JOANA ASTOLFI AT THE PLANT BASED DESIGN RESIDENCY
“The process, for me, was the most important part of this project; the connection that I built with the mother and daughter, Sónia and Susana”
Architect, artist, and visionary storyteller Joana Astolfi has an eye for the contemporary and a passion for artisanal craft. Her projects, from art installations to interiors to window displays, have a pared back elegance, a liberated playfulness, and the mark of the human hand. Seeing craft as the ultimate luxury, she often incorporates artisanal craft into her projects, sourcing from some of Portugal’s most skilled craftspeople. This year, non-profit organisation Passa Ao Futuro invited her to take part in their Plant Based Design Residency, where she was able to fully immerse herself in a creative exchange, over two weeks, with craftswoman Sónia Mendez, specialising in palm basket weaving, as well as her daughter, Susana Mendez, skilled in textiles. Together, they created modern solutions for generations-old crafts, while forging meaningful relationships that will endure well into the future. The resulting collection will be exhibited at Galeria De La Espada later this month, in the Dialogues: Plant Based Design exhibition curated by Passa Ao Futuro co-founder Astrid Suzano.
As part of their ongoing mission to ensure a future for traditional Portuguese crafts, Passa Ao Futuro organised five residencies for their Plant Based Design Residency this year, each placing one contemporary designer in partnership with one Portuguese basket weaver, with the aim of finding innovative design solutions for generations-old crafts. The residencies, organised in the context of the Made In Platform for Contemporary Crafts & Design project, fostered a true knowledge share, where each collaborator learned from and augmented the skills of the other. For two weeks, Joana collaborated with Sónia at the residency, living and working at Loulé Criativo, the programme’s hosting partner. She was kind enough to share her experience with us, to give us greater insight into the programme, the creation of her product collection, and the unexpected gifts that came from her time there.
“Astrid had told me, ‘Don’t come with any preconceived ideas, just come open’,” Joana says. “The first day, I was learning how pieces in palm are actually made. Sónia has to go get the palm pieces out of the shrub, let them dry in the sun, there’s a whole process. Time really is a luxury and time is fundamental with crafts.”
Joana began by learning as much as she could about Sónia’s craft, gaining an understanding of the material, how it is harvested, prepared and worked. She watched as Sónia demonstrated how she braids and coils the palm, then took enjoyment in thoughtfully exploring the many pieces Sónia has made “from bags to all kinds of objects — carpets, rugs, small vases, lamps, everything that you can imagine, everything in palm,” Joana says.
Their relationship was respectful and collaborative from the first moment, and it grew in warmth as time passed and they got to know each other better, Sónia’s natural shyness melting away. “Sónia has this extreme expertise working with palm, and every day she would open up a little bit more as we would discuss the ideas. And she would get more involved and more enthusiastic and I would see a new Sónia every day to the point where she was making cakes for me. We really created a very beautiful connection,” Joana explains.
During their early explorations, Joana picked up a placemat Sónia had made, and folded it in half. In that fold, she envisioned a series of bags: a tote, a pochette, and a magazine rack.“It was a very simple move that I did and it was the base for the whole collection.” says Joana. Experimentation with scale began, to discover the best proportions and sizes for each bag.
Joana was keen to find additional elements to complement the palm. Initial ideas included adding pigment or leather detailing; however, these did not align with Passa Ao Futuro’s vision for the project, which emphasises environmental sustainability. So, while Joana continued searching for a complementary material, a solution presented itself in an unexpected way — and an even deeper personal connection was forged.
There, at Loulé Criativo, the creative hub where they were lodging and working, was an exhibition showcasing artisanal craft from the South. One of the exhibitors, Sónia’s daughter, Susana Mendez, was exhibiting textiles that caught Joana’s attention: “I said, ‘Wow, this is so beautiful. Is she around? Can she come over today? Maybe we can do something with textile – combine textile with the palm’.” Susana promptly arrived with an inkle loom, a small, narrow, wooden loom designed for weaving long, thin textiles. It was the beginning of a new collaboration within the residency; she and Joana began discussions and, over two days, worked closely to design a pattern for straps to be used on the tote bag and magazine rack.
