DON NADIE: THE LATIN AMERICAN PROJECT AT MILANO DESIGN ART WEEK

In conversation with Arte al Día, one of DON NADIE’s creators, Lisandro Carrasco, explains that the project begins by attempting to translate deforestation into a measure of time. A conceptual shift that seeks to bring a figure closer to lived experience.

DON NADIE –founded by Ecuator-based industrial designers Lisandro Carrasco and Mono Alvarado– had, for years, developed a language based exclusively on paper and folding, applied to campaigns, window displays, and brand projects. An artistic residency organized by the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador (PUCE) in the Chocó Andino, one of the most biodiverse ecosystems on the planet, shifted the direction of their practice.

Selected alongside other artists, Lisandro, representing DON NADIE, was invited to work in the Chocó Andino, developing his practice in direct contact with the territory and its conflicts. The residency aimed to address the issue of deforestation, driven mainly by the expansion of African palm and the pressure of illegal mining.

In that context, they developed an initial approach: building a native plant in paper as a tool to work with the local community and raise awareness about the preservation of the ecosystem. This became the conceptual seed of the current project.

1 m² / 1 second is composed of sixteen pieces arranged within a cubic meter, built from a 3D-printed base and an upper body of folded paper. Each element refers to a vegetal morphology—specifically, a native plant—without falling into direct representation. The project will be exhibited within the context of the IN BETWEEN collective, with which they will participate in Milano Design Week alongside other artists’ proposals.

Each piece requires a manual, precise, and cumulative process that reveals tensions between the time of production and the time of destruction. The choice of paper as a material also contributes to this. So does its assembly, made up of pieces that can, quite literally, be disassembled, transported, and reassembled. It is a work that combines technical precision and manual execution.

Presented at the Fuorisalone, the most experimental circuit of Design Week, the project finds a context aligned with its hybrid nature. “It’s a fair where artists show more exploration than product,” explains Lisandro Carrasco. A project that can be read as an object, an installation, or a device for thought.

Milano Design Week 2026 will take place from April 16 to 26, 2026, at Via Tortona 14, Milan (Italy).