After our interview with the Brazilian designers Fernando and Humberto Campana at Design Miami in December 2008 we now had the opportunity to have a closer look at the works of the two brothers. The Vitra Design Museum in Weil am Rhein near Basel presents an exhibition called Antibodies (Antikörper) that spans 20 years of collaboration between Fernando and Humberto Campana – from the first sculptures up to the interdisciplinary works of today. The retrospective emphasizes the artistic working method and explains how the works take shape, based on prototypes, experiments and one-off pieces.
Humberto Campana (born in 1953) and his brother (born in 1961) are recognized as the most significant designers in present-day Latin America. They have worked together as furniture designers in Sao Paulo since 1989. Humberto came to the partnership as a self-taught artist with a degree in law while Fernando had been trained as an architect. Campana works such as the Favela and the Vermela armchairs, the Plastico Bolha easy chair made of bubble wrap became icons of contemporary design.
VernissageTV spoke with the curator of the exhibition, Mathias Schwarz-Clauss. In the first video of this 2-episode segment, Mathias Schwarz-Clauss, an art and design historian, talks about the two designers and how they work together and the concept of this major retrospective at the Vitra Design Museum.
For our interview with Fernando and Humberto Campana click here.
Antibodies. The Works of Fernando & Humberto Campana 1989 – 2009. Vitra Design Museum, Weil am Rhein / Germany. Media Conference, May 15, 2009. The exhibition runs until February 28, 2009.
> Right-click (Mac: ctrl-click) this link to download Quicktime video file.