Camper - The Walking Society - Issue nº9 - Mallorca (ENG)

WALKING means traveling – going from one place to another. It also means advancing, improving, developing, innovating. The Walking Society is a virtual community open to everyone: to diverse social, cultural, economic and geographic backgrounds. Individually as well as collectively, it champions imagination and energy, bringing useful and positive ideas and solutions to better the world. In a simple and honest way.

CAMPER means peasant. The austerity, simplicity and discretion of the rural world combines with Mediterranean history, culture and landscape, all of which influence the brand’s aesthetic and values. Our respect for tradition and for arts and craftsmanship anchors our promise: to offer useful, original and quality products, promoting diversity and with a keen intention of developing and improving them through innovation, technique and aestheticism. We seek a more cultural and human approach to business activity.

MALLORCA is an island amidst the western Mediterranean, spanning 3626 km2 and 900,000 inhabitants. Mallorquin (Catalan) and Spanish are spoken. With a warm climate and diverse landscapes, its economy is based on tourism, the footwear industry, furniture, and agriculture.

Inhabited since the Bronze Age, the Romans called it Majorica.

THE WALKING SOCIETY magazine contains words and images from people and landscapes belonging to this virtual community, who make the world progress and change. Our first issue launched in 2001; its theme was the island of Mallorca, Camper’s native home. The original series, which covered different regions of the Mediterranean, lasted four years and eight issues, ending in 2005. Today, almost 20 years after it originally launched, we return to Mallorca. This 9th issue gives us the opportunity to show the part of the island with which we most identify.

The Walking Society is an homage to one of the most important cultural contributors to western civilization: The Mediterranean.

WALK, DON’T RUN. 3

ISSUE N°9

The Walking Society champions the culture and the lifestyle of the Mediterranean. Rethinking the pace of modern life, its constructive message ties together the land, the community, and artisanal craft, celebrating heritage while embracing contemporary evolutions.

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F/W 2020

It’s a destination seemingly removed from space and time, an environment that inspires a thoughtful way of living – with ease, tranquility, leisure and joy – in which community and territory come together, cooperatively, to create a common good.

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Every morning, the donkeys of Son Fortesa go up the nearby mountain, seeking the relief of cool shade, and return home at the end of the day.

The new issue centers around Mallorca’s local faces and its regional stories as a means of cultural discovery. Our pilgrimage reflects the spirit of The Walking Society: an organic journey without a fixed goal or structured schedule, the days loosely unfolding. The pleasure is all in the discoveries.

Thrills lie in exploration, the regeneration felt from unearthing new things. It happens through casual wandering and sudden curiosity: wending through harbors, cobbled streets, small-town squares, beaches, wild rural landscapes. Each context brings new magic.

The result is a series of memorable moments, gradually and meaningfully built through dialogues, photographs, illustrations, stories, and poems… a collage of bold visuals and of subtle storytelling. Mallorca is the largest of the Balearic Islands – which also include Ibiza and Formentera, as well 9

Mallorca has, over many centuries, endured waves of foreign invasions: from the Carthaginians to the 10

CA NA TONETA p.50 The chef shows us a warm, authentic experience of hospitality.

TROT BALEAR p.42 An equestrian sport that has long been a signature of the island.

MARTA ARMENGOL p.30 The architect-turned-product designer invites us into her home and studio.

The sensuality of the island is expressed in many ways. The variegated landscape, which features jagged cliffs, accessible flatlands, and translucent bays, is an idyll amongst the blue depths of the Mediterranean. The climate is hot, bright, and dry in summer, and winters are mild. Olives and almonds are grown on native soil, and are typical Mallorcan tastes. Mallorcans are renowned for their handicrafts, including iconic siurells: small white figurines with green and red stripes.

SON FORTESA p.12 The workers of the land reveal their dedication to the territory.

as Menorca (named the “smaller one” relative to Majorca, meaning "larger one” in Latin). This ensemble has been an autonomous region of Spain since 1983. The local languages are Mallorquin and Spanish; education is bilingual.

SAVE THE MED p.106 A foundation doing its part to protect the sea and involve the community.

