(originally published 10.2007)

It was a night when design joined forces with the plastic arts and the performance arts in an Art Gallery. Filled with many people - over five hundred - and an object based on a modular system which is, in fact, a variety of objects. And White. An immensity of white. Where nothing is written, but where virtually anything can be contained. A well-lit, precise, methodical and cold atmosphere which immediately brings to mind some futuristic dimension, but which is, after all, our reality. Today and now. It was white, symbolic and immense, that Miguel Rios chose for the presentation of the 1st edition of the project, developed by the Miguel Rios Design Office, which is based on the System 2K07 bag / container assembly system and the Drizzle protection system, both of which are integral parts of the System line. Objects which have a pure and precise geometry and an open design system, where only the initial concept remains unchangeable, revealed in the graphics of a video by Hélio Oliveira. Seven components, which can be combined using straps, zips and Velcro, which allow five types of bags / containers to be assembled - Box, Mini-Box, Laptop, Pocket and Portfolio – where the assembly process by the user him/herself, bearing in mind his/her needs and desires, reflects the ludic character and the open design system at its core. With white, too, everything is left open. Therefore it reigned. From its aseptic perspective, so that no strange noise could disturb the clear reading of the concept behind the object of design.

In the middle of one of the rooms at the Vera Appleton Gallery, an installation by Ricardo Jacinto. A structure, also geometrical, recalling a space station or the immaculate environment of a laboratory, conceived to reflect, to the infinite, the bodies, the movements and the objects. Two bodies, twins, by their condition also reflecting into each other. Mechanical, repetitive, cadenced, synchronized and exact movements, with no margin for error, choreographed by André Murraças. A drink, also white – Dame Blanche: created by Hugo Brito, who idealized a combination of drinkable liquids placed in four drinking fountains which would normally contain water. In another room, the audience present was invited to handle the modular components and to try out the various possible combinations. Miguel Rios directed this presentation with the mastery of an orchestra leader, demonstrating his purified work process. All this with the minimum noise possible, to ensure no one was distracted from the essential – the pure object of design. In a near future, white will let itself be contaminated by other colours. But for this night, it was simply white.

Anabela Becho
Anabela Becho started at the newspaper Blitz. She wrote for the magazines ELLE, Número, Obscena, among others. She collaborated with ON, ÍCON, VOGUE and Agenda Cultural. Currently, she is Editorial Director of the urban culture magazine RELANCE.