Fernando and Humberto Campana
The Campana brothers and modern design
They have been able to draw inspiration from the incredible creativity of the Brazilian favelas, ennobling it to the rank of design, and have become two of the most famous international designers. They challenge common sense creating second generation products, using waste materials taken out of their context and of their original function. They say they also draw inspiration from the poor area of Sao Paulo, where creativity is a must for people to meet their everyday needs.
Manual skills and creativity are typical of the Brazilians and the Campana brothers often look for contact with the young people of the favelas, with whom they actively co-operate. Thus the playful South American spirit of the Campana brothers explodes in creations famous for their strong evocative component, taking their cue from everyday-use objects, waste, industrial materials, which they transform, offering them new aesthetic dignity.
Irony, inventiveness and innovation in a poetic, metropolitan, cheerful and colourful design. Design creations that stress a strong sense of culture and traditions: the work of the Campana brothers is a fascinating journey in the spirit of Brazil. Everyday trivial materials are transformed in unexpected combinations to create objects of high aesthetic and financial value. They build chairs with furry toys, use timber destined to the construction of favelas to create a design chair, they twist ropes, polyurethane cylinders and steel cables through which they give ‘design’ a new meaning: to frame an emotion in the physicality of furniture components, using creativity as an Ariadne’s thread between function and meaning. Because, as Fernando says: “Recycled materials or simple cardboard, paper and wood allow you to experiment in a dimension that spans from art to design, from technical skill to free creativity. For Brazilian designers like us, irony plays a major role, especially during creativity. It is just another form of emotionalism”.
Artists, thinkers, vanguard followers, they create and project using their very own line of “non fashion”, which is characterized by a good deal of ingeniousness, significant technical expertise and by a vibrant and energetic approach to design.
Even though their design has a taste of handmade, manual and rough, the work of the Campana brothers is the result of a very careful research, a well balanced mix of technology and science that has excited and inspired some of the most important Italian companies of interior design, who have secured the name of the two artists. They have joined the group of young creative talents that, starting from the ‘80s and the ‘90s, have been writing a new chapter in the history of design.
Deconstruction and reworking: this transformation process has infused new energy to contemporary design, offering a vibrant alternative to the rationalism of ideals that dominate today’s modernity. Humberto and Fernando are able to use the energy of their tradition to define new aesthetics, based on experimentation, creating a new and surprising viewpoint. As was the case for Vermelha, the wrap-around chair that made them famous: to build the chair they used five hundred meters of a special rope with an acrylic core and covered in cotton. The cord is hand-woven through careful overlapping, leaving sufficient surplus to form a kind of random weave which creates an unusual padding.
The TransPlastic series embraces many of the concepts explored by the two designers. It tells a fictional story: in a world made of plastic and synthetic materials, a fertile ground is laid for ‘transgenic’ creations; the material clashes with the more mature approach of contrasts: nature and plastic, cold and warm, textured and smooth surfaces.
Natural fibres cover the plastic as in an immunological response: nature grows from the plastic and vice versa. Multiple-seating chairs, lamps, clouds and islands: elements created by taking advantage of the elasticity of natural fibre. The starting points are plastic chairs, water containers and rudimentary wood stools, with the addition of elements to alter the original form and to add value and comfort to the original base material.
Humberto and Fernando work does not stop at interior design, their creativity spreads to ballet as well. Exploring new confluence points between technique and emotion, Frédéric Flamand – director of Biennale Danza – measured himself against the world of design and involved the Campana brothers in his latest theatre production: Metamorphoses. The set and costumes clearly bear the Campana signature: light skirts and ramiform structures that wrap around the bodies of the dancers, all obviously built with recycled materials.
Humberto and Fernando Campana, were born in Sao Paulo and graduated respectively in architecture and law, they have held conferences and workshops in the whole world, including at the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; Vitra Design Museum, Berlin; Ecal, Lausanne; Parsons School of Design, New York. At the Museu Brasileiro da Escultura (MuBE) of Sao Paolo they lectured a course for two years and have started a group called Notechdesign. Their creations have been showcased in the most prestigious International museums and galleries, among which: MOMA, New York; Victoria and Albert Museum, London; Palazzo Reale, Milan; Vitra Design Museum, Berlin. Some of their design pieces are part of the permanent collections of Moma in New York and of the Vitra Design Museum in Berlin.
Tags: Berlin, Biennale Danza, Campana brothers, Centre Georges Pompidou, design, Frédéric Flamand, lamps, Lausanne, London, Metamorphoses, Milan, MOMA, Museu Brasileiro da Escultura (MuBE) of Sao Paolo, New York, Palazzo Reale, Parsons School of Design, research, Sao Paulo, science, South America, technology, Vermelha, Victoria and Albert Museum, Vitra Design Museum
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