Today, the island is an extremely popular holiday destination, and tourism is framed as a new-wave form of foreign annexation. In addition to a significant number of British tourists, the sheer volume of Germans drawn to the island has prompted Mallorca to be referred to as “the 17th Federal State of Germany.”

Who could blame them? The island state of mind is hard to resist.

JOAN PERE CATALÀ ROIG p.78 The ceramist discusses his unique firing methods and aesthetic influences.

CAN CASETES p.90 A quarry whose raw materials are used for local construction while also inspiring the poetic.

Romans to the Moors. Those layers of outside influence permeate not just the historical narrative but the beauty of the architecture and the richness of the local culture.

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Most farms in Mallorca have, since the 1980s, gradually been transformed into hotels or bought up by foreigners as country houses.

When the estate of Son Fortesa – located in the quiet town of Alaró – was bought by Camper in the early 1990s, very few farms were actively working the land.

Son Fortesa The agricultural activity has since been revived.

Small-scale yields are maintained according to sustainably regulated practices and thanks to the daily work of a devoted, industrious staff. Our trip starts here, surveying the rural side of the island.

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Wearing bright blue overalls everyday, Valentin constructs stone fixtures and fences like puzzles and compositions. He’s from Ciudad Real in Castilla-La Mancha – the same place as Pedro Almodóvar.

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Originally from Paraguay, Alfredo likes that no day toiling the estate is the same. The changing demands of the garden, the vegetable patch and the animals’ care all require versatility.

Manolo worked for a Camper shoe supplier for 30 years; today, he likes building things from scratch and regularly updating his understanding, on the job, of how things function.

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Tomatoes and cucumbers from the garden, grown organically and using sustainable practices.

Manolo Joan Gustavo Alfredo Biel Valentin 17

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Joan has spent half his life working at Son Fortesa. He manages the oil and wine production and implements the sustainable practices throughout the estate.

Maintaining the garden and the fountains, Gustavo initially worked in transport, at a sweets packaging factory and then real estate before realizing he was much happier working outside.

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The staff work without fixed routines but are instead guided by the needs of the land. The tasks are varied and accomplished thoroughly, rather than speedily.

Nature’s needs create the work rhythm.

Productivity is achieved by being attentive to the grounds, and the ultimate objective is to cultivate something beautiful.

There is a lot of trust, respect, and passion for the land. There are seasonal cycles.

Caring for and maintaining the fields and the crops in winter is essential to yield fertile and verdant results in the warmer months. Ecologically sound, sustainable practices are implemented to fight the aggressive influx of insects in the spring.

Son Fortesa’s agricultural practices are organic-certified and pesticide-free.

Sometimes workshops with local schools are hosted on the property.

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Camper's first shoe, created in 1975, was a unisex design inspired by what local farmers wore in the fields. Made of recycled material, the Camaleón repurposed offcuts of leather, worn-out tires, and strips of canvas.

Native to this very area, Biel trained as a mechanic for agricultural machinery. He has always fixed up his own house, and he does assorted maintenance tasks around Son Fortesa.

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The exhausting bustle of day-to-day pressures, obligations, and constraints recede at Son Fortesa, as if they just might have been a mirage. They are replaced by a soothing, comprehensive sense of rural calm, interrupted only by nature’s soundtrack: the murmur of cicadas, the excitable pitch of birdsong.

There are clusters of oversized prickly pear cacti, and gently trickling fountains. Several thousand almond trees grow. A fruit and vegetable patch offers up tomatoes, varieties of herbs, oranges, and lemons. The vineyards yield modest volumes of wine at harvest time. The animal medley includes donkeys, pigs, chickens, and some 200 sheep.

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Mallorca has also deepened the cultural imagination around the Mediterranean. Attractive to creatives throughout various eras, Spanish artist Joan Miró settled on the island in 1954 with his wife, his studios declared official cultural heritage spaces. Polish composer and pianist Frédéric Chopin spent the winter of 1838–39 in Valldemossa with his partner, French writer Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin (pseudonym: George Sand), who wrote a book about their stay.

It’s a territory that both quiets the mind and heightens its desire to be expressive. A territory of pure retreat, where everything can feel blissfully remote, secluded, and quiet.

