Innehållsförteckning för Issue 13 från White Paper by - English

If there is one thing people dream about at any time of the year, it is summer vacation, this time around featuring extreme temperatures in Madrid and the rest of the world. There was no greater joy than that moment in the car when you saw yourself arriving to that immense bathtub that is the sea. But the dream did not come true, because the sea was there indeed, but it was full of jellyfish and seaweed with a temperature of 30 °C, so all of us beachgoers were looking at the shore, crowded with people, as if we were looking at a shop window full of sweets. We had already started this issue, which does not focus on sustainability or ecology, but on people, brands, foundations, artists, etc., who…

“Architecture is a profession that involves service and a lot of responsibility” For years now, speaking in architectural terms of respect for the natural milieu or environmental integration has no longer been a requirement or condition but an obligation. And rather than an obligation, it is something that goes without saying and is taken for granted to the point of affirming that architecture can only be sustainable and integrated into nature, or else it cannot be. But this was not the case a few decades ago when a young Mexican born in 1948 by the name of Javier Senosiain came out of the National Autonomous University of Mexico as an architect, having overcome some doubts that motivated and motivating professors, such as Mathias Goertiz, were in charge of dispelling. What…

It sounds like a fairy tale or a science fiction movie, but no, it’s an idea, the brilliant idea behind FullGrown, a company created more than fifteen years ago devoted to growing furniture… literally. Chairs, above all, but also lamps, some tables and special pieces. Behind it is Gavin Munro, a designer who did not need to be told the importance of sustainability, nor the basics of biodesign. It was enough for him to be observant of what he had around him; a bonsai that looked like a chair caught his attention as a child. His hospital stays taught him that nature could be modified without causing harm, quite the opposite in fact. And he was living proof! His vertebrae needed some time, surgery, and some assistance to reposition themselves,…

A consumption model in which the garments that brands put on sale each season go through as many consumers as their lifespan allows, at increasingly cheaper prices and with zero waste. The wet dream of circular fashion has its own name: Cycle. Sometimes the best ideas come from the worst experiences. This is the case of Daniel Sanchez, CEO of Cycle, who, after the thankless task of getting rid of the surplus of different fashion companies during the pandemic, realized the serious logistical and environmental problem of textile waste. This realization gave rise to the ultimate panacea: the creation of a new consumption model that would link brands with consumers throughout the entire life cycle of the garment and prevent it from ending up in the landfill. And so Cycle…

“We are not interested in a way of producing where the human being who produces does nothing but manual labor” Kavita Parmar is one of the people best suited for the expression “citizen of the world”. Of Indian origin, she lived from a very young age in Hong Kong, Singapore, New Delhi…and now resides in Madrid. Almost the only thing that has remained unchanged over the years has been her eternal travel through the five continents in search of the best fabrics, raw materials and the most incredible forms of craftsmanship. But, apart from being a citizen of the world, Parmar is very interested in making citizens of the world and in connecting all those with whom she works and that includes customers, onlookers, anyone who comes to know-both through…

Beyond the aseptic and futuristic stereotype associated with new technology companies, we find Bizkaia, near Asua-Lauoreta, a universe of colorful spools, populated by hacked printers, where everything from giant shells and plants to all kinds of containers of different textures can be found in every nook and cranny. This is a place where “sanding, dyeing and assembling” takes place, although it is not a studio, a laboratory, or a start-up. As its executive director, Aran Azkarate, explains, COMME DES MACHINES is the only 3D printer factory in Spain. Donning their blue work coats and under the motto “jump to the future”, this team of four advocates unlearning and questioning the established to allow themselves to “imagine the unimaginable”. In fact, they could not foresee that they would go from having…

Nathalie Decoster’s Messenger (1965, Paris)—forged in bronze and enclosed in its original circle—possesses a universal yet unique ubiquity. The French sculptor created this symbolic character as an emissary of her own philosophy, indebted to the values of Seneca, with a specific purpose: to reevaluate the position of the human being in relation to Time. They should not only be a passive spectator of life and death, but also an active actor between them. Although the sculptural figure is as abstract as it is monumental, it is made accessible, even mundane, through humor. While the artist’s Argenteuil-based industrially decorated studio serves as a refuge for the family of sculptures at various scales, many of her other dynamic works—Fingerprints, Relativity and Mastery of Time—are held in prestigious spaces such as the MUBE…

