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 will host a dynamic programme of temporary exhibitions showcasing the best of design and craft. The debut exhibition, “Dialogues: Plant Based Design”, curated by Passa Ao Futuro co-founder Astrid Suzano, presents product collections created in residencies that paired contemporary designers with Portuguese basketweavers.
DIALOGUES: PLANT BASED DESIGN
EXHIBITION DATES
16 October 2024 - 16 November 2024
Thursdays and Fridays* 11am - 4pm
Other days by appointment via
galeria@delaespada.com
Saturday 16th November 4pm - 8pm
The final day of the exhibition, the gallery will be open from 4pm to 8pm as part of the Inaugurações Simultâneas de Miguel Bombarda / Porto Art District, an evening where visitors can enjoy open galleries across the art district.
*Please note that the gallery will be closed on Friday 8th November.
LOCATION
Galeria De La Espada
Travessa de Cedofeita, 42
4050-448 Porto
Portugal
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.
The “Dialogues: Plant Based Design” exhibition reveals the fruits of these collaborations, drawing visitors into the full creative journey, with an emphasis on material, the craft and design processes, and the final products. The exhibition illustrates the power of collaboration, with products representing unique conversations between past and present, material and form, utility and beauty.
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.
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