Island living makes room for simple pleasures: watching sheep lazily graze in the fields, inhaling the heady scent of flowering lavender, admiring the timeworn erosion of stately old stones…

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Pelotas XL S/S 2016

Leaving behind the hushed rural landscapes, we head to Palma, stopping off at La Rambla to visit the studio and residence of

MARTA ARMENGOL Inspired by poetry, philosophy, and architecture – notably work by Gaetano Pesce, Òscar Tusquets Blanca, and Smiljan Radić – the 30

Marta works with a glassblower to create the silhouettes of her pieces, then paints them by hand herself.

designer lives in a luminous multi-story building where she creates furniture and beautiful glass-blown lamps.

What is the role of place in influencing your thinking?

MA

I grew up in a little town in Mallorca called Esporles, within the Serra de Tramuntana. I lived in Barcelona for 12 years, where I studied architecture then began working. In between, I lived in Paris for one year on Erasmus exchange. When I graduated, I started an architecture studio with some friends, but then I realized that what I really wanted to do was more related to design. I began doing ephemeral architecture and furniture. It was more immediate: I could do more things in less time. Two years ago, I came back to my home, and have been based here since. It’s a different rhythm.

I still go to Barcelona a lot, because the glassblower I work with, Ferran, is there.

I think glass is an interesting material and I want to keep working with it. My pieces have become more ambiguous – like functional art, in between sculpture and furniture.

After the glassblowing is done in Barcelona, I paint the pieces and make them into lamps. I’m going to start doing some pieces with a glass casting technique: the glass is in a molten state, then you throw it and it transforms into a solid. It results in interesting shapes and volumes.

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Working with glass includes a fair amount of unpredictability.

How do you impose a sense of creative control while embracing the material’s volatility?

MA

When I think about an object that I want to make, the technical side is always there. I studied architecture and practiced this as a career; function is implicit and a very technical part of it. My mind is still operating with that approach. But I really enjoy working with forms or materials that I have never worked with before, and don’t know how to use. That motivates me. I’m not afraid of mistakes. I take advantage of it: I have an idea, think about it, stay focused on the material that I’ve never tried, and really want to know how it works.

With glass, there’s a human component that’s super important. This loss of control is the poetic and beautiful part. I design something that has intimate measurements: it has to be this size, and this weight – that is controlled. It needs a technical part for the mechanics to be put in, for how it can be hung. Then I get immersed in the process of working with my glassblower and saying: ‘I imagine a bubble… something that reminds me of space.’ I have these ideas, weird and organic.

Then we start a dialogue, there are a lot of synergies – until he says: ‘That’s not possible!’ I tell him what I want to do and in the end I get something that’s not what I thought of at the beginning, but still similar. I watch the glassblower work and say: ‘I prefer the piece to have more width, or more length.’ I can’t control how he inputs the heat; when he’s blowing, I can’t control the force of his lungs. So it happens between the both of us, and I enjoy the process, and being surprised by the possibilities of things. I don’t know what is going to happen – but that is the point.

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How did you determine the types of pieces to make?

MA

I decided to make lamps because I used to work with light. I can’t say that I make lamps actually, I make objects that emit light, in a way. I started testing and doing a lot of prototypes. Often, the prototypes are the final result.

I don’t want to work on the pieces any more when I like the result. I want something that just happens like that.

So I’m learning while I’m working all the time – and that’s, for me, the richest part of my work. Maybe it’s going to be nothing – but it’s part of the process, and maybe I’ll use it later for another thing. In architecture, you need about four years to finish a project. I always think: over four years, my mind will change and maybe I won’t love the thing I thought I would from years earlier! I’m quite impatient, so I like to make a lot of things and let my mind keep growing while I’m working.

You live in this building surrounded by your own work, your tools, many books and all these thoughtful aesthetic choices. How does this space help nourish your ideas?

MA

Having my own space – this old house – for myself, it’s like being in my head. I can do whatever I want. When I moved here, I cleaned it up but I lived with nothing: just a bed, and no stovetop in the kitchen… I like living in the space and constructing it little by little, seeing what I really need. The studio I refurbished a little bit more. The whole house is like a laboratory for me. My mother used to have a clothing store, which closed; I kept the wood and made the chairs in my living room. They are not so comfortable,

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Marta describes her pieces as functional art; her lamps embody both sculpture and product design.

