Ultreia, the Nomad Factory

Exhibition view at Museum of Contemporary Design and Applied Arts MUDAC, Lausanne

Increasingly mass production and globalisation are leading to a drastic geographical localization of factories and industrial facilities. Ultreia is a project where El Camino, an ancient pilgrim route in Spain, is transformed into a 700km production line. The recent commercialization of the route is challenged by on-site manufacture of alternative objects and performances, through a portable factory that is able to relocate itself everyday, taking advantage of the specific locations, industries and people encountered on the route. A rotational moulding machine powered by the movement of the bike itself, a tent and a solar panel allowed the designer to become completely self-sustainable on the road and accomplish a 2 weeks production journey.

Ultreia, the Nomad Factory was Jorge Mañes Rubio’s graduation project at the Royal College of Art, MA Design Products.

Ultreia, the Nomad Factory

A rotational moulding machine powered by the movement of the bike itself, a tent and a solar panel allowed the designer to become completely self-sustainable on the road and accomplish a 2 weeks production journey.

Exhibition view at Royal College of Art London

Ultreia, the Nomad Factory

Exhibition view at Royal College of Art London

La Copa del Rey

On Wednesday, 19 May 2010, Atletico de Madrid and Sevilla CF played the Final of the Copa del Rey football championship (The King’s Cup). The final score was 0-2. The artist’s favourtie team, Atletico de Madrid, lost this game, so he decided to rematch the Final during his journey.

For such an occasion, a mould of the Copa del Rey trophy was produced, in order to be able to replicate it as many times as needed. On the 26th May, one week after the official game, Rubio arrived to Estella, where he introduced himself to local kids as a professional football trophy maker. Later, an improvised football match was played in the main square of the village, while Rubio was cycling around it, producing several trophies for the young players. Since it was getting late, and some kids started to feel it was time to go home, they run to meet their parents who were in bars and terraces near by the square, asking them ‘mum dad please, can I stay a little bit longer? There’s a man who makes football trophies out of the sun!’

La Copa del Rey

Santa María de Eunate

Santa María de Eunate (“hundred doors” in the Basque language), is an enigmatic Romanesque chapel built in the 12th century. Its placement is aligned with some other main temples in the area, strategically built in a main telluric junction, in the middle of a wheat field.

Visitors often carry an ancient ritual, consisting in walking around the outer grassy path and the inner stone paved path. This ancient ritual served as inspiration to create unique on-site manufactured replicas, together with materials gathered from Eunate‘s surroundings, such as wheat spikes.

The very first souvenir remains there, in the church, as a gift and memento from this experience.

Souvenir manufacturing cycling around Santa María de Eunate

The first ever souvenir from Santa María de Eunate

A transparent souvenir featuring a wheat spike

Guendulain

Guendulain is located on the Camino de Santiago. In the past it was one of the few populations in the Camino with its own hospital, dedicated only to take care of pilgrims. But today, despite his past as a distinguished place of Lordship, Guendulain presents a sad state of decay and abandonment, and will disappear soon because of a massive and controversial real state operation.

I decided to recover, at least for one day, the original function and memory of Guendulain. I invited a group of Italian pilgrims I met on the road to enjoy local food and wine I specially brought for such an occasion, all served in a unique set of ceramic produced in a nearby village, Navarrete.

We can find references to pottery in the village of Navarrete from the time of the Bronze Age. But in the last century, the pottery production has acquired an industrial tone, and just a very few people still maintain the tradition of craftsmanship. The most outstanding example is Antonio Naharro. Unlike other workshops, Antonio currently retains a totally manual potter’s wheel based work, without introducing any kind of mechanization or industrialization.

Antonio agreed to use my machine for mixing different kinds of clay: using 70% of local clay plus another 30% of imported clay to add some strength to the final pieces, the mix was used to produce diverse ceramic objects. This encounter became an exceptional occasion to learn about this endangered trade.

Antonio Naharro busy at the pottery wheel

Antonio Naharro’s ceramic workshop

Jars and cups used at Guendulain

Jorge and a group of Italian pilgrims eating and drinking wine inside Guendulain’s Castle

Two women using a supermarket brochure as a visor

As the day was clear and warm, two women were chatting together and enjoying the weather outside. They were avoiding the sun going directly into their faces using some sort of paper as a visor: ‘We use the local supermarket brochure; cause the paper is super light so we can hold it very easily. And you can check for the best discounts of the week as well!’ Such a nice, simple and smart reasoning inspired Rubio to go to the very same supermarket and pick up some brochures, creating later a baseball cap out of these supermarket brochures, mixing the amazing encounter with these wise ladies in Navarrete, and one of his favourite accessories.

