Heloísa Crocco and Normélio

I got to know Heloísa Crocco and her work through Adélia Borges, whom I met the day before I left to Porto Alegre. I was going to stay in a hotel there, but Adélia called Heloísa to ask if her “wooden box” studio on the outskirts of Porto Alegre, by the Guaíba river, would be free the next 2 days. This is where she welcomes friends, artists and curators there as a sort of informal artists’ residence. Lucky for me, it was free.

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Shortly after I arrived in Recife, Patrícia Amorim and her boyfriend Raul Aguiar took me to Olinda for lunch and for the view. Patrícia is the main reason I actually came here: she wrote me an email on the day I left Lisbon for São Paulo, where she said she has been writing on design for newspapers and magazines here in Pernambuco, wrote her master dissertation on how design has been featured in 5 years of the Veja magazine, helped out Adélia Borges on her curation for the “Fronteiras: Design Brasileiro Hoje” exhibition and – if all that wasn’t enough – is thinking on applying for the D-Crit programme. I immediately considered adding Recife to my itinerary just to talk to her and learn more about all the things she mentioned.

And it was totally worth it. Patrícia and Raul (who runs a design and illustration studio with his brother) not only welcomed me into their flat, but were great guides around Recife. They’re both quite well connected in the city, and Patrícia managed to arrange the two meetings/interviews that later took place – and also walks around the centre and Olinda, a beach break at Praia da Boa Viagem (where I managed to avoid the sharks) and plenty of great local food and drinks.

Tatiana Sperhacke and her husband Raul Krebs picked me up at the Porto Alegre airport this morning, and we went straight to the Fundação Iberê Camargo for lunch. Álvaro Siza’s only second (thanks Paulo Moreira for the correction!) building in South America is a true architectural gem – despite the silly toilet symbols his clients still let him get away with. Walking along its narrow corridors and spacious halls on a sunny, crisp day like today made the experience even grander. (more…)

I spent the better part of my day with three amazing women.
First, design journalist and curator and former director of Museu da Casa Brasileira Adélia Borges, who has been a terrific guiding hand for me from the very first moment, welcomed me into her house/office in Vila Madalena for a great lunch and conversation. I forgot to take a photo of Adélia, but I will meet her again in Bento Gonçalves and also on the 11th here in São Paulo – more news on that later.

Just as I left Adélia’s street I got a call from Daniela Pizetta, who I got in touch before coming to Brazil through design journalist and curator Aric Chen. She picked me up on the corner and we drove to her husband’s Bike Shop. Cris runs one of the few licenced Harley Davidson workshops in Brazil, and he started our chat there. Then we walked up to the Sunset spot in Vila Beatriz, where we arrived just after the sun set. And today was the first day I actually saw São Paulo’s blue sky… We went back to their place and continued talking over pizza about Daniela’s experience with Brazilian product design, design development and export, in what was a remarkably insightful take into the industry, its achievements but also its shortcomings over the past years.

Then I got a taxi – with the greatest, most politically opinionated cab driver I’ve ever met – to Morumbi, where I met Flávia Pagotti Silva. Flávia had a really busy day, and is having a very busy week of exciting new projects and commissions, so we could only talk from 8pm. Her cool, soon to be 4-year old son Pedro paid us company throughout the talk/interview, repeatedly attempting to fly over the couch.