Marta: Bark F/W 2020, Pedro: Beetle F/W 2019, Amalia: Pelotas Ariel.

but…! I would buy great chairs from a great designer if I could. At the same time, I have the capacity to make things myself. I found these rods in the street when my brother was coming to visit; I thought, ‘where is he going to hang his clothes?’ So I built a rack. It’s like being inside myself, because I have all my work around. It’s part of my imagination.

Marta Armengol’s studio/living space is located just around the corner from her parents’ charming, intimately-sized restaurant, La Mirona. The friendly duo, Pedro and Amalia, maximize their tiny open kitchen and prepare tasty small plates like canelones de bacalao or calamares con corazones de alcachofa.

A gourmet pantry of wines and tins of sardinellas offers goods to-go, and a beautiful tubular lamp designed by Marta hangs over the countertop.

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Our visit to Palma inspired us to delve deeper and explore different regional traditions.

We found the Trot Balear, the equestrian sport of harness racing, where the Trotter races with a specific gait “Trot� and the jockey rides on a two-wheel sulky. A sport with a long history dating back to the late 19th century that continues until today. The Trot Balear, began originally with improvised races where locals often raced their horse driven carriages to church to see who arrived first to mass.

Trot 42

Balear Today, the races continue throughout the year at the official tracks in the Balearic Islands where this special breed, the Troton, is the king of this sport. The jockey, known as the “menador” wears the colorful racing silks, unique to each stable and the drives the two- wheel sulky, the “cabriol”. The race begins with the lineup, and then off they go with the horses breaking into an incredible explosion of speed within the gait of the trot, showing their grace and agility as they race the track in pursuit of glory.

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Eager to indulge in the flavors of Mallorca, we visit an exceptional eatery.

CA NA TONETA Founded by two accomplished sisters, it’s a space in which diners feel generously welcomed and gustatorily exhilarated.

Maria Solivellas 50

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Teresa Solivellas

On the left, Teresa is wearing Pix F/W 2018.

Chef María Solivellas and her team have created a culinary concept that’s at once simple and sophisticated. Her restaurant is located in Caimari, the charming village where she is from. Mallorcan traditions inform her cuisine, but honoring her ancestral roots never prevents her from experimenting with flavors creatively. Each meal features exquisite local ingredients assembled into small shared plates, served on elegant ceramic tableware.

María Solivellas once worked in the world of theater, and this métier’s concepts of improvisation and reinterpretation underpin her instinctive approach. She began to cook professionally at the same time that she first began to garden; the two activities had a fundamental codependence for her, confirming the strength of the relationship between food and plate.

Being in communion with what the land has to offer, with what it yields, is essential to Chef María’s cooking style.

She prizes freshness, which influences her always-changing menu.

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We discover a seasonal

A MEDITERRANEAN DIET ARTICULATED THROUGH CAREFULLYCRAFTED AND CONVIVIAL SMALL PLATES TO SHARE AND ENJOY Red mullet with spinach, cherry, and pine nuts * coca with black pork and porreres apricot sauce * eggplant stuffed with roasted Mallorcan lamb, pear sauce, and rosemary 56

Mallorquin menu

FEATURING ORGANIC VEGETABLES, FRESH SEAFOOD, AND COCA, THE CRUNCHY CRISP FLATBREAD THAT IS THE LOCAL SIGNATURE. * tumbet with fried egg * tender zucchini with Mallorcan-made mozzarella, sun-dried fish and sun-dried tomatoes * lentils with marinated shrimp * porreres apricot sorbet with almond cake.

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Here, Chef María Solivellas serves up a plate of S’hortolà tomato, amberjack, pickle, black olives and chickpeas. Her coca is prepared using a special wheat and garnished with atypical toppings.

Diners dig into rock mussels with citrus and fennel. The Chef works only with local fishermen to ensure the freshest and most seasonal ingredients grace her menu.

