Facundo Poj
ARTIST STATEMENT:
The first time I walked through an aircraft cemetery, I was in awe at these dead lords of the air. Large commercial airplanes laying on their bellies, missing tails and noses, fuselages cut open like the carcass of a giant mammoth. I asked the manager of the yard what happened to the carcass once all the usable spare parts had been taken away and sold. He said "well, I guess we cut them up to get them ready to become beer cans". Beer cans. My soul was in tears. These flying dragons, these noble machines, are one of man's greatest achievements. A loyal craft which had taken people's dreams all around the world countless times. Beer cans...
I picked up a few parts on my pickup truck. I refused to let their souls be chopped up and their bodies be turned into such un-noble devices.
I gave these beautifully crafted and engineered objects new meaning, new life, new purpose. I decided that "rebirth" was a much more fitting term for their souls, rather than "recycle".
BIOGRAPHY
Facundo is a Miami based designer born in Argentina in 1971. He was trained as a master builder back in his native Buenos Aires and moved to Boston in the early 1990's where he graduated from Architecture school and also received a Masters Degree in Urban Affairs and Environmental Problems. Poj is a handcrafter of furniture and objects. His use of materials is definitely on the unconventional side of the spectrum. Poj spends much of his time looking for treasures in junk yards. He searches for objects with a soul and a lasting quality to them. Mr. Poj ponders on the subject of memory and historic value. Historic value not at the superficial level of style and form, but at a deeper level, he values the biography of objects and materials.
Poj also invests much energy researching new ways of using materials of great qualities which are not that far into the unconventional, but which have not fallen yet into the hands of large scale mainstream manufacturing. All his furniture pieces are designed through high technology, handcrafted, and built for life.
Mr. Poj's design services and exclusive handcrafted pieces have been sought not only by private clients and collectors, but also by important corporate clients such as Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton USA, Veuve Clicquot, Ecoist, Dom Perignon, Citrine by the Stones, Simmons of Argentina and others.