COBALTOPUS, marine visions in Fresh Product 2019. Exhibition from February 05 to March 20, 2019.
Fresh Product 2019. Design center Matadero, Madrid.
Exhibition from 05 February to 20 March, 2019.
Cobaltopus, is the result of an order from the chef Chema Soler of Restaurante la Gastro (Madrid). The creative team formed by our colleague Chele Esteve, professor of ETSID (UPV), Ricardo Moreno, professor of EASD Valencia, Eugenia Boscá, ceramist and Jose Plà, artist who worked together co-designing and sharing all their experience.
If in China gardens are designed by architects, colors are selected from their palette by painters and by poets, in this case something similar happens. It is an example of participatory or cooperative design where each actor contributes his intimate knowledge. «We met at La Gastro in Madrid, in October of last year and we tasted the octopus tapa, surprising in textures, taste, visual … All the senses were opened to us and from this moment the pencils began to smoke», point out these creative.
The idea and concept correspond to the designers and research professors; Chele Esteve and Ricardo Moreno, the process of artistic, formal and iconic creation is proposed and realized between Eugenia Boscá, ceramist and artist Jose Plà, who selected the motif that would illustrate the plates and trays and the color, cobalt blue. A color widely used both in ancient Egypt where blue crystals, enamels and cobalt paintings were found in numerous objects, as well as in Persian colar beads (III BC)
This set of 8 different pieces in size and shape, has plates and trays designed exprofeso for the XIV National Contest of Pinchos and Tapas City of Valladolid (2018), unique in Spain with representation of all the autonomous communities. The tapa «Okonomiyaki from octopus to Galician», is made with octopus as the main raw material in fusion with Japanese products. According to the creators of Cobaltopus: «We wanted to reflect the gastronomic, cultural and marine influences where the Mediterranean Sea, the Atlantic Ocean and the Sea of Japan congregate with the octopus as the main element. The cobalt blue transports us to trace a journey through the seas that bathe the Iberian peninsula until we reach the Japanese domains erasing the sea leagues that separated us by the blue color in the glaze processes of ceramics «.
To materialize the design, the technique of transfers in plates and trays is used. Made by hand with plates of different shapes that create a visual set that takes us into an oniric universe of flavors. Transferring the image on ceramics is a sophisticated procedure where cobalt oxide must be well impregnated in the ink on the earthenware. This results in a visual effect as a result that is visible in the second firing once the enamel is applied.
If in the words of Marco Tulio Cicero (106 BC – 43 BC): «The pleasure of banquets should be measured not by the abundance of delicacies, but by the gathering of friends and by their conversation», you could add the importance of the content and the continent, hence the collaborations between cooking, design, crafts and art mariden to obtain complementary results that invite the diner to live the slow culture.