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Chef María Solivellas’ mission is to communicate with diners, to express her core identity to them while also connecting visitors to where they are. This link is always shaped by flux, by the ephemerality of the present moment. It translates into a deep respect for seasonality and faithfully draws from local varietals that are tied to the terroir.

The Chef leans heavily on herbs – “basil is the Queen,” she says with a laugh – which help her concoct a flavorful equilibrium. The restaurant’s motto is: “Our technique serves taste.”

While the plates are as inviting as they are inventive, the philosophy behind the meals also ties into the simplicity of home cooking – and thus, to memory, to family, to comfort.

While María Solivellas preps in the kitchen, her sister Teresa manages the front-ofhouse. The two operate with a kind of yin/ yang effect, where a deep family legacy manifests itself in a balanced way.

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The flavors of the plate are heightened by the Solivellas’ more comprehensive approach to hospitality. This extends to beautiful interior dÊcor and thoughtful natural wine pairings.

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Capparis sp. (C. orientalis, C. sicula, C. spinosa). TĂ pera, alcaparra.

Capers flower in the form of shrubs or bushes. They are rich in micronutrients and very often pickled as a condiment; sometimes, they’re used in herbalism and folk medicine. Birds are fond of eating ripe Capparis spinosa fruit and seeds.

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Citrus limonum. Llimona. LimĂłn.

The lemon is a species of small evergreen tree, yielding bright ellipsoidal fruit ideal for both culinary and cleaning purposes. Lemon pulp, rind, and juice are all eminently versatile, multipurpose components. The latter’s citric acid gives it a sharply sour taste.

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Vicia faba. Fava. Haba.

The broad bean, or fava bean, is a green pod with a downy surface that houses half a dozen round seeds. Favas are among the most ancient plants in cultivation history—believed to have been part of the Mediterranean diet as early as 6000 BCE—and also easy to grow.

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Rosmarinus officinalis. Romaní. Romero.

Rosemary is a perennial herb with fragrant, needle-like leaves; the name derives from the Latin expression “dew of the sea.” Drought-tolerant, it can live for decades and is helpful for xeriscape landscaping (which reduces the necessity of supplemental water from irrigation). Fresh or dried leaves winsomely flavor roast meats and vegetables.

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Mesembryathemum crystallinum. Herba gelada, escarchada. Ficoide glacial (Gastrobotรกnica).

This plant, which blossoms from spring to early summer, is covered with glistening water vesicles. Its flowers open in the morning and close at night; the plant can tolerate nutritionally poor soils and pops up along roadsides. Its crushed leaves can act as a substitute for soap.

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Eruca vesicaria. Ruca. RĂşcula. (Ital.: rucola). Ensalades, truites.

Rocket, or arugula, is an edible plant with a bitter, peppery flavor, often used in salads. It is a rich source of folate, vitamin K, vitamin A, vitamin C—as well as calcium, magnesium, and manganese.

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Laurus nobilis. Llorer. Laurel.

Laurel is a small aromatic, native to the Mediterranean region. Its smooth leaves are used during the food prep stage, added whole to flavor sauces then removed before serving. Laurel figures prominently in classical Greco-Roman culture as a symbol of victory. The Roman naturalist Pliny the Elder thought laurel oil could effectively treat everything from paralysis to headaches.

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Cichorium intybus. Camarroja. Camarroja silvestre, achicoria. (Ital: radicchio). Ensalada.

Chicory is a perennial herbaceous plant of the dandelion family, often featuring bright blue flowers. Many varieties are cultivated for salad or – once baked and ground – used as a coffee substitute or food additive. Inulin, an extract from chicory root, has been used in food manufacturing as a sweetener, and some beer brewers use roasted chicory to flavor stouts.

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We shift our attention from the bounty of the soil to the abundance of the marketplace. Sineu is a small town located inland at the center of Mallorca; only several thousand inhabitants reside here. But amongst its historic architectural monuments, some of which date back almost eight centuries, the town springs to life on Wednesdays with the weekly market.

Pop-up stalls encircle the main square, Plaça des Fossar, which itself is lined with casual cafÊs where locals sip coffee and read the newspaper on the terraces. Market stalls wind up towards the parish Church of Santa Maria, with its austere Gothic façade and imposing, formidable bell tower.

