Last week the creative platform MDBY (Manufactured Design By) transformed Mitte into a brand new universe inhabited by the creations and crafts of a few really excellent artists, architects and artisans.
The full concept of MDBY was born in the architecture studio MDBA, where architect and designer Maria Diaz created this cultural platform. The aim of MDBY was to introduce artists who use craftwork and also artisans who make art focusing in the creative process. Maria Díaz explained it to me very well: when we look at a building, we just decide if we like it or not and we usually don’t think about the inspiration or all the work that it has behind. This lightness of opinion could be a bit frustrating for the artists and architects. This platform has the compromise of sharing all the beauty of the crafting, design and art worlds in both the process and the final result.
This month the MDBY world inhabits Mitte in all its elegant variety. There are objects exhibited and on the opening day the artists had the opportunity to explain their work and their inspiration. A few of the artists will organize workshops as well.
MDBY also works as a network of artists around the world, making the interaction between artists from different cultures possible and creating possibilities of personal artistic and cultural development.
Something I really like from them is a kind of slogan they have: they show the work of the people who live of what they love. For them to “work” is the same as to “live”.
Creators exhibiting in Mitte:
She is a Canadian potter who makes pots in white clay with minimalist and concise shapes. She’s interested in the process of the making a pot and in the history behind the piece she’s making.
This Danish craftswoman is interested in modelling and sculpture and she’s presenting us her collection “Mano”: it is handmade and it can be cold with just one hand.
She is a jeweler from Madrid who is interested in experimenting with new synthetic materials as cellulose acetate, giving a sophisticated finish to her pieces.
Behind Lanthane lies the mind of the architect Ana Gorriti who mixes architecture and jewel design in her will of creating spaces. The aim of her jewels is creating a dialogue with the body, creating a new space.
Instead of making drawings in paper, she makes drawing in space. She uses different materials like parchment, fabric, embroidery, horsehair or threads and manipulates them until she gets the –delicate-shapes she desires for her installations.
Celia Gayo directs her own jewelry brand and she controls all the production process sin her workshop. She’s more interested in the process than in the final result.
Natalie is an artist from Texas, USA and she combines techniques and materials of silversmithing with alternative materials such as guitar cords, resin or plastic to generate the limits of her sculptures and installations. She works with the natural world to create a parallelism with emotional and personal relationships.
This visual artist works with drawings and collage as an interior research through the social condition.
Paco Orti is an architect and also a ceramist from Valencia who works with white clay and nature elements. In Mitte you will see different sides of his work. We can find pots and exoskeletons which tell different sides of his own life story and emotions.
Sandra is a jeweler from San Francisco, USA. She works with white gold and silver, manipulates it and makes tiny holes to make surprisingly light jewelry which also plays a game with light and vibration.
This French artist is defined as a concrete devoted because she investigates all the possibilities that this type of material offers to make art and also crafts and decoration. She’s introducing us her lamp design Gayalux, made with two half-spheres made of very light concrete.
María Diaz is an architect and designer who has developed in MDBA several sides of her skills national and internationally. Her job is characterized by attention to detail throughout the full process: not only for the final result. She designed the GRU lamp inspired by cranes, fulfills the need of lighting a room from different sides without the need of many lamps.
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