Two designers travel across the Algarve and, in collaboration with eleven artisans, various companies, young people, and organizations, develop the project Técnicas Ancestrais, Soluções Actuais (TASA – Ancestral Techniques, Contemporary Solutions). Over the course of a year, the documentary follows the work and synergies created among participants as they find new uses for the traditional knowledge of this region in southern Portugal.
The documentary tracks the many paths and challenges of the TASA project, recording the design, preparation, production, and marketing of various products. It also captures the processes of training, research, consultancy, and the relationships built between the protagonists.
One year after its launch, the need arises to ensure continuity for what has been invested and achieved. The commitment reached is translated into everyday practice, bringing mutual benefits for all those involved.
I now share a few excerpts from the text I wrote for the book published at the time by CCDR Algarve and The Home Project Design Studio:
IN ONE HAND
“Eleven artisans. Designers. Young people. Companies. Researchers. Institutions. A territory as diverse as it is scattered across the Algarve region. Twelve months, divided across four seasons. No stopovers—time flies by.
It is within this dynamic mosaic that I developed a privileged proximity with many of the TASA protagonists, particularly the artisans and designers.
We stayed alert to what could happen, not only documenting what did happen. We followed a path that intersects and focuses on people—their testimonies and practices—without limiting the camera’s view to the linear journey from raw materials to finished products.
This allowed for a broader reading of the project and the various contributions that poured into it. Starting with the artisans—understanding and motivating them regarding the core objective: to value their knowledge and practices. Together with the designers, they explored new and different product types, with functions unlike those they had previously created. In doing so, they opened their work to younger generations and to those who take an interest in or dedicate themselves to traditional crafts—facing new challenges that we now recognize and define as contemporary.
What matters is focusing on the process: the relationship between artisans and designers, and vice versa; the sharing with students and interns; the development of product(s), considering that in some cases these are the outcome of collaboration between multiple artisans. But also the contributions made through training, consultancy, communication, and the input of researchers. All these parts only make sense when working in an integrated way. Distinct fingerprints that form one hand with five fingers. What they share: commitment, creativity, and a belief in the value of difference—defending quality and high standards.
Some projects start and end the same way—generous intentions that remain on paper. This is not one of them. We now know that those involved in TASA want to see it continue, having internalized the journey not just as a shared path but as one shaped by their own contributions. Much has changed in the span of a year.
It is no longer possible to speak about the relationship between craft and design in the Algarve without referring to the path charted by TASA. The documentary now in production aims to offer yet another contribution—of reflection and critique—so that the memory, scale, and impact of this project are not lost.”
(Excerpts from the article published in the book edited by CCDR Algarve and The Home Project Design Studio)
VALUING DIFFERENCE
In 2011, my father joined me at one of our TASA presentations in Cachopo and Faro. On the Areias dos Dias blog, he wrote in July of that year:
“(…) If a national development strategy aims to embrace identity and value difference, then this is an excellent example. In fact, TASA combines several precious ingredients in a practical and effective way. (…) TASA is perhaps more important than many well-intentioned speeches criticizing the strategy that followed the infamous Troika memorandum.”