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Runner Four S/S 2019

Spray S/S 2018

At the market, agricultural riches pulled directly from the land and artisanal crafts meticulously made by hand mingle in a colorful, sensuous way. The textures create a vivid vortex of stitched leather, gleaming metal, billowing textiles, sugared pastries and live animal plumage.

The sellers rise early to build their ephemeral stands: an adolescent girl helps her parents hang a sturdy protective cloth, an older gentlemen tends to his excited fowl. Beneath the tarps of each stall are all kinds of wares: crates of honey sweets and racks of tie-dye dresses; silver-buckled belts and wooden cutting boards. You can find three-for-two aloe vera soaps and traditional Menorcan avarca leather sandals. There are organic vegetables and dried fruits, rotisserie chickens and freshly squeezed cups of orange juice, quartered watermelon and tins of paprika. Beach accoutrements like loose jumpsuits and straw tote bags are at the ready for seaside afternoons. Ponies for children to ride walk dutifully back and forth along the Plaรงa, away from the 74

livestock available for farmers to purchase.

The church bells toll – but not as often as the roosters crow, brazenly calling out to passers-by from their cages.

The market is a place of exchange: of conversations as well as of materials. Each seller elaborates on the details of what he or she sells. Hearing the stories behind the things we buy completes and even amplifies their aura. The market is a site of modern narration, where oral histories around traditional local farms or the process of making handicrafts give the goods new meanings.

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A colorful array of draped textiles, displayed at a market stand in Sineu.

The bright patterns and palettes reflect the island's vibrant lifestyle.

Then we took a detour down a secluded road in Pòrtol to visit

JOAN PERE CATALÀ ROIG a ceramist who implements extremely rigorous – and often laborious – techniques.

Artisanal ceramics have a long tradition in the Balearic Islands: the craft has been a vital part of Mallorcan identity for centuries, 79

notably the solid, well-made pots that punctuate domestic life. The manufacture of pottery is popular and thriving in the area of Pòrtol, where there is a concentration of pottery studios and unique pieces are produced locally by hand.

Joan Pere’s work in particular plays with form and scale, ranging from small tea bowls to oversized vases to ceramic furniture.

Surrounded by rows of colorful pigments and assorted work-in-progress, we discussed his relationship with the island, his admiration for Japanese artisans, and the demanding processes he takes great pleasure in carrying out.

What does being from – and living in – Mallorca bring to your work?

JPCR

It’s ultimately a mix of culture, island life, and material availability. The history of Mallorca informs the style I’ve been absorbing since I was a child. The culture is in the everyday pieces. There is a bowl, called an escudella, which is a typical shape from Mallorca. I use the shape but interpret it by using different materials and wood-firing it. It has a different look than the traditional bowl: it is finished differently, so even though the form is the same, it breaks from the past.

Then there is the question of materials. We don’t have all the materials you can buy in Barcelona or Madrid. But this conditions us to use the materials that we have.

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Joan Pere has long been testing clay recipes, jotting formulas down in his notebook since 1996.

Joan Pere in the act of shaping the clay on his potter's wheel.

You reference regional pieces – siurell figurines, ancient Mallorcan barcelles pots, as well as the aforementioned escudelles – but also Japanese techniques (like raku, hakeme). How do you mix local and international thinking?

JPCR

I love Japanese work, and the philosophy and approach to life and to crafts. It’s not difficult to like: they’re very stylized, very pretty, and very rough at the same time.

It mixes tradition and the modern. I use a wood-fired kiln, which is more of a Japanese practice – there are very few of these kinds of kilns in Spain, even in Europe.

A kiln like this, there are no designs for it… you build one with reference to your production. The number of cubic meters is relative to your volume of work. There is no “wood-fired kiln-maker” – you make your own, with your hands.

I need one and a half tons of wood every time I fire, and 24 sleepless hours to continuously feed wood into the kiln.

If I stop just ten minutes, I can lose 200 degrees.

At 8am I start to fire and finish at 8am the following day.

It’s so hard. But also very intimate, and magical. It’s heavy but beautiful work.

