A NEW WAY OF LOOKING

Local references, a global project. We believe this is one of the "recipes" for Brazilian design. But how to make the transfer from doing it as a craft to large-scale production? What references are valid ?
ARC DESIGN begins a survey of Brazilian handcraft, not as an end in itself but, as an aid to the Brazilian project

Maria Helena Estrada
The loss of our traditions, the abandonment to which handicraft communities were relegated – the inhabitants of which pursued the false traditional and the false modern in handicraft for tourists – that often times resulted in poorly and badly executed work, without roots. What happened to that dense repertoire, beautiful, shown at the Brasil + 500 exhibition, which really made it possible for us to rediscover Brazil?
Another two fundamental questions: how to give the handcrafted product contemporary features, which will make it desired and competitive on the international market? How to promote and distribute the production from faraway regions?
After decades of abandonment, agencies such as Sebrae or the “Solidarity Community” project (Comunidade Solidária) and various NGOs, today are promoting the resurgence, the rescue of handicrafts based on our cultural traditions, opening the way for a possible new reality in Brazilian design. And, principally, are rekindling confidence in our creative ability.
The challenge for Brazil – which is also a challenge faced by designers – is to identify the differential, the features of this design – really an enormous palette of choices – or the Brazil brand; it is to create products which are able to find a place on the international market, avoiding continuing merely to export raw materials.
As regards the proposed “Brazil brand”, Sebrae has just published a study under the title “Brazilian Face” (Cara Brasileira) which, in addition to outlining a Brazilian profile, covers “Brazilian-ness” in business and proposes a way to “made in Brazil”.
“Exporting is the solution”, is the current cry. And design is, as is well known, an important tool for exports.
But how to take the decisive step? How to loosen the knot? What are the tools for this miracle?
Apart from a correct infrastructure – which, in the broadest sense, starts with a project and productive capacity and ends with the channels of distribution –, it is fundamental, in forming Brazilian design, in its posture, to direct its sight to its surroundings – and not merely towards that which arrives for us from other cultures – to rethink our own reality.
In Brazil, contemporary objects are, in their great majority, designed by professionals who undertake all (and it seems that there is no other choice) the roles in the design chain: designing - developing - producing - marketing. Nevertheless these still are, for the greater part, products that result from globalized aesthetics. They could have been created here, in France, in Argentina.
How to find the highly desired “Brazilian face”? How to think about the project?
Liberty and diversity are words that could define our times. They are also attributes of creative work. To these values we add quality. But what will this quality be?
Quality is synonymous with innovation in the concept, in the form and in the choice of materials and technology; it is also quality in execution, respect for the environment... some poetry. We could say that, today, attention to cultural roots of the country or region itself is also a component of quality.
The “first world”, markets in general, value the peculiarities of developing countries – and their expression. Globalization of the markets has led to homogeneity, pasteurization of production. To please the consumer in China, in Brazil, in Europe, in America and, to produce on the broadest scale, great formal differences have been abolished.
But this “recipe” has already been exhausted, and the world is looking for variety in other cultures, in younger countries that know how to use their singularities, transforming them into a universal language.
Thus, to continue seeking inspiration in European aesthetics, when they are themselves seeking to abandon this model is, at least, useless.
It’s time to change the way of looking!
Local and global appeal for new expressions, for innovative solutions which bring greater freshness to industrial production is growing, all over the world; Brazilian design with a pronounced identity is an aspiration which already appears possible, because there is consciousness of its importance amongst us, be that among government agencies or other entities or among businessmen.
Hence, we propose a new attack, a new approach, which includes the intention of a wider and more ambitious range, which does not merely reach Brazil. Start from local references and reach the global. Certainly, this is one of the possible ways for design in Brazil.
Knowledge of one’s own culture, which is viewed as archaic, popular, is doubtless an interesting point of departure.
How to carry out this transposition? The designers themselves should find a reply.
My only certainty is that, while we continue to be turned totally towards European culture, reproducing their formulae, their aesthetics in our objects of consumption, we will only be supplying a small domestic market and, obviously, with products without significant added value. We will be exporting lumber, aluminum, coffee and receiving manufactured products.
But how can the approximation be effected between doing things manually and doing them industrially? How to think about a new repertoire of objects that can translate, identify a source?
To begin with, let us think about what we have, about which natural raw materials we have available. Woods, fibers – including cotton –, paper, leather, rubber, a tradition of over 2,000 years and our creative soul.
The craftsman, throughout the world, has once again begun to be valued.
An example is the Eindhoven Design Academy in Holland, in which the industrial design curriculum includes the chair of “handicrafts”, under the guidance of an incredible designer: Hella Jongerius. In 2001, a group of instructors and students from the school came to Brazil to get to know our handicrafts, in search of new creative sources. Together with Brazilian artisans they created an internationally recognized collection (see ARC DESIGN n.23).
What we are proposing here is not a simplistic return to doing things by hand, but an hypothesis of changing the direction in which we look as the basis for Brazilian and universal aesthetics. It is like indicating a path, which is, as yet, little used. A path along which the use and recovery of handicrafts passes.
Much of what is being recovered today is touched by the designer's hand. This refers to the work of rediscovering the way of doing things manually and of providing guidance – without interfering in its original expression – in the sense of making it more suitable for the market. Sebrae has been the agency responsible for the majority of these activities, throughout Brazil.
Two good examples are projects that use cotton. One of them brought together weavers from all the regions of Brazil, in the Transformarte project (see ARC DESIGN n. 9). A farsighted businesswoman, author of the project, decided to direct this production directly towards Italy. Today many Brazilian handmade fabrics are distributed all over Europe.
Another example is the " THE HOUSE – A CASA" project, which also received support from Sebrae, and in which the stylist Walter Rodrigues acted together with the lace makers from Piauí, in the “Morro da Mariana”: he gave the new colors of yarn, such as black, for example, and asked them to use a more open stitch, making the lace flexible. Using this material, he created his international collection of Brazilian fashion.