This interview with Fernand Laposse appeared
in A&B 10'2020
I speak with Fernando Laposse remotely, with a seven-hour time difference, as the designer is currently in Mexico. Although he lives in London by day, most of his projects are done here. This is also where the pandemic has kept him. Fernando Laposse is trying to take advantage of the time, which has suddenly slowed down compared to London, and the place where he finds himself. He has redirected project activities to working at the grassroots - in nature and with local farmers. It seems that the village of Tonahuixtla, where he is carrying out one of his projects, is as far from the world as if it were in permanent quarantine.
Dominika Drozdowska: It's hard to get away from the conversations and challenges of coronavirus these days. Do you think it will affect your work and the design world?
Fernando Laposse: I think it will. Certainly massive events such as design fairs, which imply large investments and financial waste, will be challenged to some extent. But the situation we find ourselves in is also an opportunity to open doors and bring designers who are not close to the global center into the discussion. I also notice a desire to make us feel better, to slow down. The pandemic is also a kind of wake-up call and a final bell to rethink our lifestyle and consumption.
Dominica: It sounds quite optimistic. I have a feeling that a lot of people are waiting to go back to life before the pandemic.
Fernando: In Mexico, the situation of reopening the economy is associated with an increase in illnesses and deaths. I'm not surprised that the government wants to activate the economy as soon as possible, after all, it's the source of funding for our societies. Our system is based on a super-capitalist model, which requires a drastic change and is now being questioned. I think this is really interesting.
Fernando Laposse and his favorite materials: trukwa (loofah), corn husks and agave leaves
photo courtesy of Fernando Laposse
Dominika: Returning to the world of design, I'd like to talk about your currently most well-known and award-winning project, Totomoxtle, which touches on many aspects, including involving the local community, using materials considered waste, and going back to the roots of Mexican heritage.
Fernando: The main pillars of the project deal with the effects of the global economy in small indigenous communities. This kind of disparity and the interference of the global economy in the lives of ordinary people who are not directly affected by it is very interesting to me. We say global versus hyperlocal, global versus indigenous. What we have here is an underprivileged community that not only lacks representation - it also has no chance for a decent life, access to health care, education, which finds it increasingly difficult to make a living and earn a living. And this is a huge loss, because this social group has extraordinary power to shape the environment and is most connected to nature.
Dominica: So you want to empower local communities.
Fernando: Local communities have an incredible power of understanding and respect for nature. With their knowledge of plants, they can turn a desert into an oasis, and they can also cultivate land in these hostile areas. Part of the responsibility that I have as a person of privilege in a sense, and as a designer, I can use to give them a voice. It's not only about working together in the design process, but also about speaking up and speaking out. Last year, a member of the indigenous community was with me at the Miami Design Festival and showed how they use natural dye. Earlier that year, two representatives from the Tonahuixtla community traveled with me to the World Economic Forum in Davos, where they spoke in front of world leaders. This shows that design can go far beyond making products. In addition to supporting local communities, the project also addresses the environment and biodiversity loss. And the final product ties all these stories together and uses artisanal work.
Objects created from corn husks as part of the Totomoxtle project
photo courtesy of Fernando Laposse
Dominica: Totomoxtle is a good example of sustainable design. I guess that preparing such a project requires not only effort, but also a different approach to the design itself.
Fernando: I've started to change the way I describe my projects, trying to avoid the phrase "sustainability." If we talk about sustainable development it literally means that we sustain ( sustain) the resources we have. I think we have long crossed that fine line, the point at which we sustain our resources and environment. We have done too much damage to nature and ecosystems - what we can do now is repair and regenerate. And that's what I try to convey in my projects, not only in terms of the environment and biodiversity, but also in terms of a systemic approach, with people knowing how to live in harmony with nature. It's quite a complex task that I see as a global project. For example, a lot of the money generated by the project comes back and is reinvested in it. There's also a space where we produce our corn cladding, where we talk and strategize, and we're currently working on creating a seed bank where local people can safely store corn seeds. In this way, we're expanding the concept of "subsistence" to include increasing resources.
