DesignForFuture's "Intensive Culture" exhibition is currently in Lisbon:
Lounging Space > Pátio do Tijolo, 25
09 september 09 > 08 november 09
11:00-00:00 SUN-THU / 11:00-02:00 FRI-SAT
The singularity of territories in the south of Portugal, especially lower Alentejo and Algarve, has shaped their people and cultures throughout time.
The barrenness of the ‘Barrocal Algarvio’ and the Alentejo plains is extended in crafts, singing, gastronomy and, especially, in the primitive roughness of a unique material culture.
These landscapes, apparently monotonous because they are not marked by exceptional geological features, are distinguished by a character that moves those who cross them and influences forever those who live there.
The intervention proposed by DESIGNFORFUTURE starts by observing the behaviour of a community to try and get hold of their habits, their meaning and reasons. Behind every object, every utensil, there is a story which is forgotten. Now we want to recover these stories and attempt a new continuity.
This collection of scattered memories is developed in a dynamic way with the several actors in the territory, namely the local craftsmen, aiming at restarting halted projects and recovering lost identities. These agents possess a singular and ancestral knowledge, which we need to save and materialise in new functionalities, thus contributing for the creation of added value.
The results of this action will be presented as original proposals of new objects, made from materials and techniques genuinely Portuguese, such as olive tree and carob tree wood, slate stone, cork, palm leaf and esparto grass ‘empreita’, cane basketry or pottery. We hope that these new proposals may contribute for the saving of a lost authenticity.
Concept + Project:
Álbio Nascimento
Graphic Design:
propan