GALERIA DE LA ESPADA OPENING EXHIBITION, PORTO
On 16 October 2024, De La Espada opened the doors to our new gallery in Porto, Galeria De La Espada, which hosts a dynamic programme of temporary exhibitions showcasing the best of design and craft.
The inaugural exhibition, Dialogues: Plant Based Design, which ran until 16th November 2024, presented products at the intersection of contemporary design and generations-old craft created at special residencies organised by Portuguese non-profit Passa Ao Futuro.
DIALOGUES: PLANT-BASED DESIGN
As part of Passa Ao Futuro’s ongoing mission to preserve the future of Portuguese craft wisdom, the organisation arranged, in the context of the Made In Platform for Contemporary Crafts & Design project, a series of five residencies under the umbrella Plant Based Design Residency. Taking place across 2024, each residency paired one contemporary designer with one Portuguese craftsperson specialising in a generations-old basketry technique.
Participating designers and craftspeople include:
Sam Baron
with Nuno Henriques and Sónia Henriques of Toino Abel, specialising in soft rush
Christian Haas
with Domingos Vaz, specialising in cane
Joana Astolfi
with Sónia Mendez, specialising in palm
Toni Grilo
with Abilio Pereira, specialising in basket willow
Henrique Ralheta
with Isidoro Ramos, specialising in esparto weaving
Each collaboration was a true knowledge share, with each partner deeply invested in the wisdom and experience of the other. These residencies celebrate the knowledge of the collaborators and facilitate the understanding of modern possibilities for traditional skills, helping to usher these skills into the future.
The Dialogues: Plant Based Design exhibition revealed the fruits of these collaborations while drawing visitors into the full creative journey, with an emphasis on material and the craft and design processes. The final products, including bags, baskets, seating, lighting, and wall tapestries, reveal innovative design solutions for age-old craft, and represent a great diversity that allowed visitors to understand the many design possibilities for natural fibres. They illustrate the power of collaboration, representing unique conversations between past and present, material and form, utility and beauty.
The exhibition was a fitting choice to mark the opening of Galeria De La Espada, which seeks to spotlight design, craft, and innovation.
“Innovation does not exist in isolation; it thrives when rooted in the deep soil of tradition,” says Astrid Suzano.
LEARN MORE ABOUT THE DIALOGUES EXHIBITION
More information and participants' perspectives
Joana Astolfi + Sónia Mendez residency
Sam Baron + Toino Abel residency
PROMOTING THE ENDURANCE OF PORTUGUESE CRAFT
De La Espada has a mutually beneficial relationship with Passa Ao Futuro, sharing research and knowledge while offering financial and practical support in a shared goal of strengthening the future of crafts in our home country.
DYNAMIC PROGRAMME OF TEMPORARY EXHIBITIONS
Galeria De La Espada is dedicated to showcasing the best of contemporary craft.
“Our gallery is a place where we can show the things that really excite us: natural materials, historic craft, collaboration, rigorous design. We can welcome our friends and make new ones. We can further our support of initiatives we believe in, and further strengthen the endurance of crafts that are so important to our cultures, to our planet, and to our emotional worlds,” says De La Espada co-founder Luis De Oliveira.
In addition to the “Dialogues” exhibition, forthcoming exhibitions at Galeria De La Espada include a presentation dedicated to Portuguese exhibitors at Xtant, a series of unique objects for seating designed by Sam Baron, and a series of iconic objects designed by Luca Nichetto.
Photography by Inês Silva Sá
