Narrative design project for the Peruvian Pavilion at the London Design Biennale 2020 curated by Es Devlin.

Project title: Vestige x Studio Altar

Creative and Art Direction: Diego Lopez De La Fuente (Studio Altar)

Photography: Geray Mena

Client: Peruvian Embassy in the United Kingdom / Studio Altar / London Design Biennale

Year: 2020

Context: Commissioned by the Peruvian Embassy in the UK, the project was requested to elevate Peruvian Crafts to the standard of international crafts and design projects showcased at the LDB. 

Challenge: Working with Artisans in remote areas of Peru left little to no margin for error. After several design workshops and experimenting with techniques, we settled on focusing on pottery made in the North of Peru and creating narrative pieces that convey modern meeting pre-Columbian inspiration, whilst decolonising the influence of trends in the area.

Insight: Trends have led Peruvian crafts to move away from their cultural roots. Vestige was inspired by returning to the archive of the National Institute of Culture, and by rereading the source of the line and form of North Peruvian pottery.

Brief response: The narrative pieces tell the story of remnants of the past, showcasing how ancestral techniques can be used to create non-trendy, decolonised, yet contemporary crafts.