Antibodies: Fernando & Humberto Campana 1989-2009

In 1983, the Brazilian designers Fernando and Humberto Campana began to develop furniture made with everyday materials such as cardboard, rope, fabric and wood scraps, plastic tubes and aluminum wire. By the early 1990s their often controversial designs had won champions across the world, especially in the U.S., where they became the first Brazilian designers to exhibit at The Museum of Modern Art in New York. This survey of their work contains illustrated articles by international authors. Maria Helena Estrada, design critic and publisher in Sao Paulo, writes a biographical essay on the brothers; Mathias Schwartz-Clauss provides an interpretation of their work of the past 20 years; Massimo Morozzi, artistic director of Edra, offers an account of the Campanas' collaboration with his company; Adelia Borges, writer, curator and teacher in the field of design, describes current-day popular culture in Brazil; finally, Fernando and Humberto Campana contribute nine collages that play with the documentation of their exhibitions. The catalogue's third section groups all exhibits by concept, reproducing them in full color and providing technical details as well as extended captions.