Design crossing borders: furniture publishers as intermediaries in the international circulation of “brazilian creativity”

Abstract

Brazilian designers are increasingly making a name for themselves on the international art and design market. The growing appreciation of these creators has both increased the pursuit for their antique and authentic furniture, which has been especially marketed as collectible designs, and boosted the manufacture of new pieces, reproduced from the original designs. These ones, named “re-edition”, continue to incarnate the magic of their creators’ signature. This study focuses on the work of Brazilian design manufacturers who, taking charge of the practical and symbolic functions of “furniture publishers”, operate as reproducers, prescribers and guardians of a piece of furniture that is considered a product of cultural relevance. Following the trails of sociology interested in the operations of production of symbolic goods, the article analyses cultural intermediaries that directly contribute to the production and circulation and production of the notoriety and price of these goods. The degree of internationalization of the companies, the strategies
of valorization of the signature and the devices for certification of authenticity are, in this process of reproduction of aesthetic goods, fundamental requirements to ensure the circulation of Brazilian authorial furniture in a market renewed by transnational logic.