Chair replicas have been a normalized and continuous blind practice within the design scene, where companies copy existing iconic designs proved to bring them economic success, without crediting the original icon. On the other hand, the piñateros (piñata makers) analyze in an informal methodology, current iconic topics to recontextualize them into piñatas where they try to replicate their original icon. Understanding the iconicness of piñatas as a cultural element in Mexican culture and the clichés that industrial designers tend to associate with chairs led to the birth of Sillata, through analysis of the intersection of these two contrasting views.

 

Sillata aims to de-iconize the non-contemporary ideas of the Cis-Hetero-White-Privileged-European industrial design icons by making a critique towards the replica practice, and comparing it with the craft of piñata making, embodying the ephemeral nature of these objects. Through an iconoclastic approach and material experimentation, the pieces aim to communicate the act of playful destruction of icons for the birth of new ones. Sillata facilitates transformation through deception, creating two pieces: a chair and a piñata, using the same elements rearranged.

 

The piece, activated through a performative activation navigates Mijali’s positioning as a designer-maker-performer, understanding the current state of his practice. Using performance and product design as mediums to communicate this idea in a materiality that combines elements from both worlds, with a colorful approach that conveys the comical element of piñatas combined with the sobriety of chairs.