Dominica: It seems that your design never ends, one action in the project causes another, and it all fits together like a puzzle.
Fernando: I see Totomoxtle as a long-term project that I hope will last my lifetime. Someday I'll be able to look back and say it's my legacy. I've noticed that there are a lot of new products coming out at trade shows or in the press, a good portion of which remain just a trial that doesn't turn into a functioning business. That's why it's always been important to me to create systems that will last and motivate people to keep going. And I am motivated by the bonds and empathy we manage to create with people from a different environment, from a different "bubble." Although, of course, it's difficult, especially in the beginning, when it's easy to give up. But once you go out to people with your proposals, make promises, it's hard to back out, which in turn is a big motivation to keep going.
Dominika: Exactly, probably reaching out to local communities is not easy for many reasons.
Fernando: The village of Tonahuixtla, where I work, is special to me because I started visiting it as a six-year-old. It was all because of a friend of my father's, Delfino Martinez. As children, my sister and I would visit him during the vacations, and over the years I tried to keep in touch with him. Once I had done numerous researches, and was holding promising material in my hand, I looked for the right place. I contacted Delfino, who is well established in his community and has a gift for persuasion. Without his help, this would have been difficult. My advice to people who are trying to reach out to local communities is to find and convince such an "influencer," to use the language of social media, who has the power to influence a group of people. In the case of the Totomoxtle project, the task was complicated in that my vision was long-term, and it's usually difficult to convince others of an idea when they don't see the result of their work in the short term. Here there is also a financial issue, after all, people need to eat and earn money.
Pink Beasts project combines natural materials, knowledge of traditional textile dyeing and collaboration with local communities
photo courtesy of Fernando Laposse
Dominica: Good point. Some designers create commercial projects to finance their other ideas. In what way does this look like for you?
Fernando: I think the model I developed would be difficult to apply in Europe, for example. I have it a little bit easier because most of my customers live in Europe, and most of my production is done in Mexico, where the cost of living is generally lower. I treat this as a good thing, however. The fact that we can transfer money from wealthier places to places where those funds will be the actual budget to set up the system. Financial rewards from winning competitions or other collaborations help to realize my projects in Mexico, although of course I have also done various commercial projects to raise the needed money. Being a freelancer involves entrepreneurship and risk.
Dominika: Looking at the result of your research and activities, it's interesting to see the initial moment. Do you look for problems to solve or do you act in other ways?
Fernando: Yes, I think it's related to problem thinking from the very beginning. But I don't really have a methodology that I stick to. For that I set myself some limitations, for example, if I have to work with material, it has to be natural material. Lately it's only plant-based raw materials, like trukwa(loofah), corn leaves or agave fibers. These materials I have to screen through their context. Where the material comes from, its advantages and disadvantages, its use. I like to research historical threads. For example, sisal, which is produced from agave fibers, connects interesting themes. For decades, ropes and fishing nets were made from this material. Local aristocrats got rich from its export, because the whole world reported a huge demand for these products, and labor costs were quite low - because they were based on slave labor. With the invention of plastic, the industry collapsed. This is where the context of today's world comes in. It is not easy to say that we will return to natural fibers, if only because the cost of producing them is higher. I'm starting to create a narrative, looking for solutions, ideas and tactics that will make people want to use these materials. At the same time, I am careful not to make the mistakes of the past. In sisal production, it was cutting down the rainforest to plant agave.
The Lufa Series project is working with a light, spongy truvette
photo courtesy of Fernando Laposse
Dominica: So the future is natural materials?
