A research work that explores the symbolic, cultural and utilitarian values associated to materials (to matter) and materialism.
Mud, earth, leaf, branch, stone, seed, sponge, crust, cork, feather, leather, wool, wicker, wood, light, marble, ceramics, angora, brass, copper, glass, felt, paper, glazing, paint, gum, rubber, resin, surlyn, polyester, methacrylate, foam, bacteria… For many years I have collected materials and objects that fascinate me, that tell me stories about the people, the territory, the culture, the progress and the different values of each place. It is a question of researching these elements to understand the materiality of everything that surrounds us, and what it entails: the physical-material, the production processes, the human interactions, the genealogy and the development of cultures…

This work is the result of compulsive collection, manipulation, analysis and classification. The thorough observation of these materials has led me to the of understanding of light as the most beautiful and complex material of all, becoming the thread running through all my material and immaterial research. An investigation that, therefore, appears unfinished and in constant evolution. At the same time, it is formalized in a sort of semantic and open archive.

This archive in which observation, curiosity, experience and chance take part, serves as a frame of reflection to better understand the role of the designer in his own practices. And who says “role” says “action”, an agent equivalent to a relationship of responsibility. (Re) creating the world from the objects and their multiple functions and aesthetics has to be, for the designer, a matter away from conventions and mercantilism; it must be born out of the relationship we have with the world and with others, and this means understanding the collective needs of each moment. This should be the foundation of innovation.

This framework serves to have a perspective and question the joint decisions of the productive processes that draw our lives through our everyday objects and redefine our link with the environment and with others.

I consider this moment to be representative in history because new technologies are giving way to what is being called ‘The Fourth Industrial Revolution’. Design is liberated from exclusivity and is normalized at all levels due to the flow of information, the decentralization of manufacturing and the evolution of technology. This facilitates the context for physical, digital and biological materiality to evolve by redefining symbolic, cultural and utilitarian values associated to materials (to matter) and materialism.

At L&B Gallery in Barcelona
Photography by Laia Benavides