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.
