than today. It’s about time people writing on Brazil get up from their lounge chairs, sit straight and start treating the country, its people and their work with the diligence and respect they deserve.

On April 30th, graduates of the MFA Design Criticism inaugural class presented their thesis projects at Crossing the Line: the 2010 D-Crit Conference. I was the third to present, and in 9 minutes I talked about my research, findings and future ideas about Brazilian product and furniture design and social change.

More news on Alvorada coming up in the next few weeks.

Havaianas

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Solitário necklace, Oiti for Ronaldo Fraga

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Arapuca Shelf, Rodrigo Almeida

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Pindorama vinyl tablecloths, Marcelo Rosenbaum

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Consul Washing Machine, Consul

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Bananaplac, Fibradesign

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flyers for Fernando Gabeira's campaign for mayor of Rio de Janeiro, Tátil Design

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ZigZag Hanger, Nódesign

Quará hangers, Nódesign

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Gadget Shelf, Bernardo Senna for Tok&Stok

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"Jalapa" Project, Piracema Design Lab

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Condiment Jars, O Imaginário for CIV

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Limited edition Lacoste polo shirt, Fernando and Humberto Campana

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Rendeira Lounge Chair, Flávia Pagotti Silva

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I saw the great, inspiring documentary “Beyond Ipanema: Brazilian Waves in Global Music” last night at the 92Y TRiBeCa. After the screening, director Guto Barra went up on stage for the Q&A.
I really appreciated when he said he didn’t want to restrict the film to the history of Brazilian music (from Carmen Miranda to Bossa Nova, from Tropicalismo to Baile Funk), but rather on how what David Byrne calls Brazil’s main export for decades has been influencing so many other creative expressions around the world.