Alvorada » Renato Imbroisi

At the table with Heloísa Crocco

Frederico Duarte — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 02:33:18 +0000

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.

Crocco's studio gorgeous sleeping quarters

Heloísa is trained as an artist, but has been working as a designer for many years. Most of her time is dedicated to the design of surface patterns and decorative panels, where she explores wood texture elements in varying levels of abstraction, namely in her own line of decorative ceramics at Tok&Stok. She is also a pioneer in developing community-based design and craft projects, and this was what interested me most in meeting her.

Heloísa is a co-founder of Piracema Design Lab, a research project dedicated to “form in Brazilian culture” initiated by a multidisciplinary 7-person team: herself, photographer Fabio del Re, artist and professor José Alberto Nemer, twin sisters and architects/designers Lui Lo Pomo and Tina Azevedo Moura, Renato Imbroisi and Marcelo Drummond. I met some of the other members later in my trip.

Image taken from a Piracema Design Lab presentation

Piracema is seen as one of the most consistent and respected projects in this field; through its “Faber” project, it has been instructing professionals (artists, designers, craftsmen) to work in projects that bring together design and craft. This is thus not a one-hit-wonder project where a group of designers goes to a remote community and teaches people how to improve their craft through design. In a way it’s also about that, but this 1-year program is mostly about providing the knowledge and tools to understand both the market (in its potential and limitations) and the communities these professionals will work with in the long run.

Through its scientific base and multidisciplinary approach, Piracema avoids the empirical methods and unilateralism of other, similar projects. Allowing the artisan to be sovereign over its work and authorship, it wishes to cultivate the product of his or her work as a materialization of a cultural heritage, observed in its context and anthropological complexity.

Jalapão (image from the rosenbaum® blog)

Mainly with the support of Sebrae, Piracema has developed community projects in several states, the last of which took place this July in Jalapão, a landlocked plateau region in the state of Tocantins. During the time I spent with Heloísa in Porto Alegre the experience of being in that remote place was still very fresh in her mind. We talked a lot about what happens when a team of designers goes to places like these: how the community they meet reacts, how much they learn from one another and how significant the impact of the experience is on both.

The day after I arrived we (Heloísa, her son Thomaz, Tatiana and myself) went up to Bento Gonçalves for the first day of the Casa Brasil Design fair. We got there just as Marcelo Rosenbaum was finishing his talk, right on time for him to join us for lunch. Rosenbaum had been the invited designer for Piracema’s Jalapão project, and this was the first they had reunited after the experience.

Heloísa, Thomaz and Marcelo ('s tatooed arm).

Over what was a remarkably northern Italian lunch near Bento Gonçalves, they shared many stories from those unforgettable ten or so days working with local people and capim dourado. This tall plant, whose naturally golden stem is used to make a myriad of objects, was the material of choice for this project. Also at the table was Ademir Bueno, design manager at Tok&Stok, who had been following this and other Piracema projects closely, as some of the resulting products find their way to its nationwide network of stores. You can see some photos of the project’s team and results on Rosenbaum’s blog or on Tok&Stok’s website.

Normélio's stuff

On our 2-hour car journey back from Bento to Porto Alegre, we bought bergamot oranges by the roadside, and as we passed the village of São Sebastião do Caí, Heloísa made sure she stopped at her friend Normélio’s to say hi. He welcomed us in the kitchen of his amazing wooden house for tea. Normélio collects and restores antique German colony furniture and surrounds himself of decade-, in some case century-old, artifacts that in this part of Brazil don’t feel even particularly exotic.

Normélio's Tea

Having turned 60 this year, Heloísa told me she feels it’s now time for her to go back to her own work and “pass on the torch”. She wishes Piracema to evolve as a project, to involve younger people and adapt to future challenges. Judging from her contagious enthusiasm and energy, but also Piracema’s talented team and track record, I have no doubt the project will remain as relevant and inspiring as it is now.

In their own hands

Frederico Duarte — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 05:54:00 +0000

Renato (I unfortunately forgot to take a photo of him) is by and large the pioneer in the field. A weaver by trade, he started his first “product interference” projects in the early 1990s. First in his own state of Minas Gerais, but later from his studio/school in São Paulo, Renato began to work with craftsmen and women from different regions, incorporating their work into a larger distribution chain, making connections with textile, fashion and later home decoration stores and wholesalers.

