“Mother Nature reflects a feeling that had been brewing for some time, and the pandemic has made it more evident. In the world of design there is a change of mentality. A silent revolution. A saying: this far we have come. You have to work from another mentality, more reflective, slower. With a design that helps the planet and the world get better and not worse. The exhibition values design work that focuses on Nature”, explained its curator Teresa Herrero to Magazine Lifestyle.
And it points out how the generation of designers present in the show explores art, science and technology to expand the limits of experimentation and creativity. They are projects that use design to stimulate the imagination and increase environmental awareness, and the exhibition is organized around the four fundamental elements of nature, according to Western culture: water, earth, air and fire.
A cumulus of foam after the great wave, more than three meters high printed in 3D, welcomes the visitor at Madre Natura. It is a digital design by the young architect Niccolo Casas, printed with the giant robotic arm of the Nagami studio in Ávila. The material comes from plastic waste collected in seas, oceans and beaches around the world, managed by Parley for the Oceans. A piece that has become an emblem that, before arriving in Madrid, has been seen at the Venice Architecture Biennale.
Sustainability, circularity or ecodesign mobilize these authors. However, his creations also come with a great emotional and sensory load -says Teresa Herrero-. Behind each one there are heartfelt stories that connect with the viewer. They are stories lived in the first person by the designers. Like Aqua Fossil from the Amarist studio by Aran Lozano and Clara Campo. Installed in the town of Boltaña, in the Huesca Pyrenees where alabaster mines once worked, his series of Metamorphosis lamps sculpted with this stone can be filled with water and dialogue with the landscape. Through their beauty they seek to recall the problem of the scarcity of natural resources and envision a future where water has become a 'fossil' state.
During his stay in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, the Madrid designer Lucas Muñoz confessed that he missed stones. Minerals that he declares to love. From that period came his Livingstone seating collection. Up to the nine models in the exhibition, with stones collected in the Sierra de Guadarrama to create ephemeral seats on metal structures. After the exhibition they will once again form part of the original landscape. Or maybe not, if they find other stone enthusiasts like him.
Designing from the periphery is a growing trend among the new generations, practiced today with pride. Beyond the city or its industrial belt, enclaves close to nature foster a greater connection with it. The designer and illustrator Carlos Villoslada, from a town in La Rioja, signs Abrazo de Raíz: 77 old plates covered with fabrics from the late 19th and 20th centuries converted into multiple canvases. At the foot of the mountains of Alicante, in Pedreger, Regina DeJimenez has composed a textile landscape with a rug, a seat and a light element, where she blends techniques and fibers.
Design today oscillates from state-of-the-art technologies to craftsmanship that defends that hand that knows how to think and reflect on doing. The ceramist Ana Illueca is committed to zero waste. The series of ella Surprie Circular trays recovers and decants the sludge from washing tools, giving rise to unique pieces with a changing appearance depending on the mix of waste.
In the whole of Madre Natura, some proposals with wood as the protagonist stand out. And they remind us that this matter, today in full demand, appears as the fifth element of nature in the Chinese tradition. Saskia Bostelmann starts from the trunk of a tree felled by the last storm Filomena, found in the streets of Madrid, for her limited series of 10 pendants. Using fragments as a base, she joins them to structures generated in 3D and cast in silver, inspired by the capital's metro network. Diego Guillén signs the 4-door oak screen, made by the Aragonese wood craftsman Eloy Collado. An abstraction of the landscape of the Aragonese undergrowth with different types of carving and darkening with the old ebonized technique. A wake-up call to the recurring fires that ravage the forests.
