Indigenous Design and Craftsmanship in Argentina. Convergence of Logics, Perceptions, and Tension in Practices

This article problematizes the convergence between Design and Crafts, focusing on the analysis of the interaction between professional designers and indigenous artisans in clothing and accessories ventures in Argentina. The constructions of meanings, uses, and practices that emerge in this encounter are analyzed. The tensions and negotiations involved in the definition of consensual productive dynamics are highlighted, which, in an unequal and hierarchical framework, are not exempt from conflicts. From a qualitative methodology, the fieldwork carried out in the metropolitan area of Buenos Aires and in the province of Chaco, Argentina, is recovered. This approach allows us to review the construction of meanings and senses that Design unfolds in its encounter with Crafts in Argentina, where design is combined with crafts, highlighting «transcendental» attributes; while craftsmanship incorporates design in the definition of a «logic of order», where the valuation processes gain centrality, introducing tensions both in economic and symbolic and affective terms. As a balance, we propose a reading about these practices that contributes to analyze them from a critical perspective, dynamic and productive at the same time.