The Beauty of the Search — Artist Alejo Palacios in Conversation
Alejo
Palacios
Buenos Aires · Industrial Design · Rio de la Plata · Barcelona
Industrial designer turned craftsman. His work begins the same way it always has — by choosing a material, and starting the search. Wood, leather, metal, paper, ink. The beauty is in the simplicity. The harmony and their purity.
"When I moved to Barcelona, I experienced the need to investigate new forms of communication and expression, fully introducing myself to paper and ink."
Tell us about yourself.
Alejo Palacios was born in Buenos Aires and trained as an industrial designer. While studying he worked for a furniture company and began his first encounter with materials — wood, leather, metals and fabrics. As the years passed he discovered a passion for craftsmanship and decided to independently develop furniture and objects in Argentina, searching for traditional materials and processes from the Río de la Plata region.
He is currently living and working in Barcelona.
Tell us about your biggest inspirations or influences.
"My work is born from the constant influences with the materials. As well as the work of artisans, their tools, techniques and knowledge inherited from generation to generation. The development of my work starts from the same way in which I would design a chair. I like to choose a particular material, and start the search."
"This is how I constantly explore the work of cabinetmakers, a blacksmith or a saddler. The beauty of this search is the simplicity with which the elements are worked, the harmony and their purity."
"I work like a craftsman — simply and in a noble way. Which has a lot to do with contemplating every step I take."
Tell us a little about your creative process.
"I am constantly influenced by materials and processes, which are then projected — sometimes explicitly and other times more abstractly — the representation of a material, such as a fabric, or the intersection of wood. The path that I travel is in relation to textures, overlays, transparencies, lights and shadows. I interpret volumes and reliefs, materialities."
How has the pandemic affected your creativity?
"I have used the time to focus and deepen my job search. This brake has served to value the wealth of the present without projecting so much into the future. The pandemic has given us a message regarding how society was working — individualism, compulsive consumption, the pollution we generate. The importance of raising awareness and changing certain habits to slow down."
What does wellness mean to you?
"I try to carry out a simple routine — to be able to work without time or pressure, although constant. Being in harmony with my environment, reflection, curiosity to learn, are part of the satisfaction of well-being. Pursuing the dreams we have while enjoying the journey, regardless of the destination."
"That, in many cases, they are cooperatives or individuals who work in the production of paper with techniques that have been passed down from generation to generation — in order to promote and revalue the work of arts and crafts."
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Read on Antakly Projects ↗ Visit · StudioExplore Alejo's full body of work — furniture, objects, paper, ink — and follow his ongoing practice from Buenos Aires to Barcelona.
Visit the studio ↗Antakly Projects — originally Ninu Nina — has been in conversation with designers, artists, photographers and creatives from around the world since 2003. Alejo Palacios's commitment to traditional craft and material honesty is exactly the kind of practice this platform was built to celebrate.
And for the personal rants, opinions you didn't ask for, and the occasional existential spiral: follow me on Substack.
Pursuing the dreams we have, while enjoying the journey. ✦