I don’t just want to make ceramics with ease – I want to make them the difficult way, I want them to be a challenge. Masochist? [laughs] Something of your soul remains in the piece, though. When you make good ceramics, people recognize that. They’re identifiable; you don’t need a signature.

The wood-fired kiln is dangerous to use in the summer though; I switch to the gas kiln then, which is easy to use.

So my ceramics are seasonal. It’s like if you want a tomato in January: it’s not possible.

How do these two kilns, wood and gas, shape change the aesthetics of the ceramics?

JPCR

I’ve had the wood-fired kiln for seven years; before that, I used only gas. I don’t like electric kilns. The same clay looks very different with wood-fired versus a gas firing; the ash of the wood-fired kiln melts into the clay and makes patterns. Ash has sodium, which melts at 1200

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degrees; the ceramics are fired at 1300 degrees. I make the fire directly at the front of the kiln, but the chimney is at the back; the fire’s direction has an effect on the front and back of a piece. You never have all the control: it’s difficult to maintain the temperature. It’s the art of not knowing!

Your mother was also a ceramist. What was your relationship to this craft growing up?

JPCR

I didn’t especially like ceramics initially; it was just what my mother did. At the end of the ‘80s, at school, we were asked what our parents did, and being a potter was considered a strange job. When I was 19, I didn’t know what to study. I went to work at an equestrian school, and stayed a few years. I left to make and study ceramics, which I’ve done up until today, for 26 years. My brother, who’s eight years younger than me, makes ceramics too.

Are your three aesthetics very different?

JPCR

Yes. My brother makes artistic ceramics, like strange pots. [laughs] My mother is very classical; she paints flowers.

I like mineral glazes and Japanese ceramics and roughness. We have very different visions.

The pieces you create are beautiful but cannot be used in the day-to -day. How do you balance the decorative and the functional?

JPCR

I make functional shapes, but sometimes I make a pot that’s more like a sculpture. I try to make a piece of art out of an everyday object. You can eat or drink with a piece of art.

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Bark F/W 2020

You’ve also made tiles for buildings, mosaics for fountains, murals etc… do you think differently when creating for exterior or public spaces?

JPCR

I was commissioned to make 1400 tiles for a fountain in the center of Palma, at Plaça de la Reina, close to the cathedral. It’s eight meters across – it's a big piece of work. I loved making it. It’s difficult to impress people with a little piece, although those can be difficult too.

Bigger is easier to impress people, but it’s harder.

Clay reduces in size. You can’t make a mistake because tiles can’t be bigger or smaller than the available space.

Size matters! But I like the mathematics.

How do you feel about the idea of fragility?

JPCR

I love to make stoneware; it’s another league from earthenware. It’s very sturdy. I don’t think of ceramics as fragile. I want to do something rough and delicate at the same time. I’ve made plates for a restaurant, and they haven’t broken one plate in four years. I think that’s a sign of durability. Because the pieces are fired at such a high temperature, it makes the clay compact and shockresistant. These bowls are for life! You can pass them on to the next generation.

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Limestone quarries are widely used in the local construction of buildings and walls, made up of strata of small fossilized fragments of sands and shells. Great power emanates from this arid landscape.

CAN CASETES

From the parched beauty of Can Casetes, we decide to refresh ourselves with the cooling blue of the harbor.

The sun shimmers against the water, the optics of light mingling with the aquatic surface. A distinct hint of salinity lingers in the air.

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Trisha S/S 2019

Kobarah S/S 2016

There is a certain boat in the harbor that doesn't look like the others. With its wooden frame and iron finishings, taut ropes and patched canvas sails, it’s easy to see why kids think they’ve spotted a pirate ship. The vessel seems conjured straight out of a seafaring folktale.

It’s hard to imagine anything could disrupt this nautical vision. But although it hosts some of the most plentiful marine environments in the Mediterranean, the underwater ecosystems of the Balearic Islands are very fragile, threatened by overfishing, commercial consumption and pollution.

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One man has been passionately trying to regenerate the sea

with his environmentally focused foundation. Meet Brad Robertson.

