Lamas Burgariotti questions “the limits between design and art”

Based in Buenos Aires, the work of design studio Lamas Burgariotti is, at its heart, multidisciplinary. Comprised of María Victoria Lamas (Vicky) and Joaquín Burgariotti, the studio focusses on visual identities, exhibitions, editorial design and websites, but it also channels a lot of energy into the development of personal artworks which straddle various media.

“Most of our clients are artists, editors, filmmakers, dancers, photographers, curators, architects, musicians, so our projects have a cultural purpose,” Vicky and Joaquín explain. “Each project is a challenge. To start with, it’s pure listening – we work a little as psychologists for our clients. Often, we also help to synthesise and edit the material that comes to us, working in the role of curators, because the client trusts our eyes. There are also moments where we need to investigate a specific topic, to know what we are talking about, or to expand our ideas.”

This kind of investigative, all-or-nothing approach shows in Lamas Burgariotti’s portfolio which is enriched with research and fully-realised projects. While working with clients allows the duo to act as curators, their personal practice is all about experimentation. “For some time we have been participating in exhibitions that invite us to think about our voice as artists,” they tell us. “This role is like a game to experiment with new materials, techniques, to find our own aesthetic, to question the limits between design and art.”

It’s not just in their approach that Vicky and Joaquín demonstrate consistency. Aesthetically, their portfolio is succinct, a product of how they constantly flit between digital and analogue techniques. They add: “We like our material to travel from one state to another, which means losing and adding information, transforming. Our process gives unexpected results and what we do is a constant experiment.”

One of the studio’s most recent projects, and an example of its artistic endeavours is Oro Negro, an exhibition which is also indicative of their love of mixing the digital and the analogue. The work, which features a mixture of prints and more sculptural forms, is not only borne in transfer between these two mediums, but also visualises it. They are in flux, somewhere between the two and somehow both at the same time. It’s through the use of several materials – metal, phone screens, canvas and digital matter – that the duo achieves this.

Ultimately, it’s projects such as these which make the portfolio of Lamas Burgariotti so intriguing, as they sit conformably alongside commercial projects for the likes of Adidas. Unlike other studios which may see personal work as an afterthought, especially work that sits so firmly in the fine art world, Lamas Burgariotti wholly understands its value, and how important a role it plays in upholding everything else. It’s only through giving themselves the space to experiment, that Vicky and Joaquín have been able to carve out such a distinct body of work.