biopic of designer santos bregaña by oskar alegria

spanish designer santos bregaña is the subject of a magical realism -style film by journalist oskar alegria

born in spain of croatian origin, santos bregaña has earned accolades as an interior, graphic, and industrial designer since founding his own studio, atelier laia, in 1996. bregaña works foremost within the culinary industry, having designed an award-winning body of projects and conceptual menu entreés for the spanish restaurant mugaritz (named the third best in the world for 2011), amidst over fifteen years of product, interior, and graphic design.

spanish journalist and independent filmmaker oskar alegria followed in the footsteps of bregaña as he worked to produce a magical realist, short documentary about the designer. the video takes the form of a walk– from city and studio to forest and seaside, reflecting the description of bregaña as ‘a person who walks like he thinks and thinks like he walks’.

the choice of setting was intentional. bregaña wrote about his daily walk from the igeldo hills to his urban office in his prologue to the spanish translation of michael polland’s book ‘the botany of desire’. filmmaker oskar alegria elaborated after filming: ‘he usually walks with something green in the hand… a leaf, an apple… and he enters the grey city like that everyday, a practical dreamer, armed with a wild gun ready to battle with the hard concrete.’

‘the sociological mission of the designer,‘ bregaña suggests along similar lines, ‘[is] to bring wild things into the cultured and urban. the stroll offers the opportunity to complete the cycle’.

spanish independent filmmaker oskar alegria followed in the footsteps of bregaña for three days to produce the short documentary

‘I have more trust in the hand than the brain. I have more trust in the word than in thinking. we were taught that one has to think more and draw less; that that is completely inadequate for me. one has to draw constantly– and erase– because it is only like that, in the labyrinth of lines, if you will– where things appear in a way that is unrehearsed.‘ – santos bregaña

much of atelier laia’s recent product design work involves ceramic, including the highly researched ‘jamaica blue mountain’ coffee cup whose shape and proportions are specifically designed to complement the particular coffee roast.  ‘I find it interesting that porcelain is pure form,‘ the designer explains; ‘that it is a design without mechanisms that expresses itself through the purity of the colour white, and whose geometrical actuation limit is minimal: a circumference.’

santos bregaña at work in his studio

alegria recounts with surprise the filming of the scenes walking backwards into the city. ‘when we were shooting that,‘ he explains, ‘nobody noticed that santos was walking back like a crab. it is true that in the city there is a mainstream, and if you go out of that beaten track, nobody looks at you.’

‘in design there is an anti-scientific process that is more connected with alchemy, where things are repeated in the hope that something extraordinary is created. it is the curious eye of the designer that reveals the mystery of nature and transforms it into something different. but in reality the treasures are visible to everyone.’ – santos bregaña