LACOSTE + CAMPANAS

Based in Sao Paulo, Estudio Campana is constantly investigating new possibilities in concept and uses for different clashes of materials. It creates bridges and dialogues where the exchange of information is also a source of inspiration. The work in partnership with communities, factories and industries keeps the freshness of Estudio Campana repertoire.

Fernando and Humberto carry the duality of their childhood's countryside background and the urban codes added up in their youth and adulthood. "How to make transit between them, has been our most precious and learning experience." Fernando and Humberto Campana.

After Humberto's graduation from law school he opened a sculpture and jewelry studio, where he started producing wicker baskets to support his artistic creations. He had a need to make things with his own hand and started investigating handcraft works and techniques. During a very busy season he called Fernando to give him a helping hand. "From that day on we have started, spontaneously, to make experiments and put together ideas that were in our unconsciousness. This happened 25 years ago and we have been working together ever since." Humberto Campana.

Their first artistic collaboration resulted in a collection of iron chairs in 1989, called Desconfortáveis. The first chair, made of heavy iron plates, was called Positivo (positive) and its inspirations came to Humberto on a dream. From the oddments of that chair, Fernando created new chair, called Negativo (negative), which was lighter and more functional. "Forty other chairs followed them, exploring the artistic potential of discomfort, the poetry of the distorted and the error." Fernando Campana.

In 1993 Marco Romanelli published their first international article in Domus: a four-page story filled with images of their works. From 1994 to 1997 the brothers went through a rough phase and just when they were about to give up everything they received a phone call from Massimo Morozzi, Edra's art director.

With the production of the Vermelha Chair, in 1998, they sealed their first partnership with Edra, in Italy. From then on, each year new products and concepts are launched in collaboration with both international industries - Edra, Alessi, Fontana Arte - and national - Grendene for their unlimited edition pieces.

On the same year, 1998, Paola Antonelli invited them to exhibit in New York MoMa, the "Project 66", their first international show in a duo with Ingo Maurer.
The idea of the exhibition was to join two designer of very distinct background that shared the same poetics. The boys when crazy organizing everything, but it was worth it! After that things took a different dimension.

In 2002, the Estudio Campana started crafting its own line of editions and unique pieces handmade at the studio in Sao Paulo. International galleries including the Albion Gallery in London and Moss in New York represent these special editions.

Nowadays, their pieces integrate permanent collections of renowned cultural institutions such as the MoMa in New York, the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris or the Vitra Design Museum in Weil am Rhein, Germany.

Their work incorporates the idea of transformation and reinvention.
Giving preciousness to poor, day-to-day or common materials carries not only the creativity in design, but also very Brazilian characteristics - the colors, the mixtures, the creative chaos, the triumph of the simple solutions.

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