Juan Diego Botto’s greatest birthday present would come a few days after this interview, when he stepped on the red carpet of the Venice Film Festival to present his first feature film as a director. Therefore, the celebration of his 47 years, spent mostly in front of the spectators who saw in him an icon of nineties rebelliousness in Stories from the Kronen and Martín (Hache) and accompanied him through his artistic blossoming in film, theater, and television, has been more intimate than usual. “I celebrated with my wife, my daughter, my mother, and my sisters… I’ve had such a busy few weeks that the last thing I wanted to do was to be with a lot of people,” says the brand-new filmmaker, with a reflective voice, a calm tone,…

David Hockney used to say that “the mind is the limit”, and that there is no more powerful tool to accomplish anything than to believe 100% in achieving it. In light of the facts, both Molly Molloy, former creative director of Marni, and Lucinda Chambers, former fashion director of British Vogue, can attest to the accuracy of this statement. Indeed, by the time they decided to leave their positions of privilege and become a professional duo back in 2018, the task of turning Colville into a global fashion industry reference was not an easy one. Coined thus in homage to the London street frequented in the 70s by the brilliant painter from Bradford -and that joined them to it decades later-, this collaborative project has achieved its goal by betting…

To stand out is to be ahead of the curve. The long-established jewelry company Tiffany & Co., a pioneer in sustainable sourcing of noble materials and precious stones, transcends the industry’s standards with the (self-fulfilling) goal of being the best. One such example is the traceability of the Tiffany diamond, a paragon of exemplary virtues. Enjoy the ride. In an era in which sustainability is no longer just a necessity for the planet, but an institutional framework and a growing demand among consumers, the beauty of a diamond (and of gems in general) is as important as its origin and trajectory. From Fridays For Future driven by the precocious Greta Thunberg to the ambitious objectives set by the European Union in the Horizon 2030 program, green slogans are not only…

Francesca Thyssen-Bornemisza, (Lausanne, Switzerland, June 7, 1958) is today one of the leading figures in the art world, both as a patron of the arts and as a collector. This year she has been awarded with the Collecting Award in the category ‘Philanthropy and International Collection’ granted by the ARCO Foundation, and in 2021 she received the Honorary Order of Distinction from Jamaica for her efforts in marine ecosystem restoration of Portland. In a clear commitment to continue with the family tradition, as she already represents the fourth generation, her own art collection includes more than 1,000 works, and more than 200 commissions of contemporary art, in whose production she herself has been involved, accompanying the creative process with the artists. To this end, she regularly participates in major biennials,…

Artsi Ifrah, a nominee at the Arabian Art & Fashion Awards held this coming October 20 for the latest collection of his firm, Maison ARTC, was born in the city of Jerusalem in 1992 and trained as a ballet dancer. His parents, both Moroccan immigrants living in Israel in the 1960s, became the main reference point for a culture that he had always made his own. The twenty years he spent traveling all over the world as a dancer only strengthened his love for design and for Morocco, where he returned more than a decade ago. Upon his arrival, he was captivated by the movement and its various forms, which he would later honor by creating garments inspired by them, as well as by the colors and scenery of the…

With more than 250,000 followers on her Instagram account—”an incredible tool for community building,” she explains—Aja Barber has become one of the most relentless, recognizable, and influential figures in the fashion industry. This London-based stylist, consultant, and writer has been speaking out for years against the damage that rampant consumerism and fast fashion companies are inflicting on the environment and developing countries. All with the long-standing complicity of those who, deliberately or not, look the other way. An activist discourse that has led her to travel the world to stir consciences and pockets, and whose ideas she compiles in her first book entitled Consumed, a powerful call for collective responsibility. The effects, as she explains, are already evident: “I’m convinced that after reading it, many people will think twice before…

Joachim Lambrechts (Belgium, 1986) can proudly boast of having been one of Belgium’s most active street artists, which led him to travel back and forth to paint murals abroad. The downside of those commissions, he explains, “was that the ‘rock and roll’ of underground graffiti, as I had known it, had disappeared.” He decided to stop doing them full-time to focus on his first love: “painting on canvas and paper.” Now, his work falls somewhere between cave painting and street art. From his messy studio on the outskirts of Antwerp, the artist adds layers of paint to enhance the aggressiveness of his emotions, reflected both in schematic forms that hover over abstraction and in rough textures that denote great spontaneity in their execution. Not all are intuitive choices, but in…