Joana views the products as multi-layered, and, pleased with the way the bags were developing, sought to add further layers to the palm and textile. “I thought, since we’re working with textile, with thread, why don’t we go ahead and do an embroidery on this? Maybe the pochette,” she says. So she began drawing, and settled on a drawing of a child doing a handstand on the back of a donkey. “I love donkeys and they are very present in the South, as you know.” The drawing was meaningful and rooted in the place where they were working, while also conveying a playfulness and humour characteristic of Joana’s work. She chose a larger scale, for better definition on the palm, and Sónia skillfully embroidered the design onto the pochette. “I saw that, in the past, they used to embroider a lot of things on palm. But different kinds of motifs – flowers. So that also makes reference to the past, to the tradition of palm, but now reinterpreted in a more contemporary way,” Joana explains.
The next layer they added was a linen lining for the tote and pochette, something both functional, to protect and organise personal items in the bags, and elegant, adding another level of sophistication. Here, they also applied embroidery, this time by Susana’s skilled hand. “I wanted the name of the collection to be embroidered on the pieces: ‘Ó la ri loulé’ – it is like a song; and Loulé is the name of the city where we were,” says Joana. For the magazine rack, the collection name is embroidered directly onto the palm on the front side; as if it is serenading the room from its perch on its oak hook. “The embroidery gave it that playful touch that I love, that is very present in my work,” she continues.
“I think that all in all this collection for me was an opportunity to go back to the roots, to work with crafts again, and it was like doing a little retreat. The result is beautiful because it was made with so much love. And the process, for me, was the most important part of this project; the connection that I built with the mother and daughter, Sónia and Susana. They had never worked together, but had been wanting to. Both very good artisans from very different generations, both very talented, and now they’re actually producing pieces together, which is beautiful. And I kind of feel that I linked the mother with the daughter in their crafts, after their husband and father [respectively] passed. All of that, for me, was very emotional. We all kind of cried a bit, laughed. It was very profound. Very profound,” Joana says.
The legacy of this residency is a new creative partnership between mother and daughter, an ongoing collaboration between Joana, Sónia and Susana, and more visibility for Susana’s textiles: “I got a big piece of textile, that she had done, exhibited at Lisbon Design Week, which gave her a lot of visibility because she really is incredible,” says Joana. This is true to Passa Ao Futuro’s intention for these residencies, to create an enduring relationship that strengthens the opportunities of all involved.
Further residencies in the Plant Based Design Residency programme included designers Sam Baron, Christian Haas, Henrique Ralheta, and Toni Grilo and craftspeople Nuno Henriques and Sónia Henriques of Toino Abel, specialising in soft rush; Domingos Vaz, working with cane; Isidoro Ramos, specialising in esparto weaving; and Abilio Pereira, working with basket willow. The residencies are part of the ongoing mission of Passa Ao Futuro to innovate the traditional crafts to secure a future for the rich craft heritage of Portugal.
“[Passa Ao Futuro is] a really unique foundation and it is a very strong voice for the crafts and for the artisans. And we needed that in Portugal because we have incredible hand labour with crafts, but we didn’t have anyone or any association with intelligent, cultured, big-vision, travelled people like Astrid and Fatima [Durkee, co-founder] to represent these people and to organise events, exhibitions, residencies, to dynamise all the artists that work in these fields. I very much admire their work, their approach and their humbleness. The lack of greed. Love is the driving force, passion. And that’s always beautiful. For me, that’s what we’ve got to go for with arts. Creativity is about passion. And about courage. They had a lot of courage to set it up and to still be going,” Joana says.
De La Espada is a proud sponsor of Passa Ao Futuro’s work. We have a mutually beneficial relationship, sharing research and knowledge while offering financial and practical support in a shared goal of strengthening the future of crafts in our home country. We are delighted to welcome them and their Dialogues: Plant Based Design exhibition to our new gallery in Porto, Galeria De La Espada. We could not imagine a more suitable inaugural exhibition for our gallery dedicated to contemporary craft. The collections created in all of the residencies will be present at the exhibition, including the bags created by Joana, Sónia and Susana.
“For me, [the experience] was very emotional, very profound, and it was something that I did for me. To go deeper inside me, to connect more deeply with craft and create with the artisan. I would love to do more of that,” Joana says.
Experience the Dialogues: Plant Based Design exhibition at Galeria De La Espada, Porto, Portugal, 16 October - 15 November 2024.
Learn more about Passa Ao Futuro here and here
Learn more about the Plant Based Design Residency here and here
Learn more about the Dialogues: Plant Based Design exhibition here
Plant Based Design Residencies are part of the Made In Platform for Contemporary Crafts & Design, a project co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union
Photo credit: Inês Silva Sá
