The main objective is to reinvent handcrafted products, putting eco-design at their service, while bringing together new creators and experienced artisans.
São Brás de Alportel will host for the third time the «Design e Ofícios» initiative, a project that aims, above all, to maintain a know-how that is at risk of being lost.
Between the 7th and 10th of June, «Design e Ofícios» will bring together creators and artisans in the same space, in a creative residence.
In this space for sharing and socializing, those who have dedicated their entire lives to different crafts will help participants in the initiative to give shape to the ideas they put on paper, in a first phase, launched last week.
Registration for this year's edition of «Design e Ofícios» is now open and can be made through the initiative's website. Anyone, professional or amateur, who has an idea to create new products, using local materials, can compete.
São Brás City Councilwoman Marlene Guerreiro and representatives of the Southern Designers Association Sandra Louro and Bruno Boto, the two institutions that promote the initiative, were in conversation with the Sul Informação and with Rádio Universitária do Algarve RUA FM in the program Impressões. The program airs today, Wednesday, at 19 pm on 102.7 FM.
«What we wanted from the beginning was to innovate in tradition and combine design with crafts», summarized Bruno Boto. A way to create new products, but also to take advantage of knowledge that has not been passed down from generation to generation.
«We have a space, several pre-defined materials, which are characterized by being natural, biodegradable and local, and in this sense we challenge the creatives to propose a piece to be made during the residency», he explained.
«We are talking about clay, palm, work, cork and wood. This year we are going to see if we can also have the esparto. And then we have fabrics made from natural fibers, which we normally use in a technique called Trapology, which consists of sewing various fabrics, with different sizes and shapes», explained Sandra Louro.
On the extended weekend in which they seek to give shape to their ideas, the creatives count on the support of artisans invited by the organization “who are willing to pass on their knowledge”. An experience that, they believe, has pleased both parties, considering what happened in the first two editions.
“We have artisans who are very open to these experiences and the deepest desire they have is for young people to be interested in their art. Because they tell us every day the sadness they feel because their knowledge is not valued, because no one wants to make that kind of pieces anymore. That art will ultimately die with them», said Marlene Guerreiro.
For the councilor of the municipality of Sambras, the results of «Design e Ofícios» have been «proving that they have reason to believe» that their knowledge will not be lost.
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