Po! Paris

Po! Paris - Guidelines for a text Our slogan: Paris Chic, Balkanian madness Icons, Albanian Style Where: Po! Paris' creations are designed in Paris and mainly produced in the Balkans. How: Each product is the fruit of a triangular partnership between Po!, a french company, a micro enterprise in the handicraft sector, and a local Ngo. What: Po! uses ingredients available locally, new or old. Recycled materials are often used together with new ones. They are combined to create a line of modern non ethnic interior design items. Po! offers a wide range of products, each one made in small workshops in Albania when possible with the help of local Ngo's engaged in empowerment of women and marginalised communities. When: Po! First started searching for the ideal place to set up the project in 2007. The company was founded in January 2008. Who: The founders are John Felici and Matteo Morozzo. A third person brings in its advise and helps a great deal: Ana Josepha d'Elbasan John Felici is Italian on his fathers side and English on the mother's. He graduated in Political Sciences and decided it was best to go on to something completely different. He first founded a company in 1996 with 4 other partners in the interior design sector. Having sold his shares in 2005, he started this completely different new project with a new partner. Matteo Morozzo was in the film business producing films from new talents in Rome and across the world. He liked the project and decided to join in. He now takes care of sales, strategy and also designs new products. Ana Josepha d'Elbasan has possibly one of the most complex genealogies one can imagine. She is from Albanian and Somalian descent, a rear combination. Her mother, the only black opera singer in the Albanian harsh dictatorship era, was married to an Albanian. But the link with Albania goes further down in the nineteenth century, when Albania became a modern monarchy. Ana Josepha lives in Paris but joined the project driven by the love for her country. Her ideas are a great contribution to the whole concept while her Albanian origins are a perfect entry in this small but complicated country. Why Albania: Recent History and Geography: Albania is a small country in the Balkans, squeezed between the ex Yugoslavian republics, Serbia, Greece and the Adriatic sea. The state became independent from Turkish rule after the first world war. Since then it tied relations to Italy and for a short period was annexed to the ridiculous and short lived Empire of Italy and Eritrea. After the 2nd world war Enver Hoxha took power and founded the harshest collectivist Modern Europe has known. The dictator ruled the country through terror and a paranoid fear of foreign invasions from all sides. At the fall of the regime, after a short period of enthusiasm and a strong foreign investment in particular from Italy, the country was shaken by the failure of a national sized 'Ponzi scheme' that drove the country to a short but devastating anarchic state. The war in Kosovo, short after this period, contributed to the birth of a new upper class specialised in illegal commerce of arms and petrol either to Serbia or Kosovo. Albania has gained fame mainly because of the massive exodus of over a quarter of its population towards Italy, and, unfortunately, also because of the organised crime and corruption. Ressources and the Artistic Factories: The country however has a lot to offer, and for what concerns Po!Paris, a solid know how in the handicraft sector. One of Albania's prides of the collectivist regime were the 'Artistic factories', run by the state for the production of traditional handicraft. The local craftsmen were rounded up and concentrated in these rationalised production units essentially devoted to export. Main activities were silver Filigree, carpets and Kilims and ceramics. Today these production units have been dismantled leaving the workers unemployed. The younger generation has left Albania and the youth is attracted to the most superficial version of western style living as it is formulated in the italian television and MTV. But the people are still there trying to continue to perpetuate their profession. Local demand for these products is close to zero and the handicraft sector is quickly disappearing or melting in the construction industry. Po!Paris is mobilising this know how to produce modern design. Partners: Po!Paris uses the knowledge of the local resources that the Ngo's have through their engagement in humanitarian and empowerment projects. When possible Po!Paris creates a link between the market, the producer and the Ngo to fill in the gaps than can be an obstacle for economic success (finance, information, logistics, training....) Artisans: Po!Paris works with a large number of workshops all over Albania. In the north remnants of the ancient Gypsy community produce the furniture and lighting with scrap metal In the capital, small workshops produce furniture in old or new metal. In the centre south a workshop produces ceramics, while in different parts of the country kilims, cut pile carpets and textiles are woven or embroidered in small production units, often on domestic base. Examples of development Before Po!Paris started the project, the Gypsies, while having solid knowledge of welding and metal work, were mainly producing grids for the cemeteries, the only sector, toghether with the construction industry, that has sufficiant demand. They now produce lamps and furniture in recycled materials for limited edition design galeries all over the world. In Tirane the young craftsmen have acquired skills in furniture making in Italy. Having come back to there home country (Albanians are very family orientated), they could only survive building roof structures for the thousands of new petrol stations who open everyday. Now they can express their know how by making furniture again. In the south the ceramists had virtually stopped producing decorative objects and ware making a living by selling hand made bricks and roof tiles for the capital. With Po!Paris they have acquired technology to produce high end glazed faience tableware. As for the textiles, the business was virtually limited to personal use or in the range of the family. The women with high professionnal level weaving skilss can only make a living in the small industries producing for the Italian marked clothing sector, basically sowing shirts at the lowest possible salaries. Now many elder women have started to qualify the younger ones to meet Po!Paris' demand of hand made textiles. Products: Tableware: hand made glazed earth ware, dishwasher safe. The pieces are fired twice. A traditional wood fuelled kiln is used for the first firing. An Electric kiln insures that the glaze is correctly fired at high temperatures. Kilims: Kilims are hand made of cotton and wool from local sheep. A workshop of skilled women led by women insures a high quality modern design with traditional know how. Cut pile carpets: In Pure virgin wool, thick and comfortable, hand woven made from wool of southern Albanian sheep. This project is supervised by 'Passi Leggeri', an Ngo supporting activities for the empowerment of women. Textiles: they are hand woven from recycled threads recovered from old clothes bought at the local Rom markets. they are the fruit of a community based activity in the centre of Albania. Lighting: made mainly from recycled materials, inspired by XX century icons and produced by youth of a marginalised gypsy community in the north of Albania. Chairs: made from recycled materials (cars, steel barrels, scraps from building sites...). Various small workshops in Albania produce the different collections inspired by XX century icons, a homage to the great designers of modern interior design. Tables: in metal or mosaic, mainly from recycled materials, are made in Tirane in one of the oldest existing workshops. Where To find Po!Paris Po!Paris is sold in many coun tries all over the world. ABC carpets and home in New york (US) Anthropologie (US) Ateler Abigail Ahern in London (UK) Antoine et Lili in Paris (FR) And many more Please enquire within Po Paris 14 rue Labois Rouillon, 75019 Paris Tel +33 1 4205 8008 Email: [email protected]