Jorge Penadés: Uprooted

For the last decade, Jorge Penadés had developed a distinctive design practice that is based as much on research and ideas as on final objects and spaces. As part of this practice, for the last ten years, the designer has also been working on ‘Uprooted’, a multilayered project that is partly research-driven and partly a design-driven exercise that critically examines Spain’s olive oil industry, one of the most important agricultural industries in the country.  The project explores themes around cultivation, extraction and exploitation, and involved thorough investigation into materials, processes and history. The project was carried out in Andalucía, Penadés’s birthplace, and the world’s largest olive oil producer responsible for over 20-25% of global production and 80% of Spain’s output. From 2014-2024, he made meticulous research into the industry, which shed light on the massive industrialization of these trees that has taken place in recent decades. Rather than manually picking olives for pressing, today, trucks shake the trees to collect the olives, and rather than keeping random naturally occurring rooting and growth, trees are planted in grids to optimize harvesting and production. Penadés also learned that many of the discarded native olive roots, which have a naturally beautiful, craggy texture, are left behind, discarded or typically sold as firewood.

From this extensive research, Penadés moved to the second phase of his project, developing a small collection of objects designed to celebrate the unique characteristics of these discarded olive roots. There were many technical challenges to working with these roots as they are dense and knotty and hard to cut, leading the designer to try and work with the material and letting it guide the final design object. During this second phase, he began working with the curator Seetal Solanki, founder and director of Ma-tt-er, who worked with him to find a new way of approaching the design process, a ‘material-led’ approach in which the inherent qualities shape and influence the design. Penadés had a ‘material interview’ with the olive roots, posing 99 questions to explore the material’s reactions to manual and mechanical stimuli such as carving, steaming or sand blasting. In this way, the designer embraces the inherent challenges of the materials and elevates its complexities as something inspirational rather than a limitation.

The exhibition at the Espacio Gaviota, in Madrid, was the culmination of this 10-year investigation and project. In addition to a selection of the furniture he made, the exhibition featured photographs taken by Creasy throughout the last couple of years, as well as a presentation of some of the research and materials collected over the past 10-years.

‘Uprooted’ was presented at Espacio Gaviota between February 8-22, 2025 as part of Madrid Design Week.

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