Potato starch

Biomaterials

"There is no work of art, there is the artist with his incomplete manifestation and the spectator who completes the situation in action." Victor Grippo, 1988.

In Argentina as in the rest of the countries of Latin America, the potato is one of the main foods along with wheat and corn. It is estimated that the potato is 10,000 years old and its origin was established in the Andean Highlands.

In the Aymará and Quechua oral tradition, they speak of 'domestication of the potato', these people carried out a long community process and followed the Incas ,the ones that turned the first potatoes without nutritional value into the food we know today.

In this territory, in which so many centuries have passed, hunger is still prevalent for many communities, in conjunction to this, the misuse of rivers, the poisoning of oceans, waters and soil sterilisation, among others. It is estimated that 70% of natural forests were lost in the last century in Argentina. The plastic thrown into the oceans has already formed an island larger than the Mexican territory. Only 30% of corals are alive in the world and it is estimated that they will disappear in just 30 more years.

The designer decided to turn to the potato and its ability to mix with other natural ingredients. To produce a 100% compostable mesh, nets and cloths, which could replace plastic netting in the near future.

The designer with her research on bioplastics attempts to pay tribute to the conscience from the understanding of the work of Argentine artist Victor Grippo. To build on his legacy and integrate multiple experiences of dialogue, trial and error, from the workshop-laboratory to community, of poetics and utopia to the production of meaning.

Victor Grippo, worked for many years from the energy of the potato, its ability to produce voltage, but also its symbolic value. Art, he said, only becomes important so far as it manages to produce consciousness.

Making process

The ingredients are mixed with the water and heated over very low heat for more than 10 minutes so that the original polymeric chains are broken, they are moulded and after a few days, with different drying times, they come off the surface where they dried. So forms take their own shapes with the natural warping of the material.

Text submitted by the maker and edited by the Future Materials Bank. For information about reproducing (a part of) this text, please contact the maker.