Supermarket baseball cap

Star chart

The Apollo XI astronauts used a chart to check the primary guidance navigation system in the lunar module and confirm their position in lunar orbit. By using the star positions and their two-digit numbers located on the chart next to each star, the astronauts were able to navigate during both the translunar coast and while in lunar orbit.

Pilgrims in the Camino follow the Sun in the day, from East to West, and follow the Milky Way in the night. Inspired by the Apollo XI analog guidance system, I produced several star charts along the Camino de Santiago, so people could follow the right direction during the night, being able to read the sky and its constellations. The star chart was carefully designed to suit just the month of May, the month where my journey took place.

Star chart

Eliseo Nicolás Alonso

The Emotional Serial Bus (E.S.B.) is a raw piece of azabache (black jet) with a micro digital memory inlaid. This memory contains all the research, pictures, maps, directions, and documentation collected before and during my journey. Confronting the ephemeral nature and lightness of our ever changing digital age with the geological memory of this stunning material (about 60 million years old), the raw piece is smoothly carved into geometrical polygons, symbolising the encounter between these two different memories, creating a unique memento of this journey. This piece was created in close collaboration with Eliseo Nicolás Alonso, azabachero master, rest in peace.

Emotional Serial Bus (E.S.B.)

Azabache (black jet)

Several pieces of azabache (black jet) at Eliseo Nicolás Alonso’s workshop

Sarracin’s Castle

Sarracin Castle was never conquered. Situated on a steep hill, the slopes of Monte de la Vilela, its access is a complicated ascension trough the deepest Bercian forests. Its history is linked to the Templar Knights, protecting pilgrims in the Camino de Santiago route. On top of the hill, after pushing uphill my factory for more than an hour, I understood the importance of the location as a military fortress.

Before leaving the place, I had the feeling I needed to take with me something from this castle, so I decided to use the downhill back to the village to cast some of my Bioresin Lamps, together with some unusual plants that I picked up from inside the fortress.

The forest on the way up to Sarracin

A bioresin lamp mould including some of the local flora

Sarracin lamp at Royal College of Art, London

Souvenir stall at Santiago de Compostela

The story of the Scallop Shell as a religious souvenir has an important turning point back in the13th century: at that time, the Scallop Shell was the proof of accomplishing the pilgrimage to Santiago, so some sly vendors started selling and replicating the shells along the route. In 1262, Pope Clement IV went as far as to prohibit by excommunication the purchase of any scallop shell manufactured outside the city of Santiago.

Re-interpreting the story about the scallop shell and its strong connection with this city, I bought a map and started cycling exactly around the city’s perimeter, trying to achieve the most authentic and original Scallop Shell ever produced, made out of recycled local newspapers.

Scallop shells at Royal College of Art

Beekeeping at Campomiel

Campomiel is a familiar business run by Alvaro Garrido. Alvaro learned his trade from his father’s beekeeping business, and inherited his bees. Now has 1,500 hives, but his form of exploitation is fully organic, so that instead of degrading the environment he’s protecting it.

We decided to try my machine to centrifuge a frame full of honey, cycling from the field where the bees work, to the honey house. This process is the last part of honey production, and it‘s commonly made in a big rotational drum. As the speed of the centrifuge moment can’t be too fast, the production became an unhurried and pleasant ride near by the bank of the Ebro, Spain’s most voluminous river, enjoying its splendid flora and orchards. The honey was later on offered for tasting at the project’s exhibition at Royal College of Art, London.

Honey tasting at Royal College of Art, London

Beekeeping at Campomiel

Ultreia, the Nomad Factory

Skycatcher

By the end of his trip, Rubio decided to create an object that could contain the sky he gazed during his journey inside the gallery space, an object that would only have sense in that exhibition. The idea of possessing the whole sky in the palm of his hand was the starting point. He engraved a wooden box with silver the constellations, allowing light to go through the Milky Way, the most ancient map for the Camino de Santiago. The box was lit with leftovers from the batteries the artist used during his trip, batteries that were permanently charged via solar panels.

Map displaying the different stages of the journey

Ultreia, the Nomad Factory

Arrival at Santiago de Compostela

Ultreia, the N0mad Factory, the book

Ultreia, the N0mad Factory is a book that celebrates the project. Designed by Gianluca Tesauro and Nicola Bazzini, the book was entirely handmade at the Royal College of Art in a limited edition of a 20 copies.