In the late 1990s he was invited to the federal capital, Brasília, to head a nation-wide, pilot project with communities from all over the country – from indigenous reserves to bilro lace makers to capim dourado harvesters.

Based on his wide experience and insight, Renato was later invited by the FDC and Aga Khan Foundations to start long-term projects in two regions of Mozambique. Lately he is also coordinating a new project in the also former Portuguese colony of São Tomé.

I was introduced to Renato by Heloísa Crocco (Renato was also one of the founders of the Piracema project) during the opening of the “Brasil em África” exhibition at the Casa Brasil fair. This exhibition featured the work he’s been co-ordinating there and, through its sophisticated presentation and inventive range of products was one of my personal highlights of the whole event.

Our two-hour chat went from how villagers make the several thousand kilometers from the northern Cabo Delgado region of Mozambique to Maputo wearing their own work with pride, to his utmost concern in any of the projects he’s been heading: continuity. He explained how he has been trying, with different level of success, to engage all the different agents in the process – craftsmen, distributors/sellers, state institutions, NGOs, the media and also other designers – in making sure this continuity is kept.

This is also a concern for Paula Dib, who began her first explorations in 2002-2003, fresh out of FAAP’s product design programme. Her short, yet productive career (in Brazil, but also in Europe) has already gained much attention and recognition – she was the recipient of the British Council award for entrepreneurship in 2007. I actually heard about Paula from Heath Nash, runner-up of the award and a common friend. With her company, transforma.design, Paula organises workshops and teaches design students, but also craftspeople, to elevate their creative potential by looking around what lies around them. In the process, she challenges people’s preconceptions of resources, manufacturing and value. We then talked about what makes people want the stuff they don’t have – from brands to the influence of production design in Brazilian telenovelas – and about what they manufacture – things they need and can make a living from – with the resources around them.

Paula also has an interesting take on how this kind of projects explore – or even explode – the notion of authorship; she says there is no more a place for authorship, as it becomes shared between designer and craftsmen, individual and community, thinker and maker. She adds this notion should actually be an inspiration for the future of design, as it becomes and increasingly collaborative discipline – on this and many other fronts. Her view may be seen as debatable, almost quixotic, but it’s part of a larger, global debate on the future of the design profession.

On August 13th I met both Renato Imbroisi over breakfast and Paula Dib over lunch a few Vila Madalena blocks apart. Representing two generations and experiences in Brazilian community-based design and craft, they share many of the same goals, achievements and concerns, but have quite different experiences.Renato (I unfortunately forgot to take a photo of him) is by and large the pioneer in the field. A weaver by trade, he started his first “product interference” projects in the early 1990s. First in his own state of Minas Gerais, but later from his studio/school in São Paulo, Renato began to work with craftsmen and women from different regions, incorporating their work into a larger distribution chain, making connections with textile, fashion and later home decoration stores and wholesalers.

In the late 1990s he was invited to the federal capital, Brasília, to head a nation-wide, pilot project with communities from all over the country – from indigenous reserves to bobbin lacemakers to capim dourado harvesters. Based on his wide experience and insight, Renato was later invited by the FDC and Aga Khan foundations to start long-term projects in two regions of Mozambique. Lately he is also coordinating a new project in the also former Portuguese colony of São Tomé.

This is also a concern for Paula Dib, who began her first explorations in 2002-2003, fresh out of FAAP’s product design programme. Her short, yet productive career (in Brazil, but also in Europe) has already gained much attention and recognition – she was the recipient of the British Council Young design entrepreneur of the year award in 2006. I actually heard about Paula from Heath Nash, runner-up of the award and a common friend. With her company, transforma.design, Paula organises workshops and teaches design students, but also craftspeople, to elevate their creative potential by looking around what lies around them. In the process, she challenges people’s preconceptions of resources, manufacturing and value. We then talked about what makes people want the stuff they don’t have – from brands to the influence of production design in Brazilian telenovelas – and about what they manufacture – things they need and can make a living from – with the resources around them.