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The boat has a ‘manta trawl’: a device that feeds like a manta, filtering the surface of the water for waste.

Their bottom up initiative sets out to reduce pollution in the sea, including plastic. As well as to regenerate local marine ecosystems. They work in education, outreach and policy change, all of which is with a collaborative approach.

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The foundation presents its findings to scientists for research purposes, organizes educational activities with schools, and produces multimedia and public service announcements to draw interest from – and bring solutions to – the community.

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1910 The year the Toftevaag – an old-school Norwegian fishing boat Robertson uses for scientific research and multimedia expeditions with staff and volunteer crew.

2012 Robertson founded the Ondine Association (“ondine” being a reference to the legend of a freespirited water nymph).

2015 Launch of Dos Manos Beach Cleaning Project, inspired

by Australian organization "Two Hands,” in which plastic pollution is collected and recorded for scientific data.

2016 The Ondine Association proposed a new marine protected area (MPA), and the Balearic government officially validated Sa Dragonera as a new reserve.

2019 The Ondine and Alnitak Associations united to become Save The Med Foundation.

Its ambition is to restore the rich biodiversity of the Mediterranean Sea.

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Save The Med president and co-founder Brad Robertson is an accomplished diver, having gained extensive experience in his native Australia.

Robertson uses the Toftevaag, an astounding 20th-century Norwegian fishing boat to study and document marine wildlife, pollution and human activities at sea together with a volunteer crew.

“When you’ve got some twenty countries bordering the Mediterranean, with different types of politics, languages and cultures… each area deals with their own problems. You can’t create a blanket policy.

You’ve got to empower the locals and give them support so they can achieve a lot more individually.”

We join a Save the Med voyage early one morning, the boat loosely guided by the wind as it leaves the harbor at Porto Colom.

Three crew members sit on watch: two on the bow and one up on the crow’s nest, rotating positions throughout the day.

Hitting a choppy wave, everything sways.

The strength of the sea’s pull from below feels like being put under a spell. It’s a playful but slightly threatening reminder: the forces of nature are more powerful than you.

Robertson sets up the diving equipment, meticulously testing it beforehand. Along with the neoprene scuba suit, there’s a bottle of compressed air (up to 200 bar), a jacket that helps control neutral buoyancy underwater, regulators for comfortable breathing, a gauge to measure the amount of available air, and a rescue GPS.

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As frothy waves lap at the boat, any sort of pelagic creature might be visible amidst the open seas: whales, dolphins, giant devil rays. The Balearics are also a breeding ground for bluefin tuna. The teams have been immersed in dense schools of them, hundreds or even thousands.

Of course, the vessel also comes across plastic. In addition to the manta trawl, the team fish out large pieces of debris, like a deflated gold birthday balloon or a ghost FAD, plastic teathered together to attract fish, that is left behind after the fishermen have gone. A scientific team collects, records, and analyzes all found materials.

“With a simple change in terminology – switching from the word ‘conservation’ to the word ‘regeneration’ – you get people to think differently. We don't want to conserve the Mediterranean in the state that she is in now. We want to regenerate her to the beauty that she once was.”

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Pix S/S 2019

THE WALKING SOCIETY

We have bee exchanging, believ We drank in the beauty of the natural landscapes. We tasted local produce, summoned right from the garden onto our plates.

We marveled at the vision of artists and artisans, expressed in clay and in glass.

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MALLORCA

en walking, , observing, ving.

We remain endlessly mesmerized by sea. We are eager to explore all the cultures nestled within the Mediterranean Basin: to scout, sample, and savor their remarkable offerings. We’re excited for the experiences to come, for other territories that await.

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Edition & Creation Alla Carta Studio Brand Art Director Gloria Rodríguez Magazine Photography: Victor Staaf Illustrations: Tobias Gutmann Copywriting: Sarah Moroz Videos Direction: Balthazar Klarwein Editor: Bernat Granados Music & Sound: Miquel Mestres Focus Puller: Juanjo Marti 2nd Ac / DIT: Miquel Mayans Color Grade: Lluís Velamazán Production: Palma Pictures Thanks to Save the Med for access to their underwater footage shot by Dan Abott camper.com © Camper, 2020

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