About

Futura Basura is a playful and experimental creative space. We generate our own content and draw different forms of collaboration with people and visual creator entities from all over the world. We were born in 2019 as a graphic laboratory and in 2020 we inaugurated futurabasura.com/shop, our online shop: a platform open to new experiences of visual culture, which explores the limits of the poster as an experimental level. Futura Basura is the result of an initial and recurrent reflection on the ephemeral nature of existence and the value of objects in consumer society.

FUTURABASURA.COM

Futura Basura is both an artistic project and a business challenge. We are focused on building our own model and making it sustainable. Selling artwork is essential, but so is doing it our way, with our means, our voice, at our own pace, and collaborating with visual artists, designers, or illustrators whose proposals excite us. This approach, while it may seem risky from a more conventional commercial perspective, is incredibly motivating for us. Because we are more than just a store: we are a space for ideas and artistic creation where enjoying the process takes precedence over the end result.

Curating is a vital aspect of Futura Basura. It’s fantastic to work with artists who are popular, sell well, and have thousands of followers, but for us, these are not the only criteria. Our interest lies in selecting works that resonate with us in a special way or collaborating with artists with whom we can easily connect in shared spaces of thought.

If that person or collective already sells printed works or wants to do so in the future under a similar brand, we have no concerns about that. Total freedom. We like to establish healthy, open, and respectful relationships with our artists based on trust.

THE ORIGIN OF FUTURA BASURA

This concept, revolving around waste, emerged one day while strolling through the streets of Florence. Next to some dumpsters, we discovered numerous documents of great visual value, waiting for the garbage collectors to arrive. They belonged to an architecture studio that had been located on that very street in the 1980s. There were drawings, plans, correspondence, stamps, files, official documents, and more. In that magical moment, several questions arose about the fateful destiny of those beautiful objects that were about to lose their place in the world within hours. They were created to fulfill specific purposes, and decades later, they had lost all utility, but what could their value be? It seemed clear that, from a functional perspective, their value was practically nil, but from a graphic or visual standpoint, their potential was high due to their ability to inspire.

At Futura Basura, we create objects that could meet the same fate. All of them will serve the purpose for which they were created, giving meaning to their existence, but they could be sidelined or disappear in any move: next year, in 150 years; we don’t know. What truly matters is that during the time they are visible or on display, they are able to convey their value to anyone who sees them, and that new stories emerge from those encounters.

WHY FUTURA BASURA

In the end, everything ends up in the trash, whether deliberately or by accident. Objects occupy space in the world and, besides being subject to the passage of time, they depend on human management. We coexist with them; they are part of our lives, and by extension, they incorporate a sense of survival similar to our own.

We understand that posters (paper prints), due to their characteristics, have a shorter lifespan than other types of art objects, such as sculptures or original paintings, which we tend to care for and protect by tradition because they are unique objects. If something unique is discarded, it is lost forever. This is not the case with objects that, due to their nature as copies or reproductions, can be replaced by another.

Futura Basura brings to the forefront the vulnerable condition of objects: this is the sensitivity from which we work.