How are you feeling, Humberto?

Humberto Campana: "I can tell you that I am working a lot, because working heals me, the energy inside this place is vital. But I miss Fernando, his cheerful, jovial presence.

Now I have to play his role a bit as well, to send a positive signal to everyone, especially our staff of about twenty collaborators. But this has been a very difficult period, which has coincided with an introspective gaze, of reflection and transformation of myself, as a person: you truly realize that life is very short. I am trying to be less anxious, to lighten up, to seek the slow pace that at age 70 can make me happy".

How has the work changed without Fernando, and what are you working on now?

Humberto Campana: "Fernando is always with me. I believe in spirituality. I dream with him and I continue what he has left incomplete: many collages, watercolors, sculptures – I am putting the pieces together, which on a symbolic level remained separated with his death. To take what remains and to reassemble it in new collages is also a form of hope, which moves me.

In São Paulo I have made a large mural (12x8 meters) in tile for the façade of a building – inspired by one of his graphic designers that interpreted motifs of Portuguese azulejos.

And I am working on the creation of the Rosewood São Paulo hotel at Cidade Matarazzo: there are drawings by Fernando and by me in the promenade of colored concrete, which redeems the black and white image of the city swallowed up by traffic, adding to the project by Jean Nouvel and Philippe Starck: it will be opened in the spring.

I operate on multiple scales, with the urgency to do things, but I also plant trees in the countryside that  can grow rapidly. It is a cathartic, regenerative action. When you lose someone important, another gate opens up, and I feel like this channel has been opened".

So where is the research of the new Humberto headed?

Humberto Campana: "In this moment, it is moving towards an authentic quality of life, also looking a banal things in a new light. The direction is still that of spirituality, the sacred and emotional relationship with objects.

With more awareness, values that can bring happiness to those who will use the works. I am very interested in material, from which everything begins. And in a line of continuity with my past, I am interested in crafts and handiwork, organic forms – also fragmented – inspired by nature, the telling of amazing stories, outside the box.

I move forward with the experimentation on terracotta mixed with other materials like cowhide, which I began with Fernando, and which led to an exhibition of objects here in São Paulo, “Polifonia Campana,” in the month of November, in which he left us.

I have developed and am preparing a collection in packed earth, natural straw and aluminium scrap, which will be shown at the Friedman Benda gallery in New York in March.

Playing with the silence of adobe and the chaos of urban aluminium refuse allows me to think about their potential, also in terms of recycling and creative reuse. I was recently in Mumbai for an exhibition featuring a new cabinet in raffia and gilded metal, made with Indian artisans.

I am also editing a book on the Campana method, a story of our particular, unique format of design. The background, the schooling, the experiences of internship and the Foundation are the themes I truly cherish.

The idea is that this studio can be an legacy for new generations in the future, so that our voyage will not be wasted. Already, since 2009, we have the Instituto Campana, where design is used as a vehicle of transformation and social inclusion, with the participation of the community".