Fernando: I think the future is renewable materials, such as plants. They grow fast, provide us with oxygen, solve theCO2 problem, improve the quality of the soil, produce food and lower the temperature. The advantages alone! The important thing is to do it better than in the past. Avoid betting on monocultures or fertilizers, but involve indigenous people in the discussion, because they have the knowledge and can act. For example, in Tonahuixtla, due to soil erosion that can't absorb the already modest rainfall, the locals have started planting a forest of cacti. Which is ideal, because they are local, hardy plants that don't need much water or good soil. Within five years, they were able to create natural barriers that retain water and help reforest the area.
At the same time, a great deal of energy in the Western world is spent on finding a replacement for plastic, it seems to be the only problem. Why is it so hard for other materials to compete with plastics? Because we have never paid the full price of plastic. It's a petroleum product, and oil is the most subsidized resource in the world. A plastic bottle costs only a few cents, because the rest is financed by taxes. In the competition with plastic, if we don't stop subsidizing plastic, other materials will simply lose. And that is perhaps the role of the designer, to explain these relationships to politicians and consumers. Certainly with smarter, better-informed consumers, it's easier to make a change. Since we are in a system ruled by the market, we as consumers can exert pressure on it that will pull change.
Dominica: As a fan of materials - can you say what kind of raw material you would like to work with in the future?
Fernando: I'm starting to work with avocado, which I treat not only as a material, I'm also trying to look more broadly, at the trade and market for this raw material in Mexico. I'm also not concerned with creating new material every two or three years, as I'm often asked. I usually answer that I'm still working on the same thing, because what's the point of rushing and jumping from flower to flower. I treat my projects as continuous, moving from one to the next. I think that as a designer I have the capabilities and tools to speak out about difficult or misunderstood issues.
Contemplation in the natural environment of the Sisal Sanctum installation
photo courtesy of Fernando Laposse
Dominica: You address various issues in your projects. What do you think are the most important problems that we should solve? Is it capitalism, which we talked about earlier, climate change or something else?
Fernando: All together. I think we got into this situation because we missed signals and evidence that had been known for at least thirty years. Back then we could have taken small measures, now we need really drastic changes, including reforms in legislation and legislation. We are a bit like a student who slept through the whole semester and now wants to prepare for an exam at the last minute. And speaking of students, when I think of the hundreds of classmates who graduated from London's Central Saint Martins with me, and calculate the number of designers who graduate with design degrees each year, I see the potential for change. Of course, not everyone will have a similar attitude, but if it is at least ten people from my yearbook, there is potential for change. This, of course, also has to do with the teaching system and education. And while many universities are now changing their programs, we must be careful not to fall into the trap of human-centered design. You have to combine environmental and planetary issues, without necessarily putting humans in the middle, because all the elements are interrelated. It's hard to pick one issue - it's a combination of how we want to live and spend money as consumers. I think it's a complex answer to a complex question. But as designers, we have the power to bring different professionals and industries together.
Dominika: Is design for you - such a conscious designer - fun or a mission to fulfill?
Fernando: I love what I do, and I don't see it as a job. It's a passion. It's fun and pleasure, although of course sometimes it gets serious. I love to work manually, to create. What I appreciate about design is how different it is from art, where stereotypically you are alone - focused on your idea and work. Design forces you to open up, make connections with more people, even around the world, and look for alternatives. It also requires you to be pragmatic in order to take action and pursue your goals. It's a great profession.
Dominika: Thank you for the interview.
interviewed by Dominika DROZDOWSKA
Illustrations provided courtesy of Fernando Laposse.
Fernando LAPOSSE - a designer of Mexican descent who works and lives in London on a daily basis. He graduated with a degree in product design from London's Cental Saint Martins. His projects are not only aesthetically designed objects, but above all a functioning system of relationships. He works with natural materials such as corn husks, agave fibers and spongy trukwa, and his interests include globalization, indigenous communities and biodiversity. He is not afraid to tackle difficult topics, and as a designer, he not only takes responsibility for his ideas, but also believes that the industry has the tools and the power to address difficult topics.
