Fran Erazo of Culturans explores the importance of collaboration and finding ways to create meaningful connections.
How would you describe your profession and your practice?
I run Culturans, an organization that helps people dare to create the spaces and cities they dream of, using art and design as social tools.
Has your work changed over the course of your career?
My career has been one big changing, learning, and evolving path, discovering and proposing how art, design and creativity can be useful in sectors and places where it is perhaps less expected – in a collaborative way.
What was your “eureka!” moment that made you realize that art/design was the route you wanted to take?
I’m just wired creative – as are my teammates. Personally, I realized the importance of this way of life against the backdrop of the usual approach to architecture and urban planning – which mostly helps to foster lifeless spaces and gray monsters – and the boring, meaningless “sustainability” agendas. Suddenly, it was clear that art/design could be used to humanize cities, creating a deep connection to the joyful passions and souls of people.
Is your work inspired by anything in particular? What turns you on creatively?
Life on the streets, the humanity of cities, ordinary heroes like farmers, everyday creators like bakers, the joy and hope of youth, the way nature works, the curiosity of scientists, the way collective work creates new possibilities.
Which designers or artists inspire you and why?
The anonymous designers of the world’s vernacular pre-modern spaces, solutions, and cities; especially the designers of the cities of the Italian Renaissance because of their daring curiosity, holistic imagination, and stubborn courage to create passionate cities of beauty, novelty, and prosperity in the midst of a world in chaos. They were not afraid to think freely, to explore and connect all dimensions of life – art, craft, science, politics, poetry. They were just people living by their curiosity and imagination.
What is the name of the DesignTO Project you’re exhibiting in and what is the name of the piece you are sharing?
I will be speaking at ‘DesignTO Talks: Net Positive,’ as well as ‘Neighbours of the Lake: A Creative Discussion on the Port Lands’ panel.
What can attendees expect to experience when hearing you?
At ‘DesignTO Talks’ attendees can expect a sense of discovery and creative inspiration based on learning about the forgotten, nature-based past of a city that could reshape its ‘Net Positive’ future; told from the “grassroots” perspective of generations of people who have dedicated their lives to its care and growth.
‘Neighbours of the Lake: A Creative Discussion on the Port Lands’ is an invitation to reimagine cities and the environment, based on a hands-on, creative investigation of Waterfront Toronto’s Port Lands project and the role of civic creativity in planting the seeds of a whole new and vibrant connection between city and lake – even in winter.
As DesignTO gets ready to celebrate its 15th birthday, why do you think it’s important to the creative community, here as well as abroad?
Festivals like DesignTO, which seem to pump life back into a frozen city with joy and dialogue, open up a space not only for the diverse creatives it brings together, but for the general public to see and experience what creativity can do in a world overflowing with negativity and division; a world that needs to celebrate imagination, hope, and a sense of worldwide community more than science and technology.
Lastly, what random fact about yourself would you like to share with the DesignTO community?
I began my career as a 5-year old dinosaur lover, teaching even younger, kinder colleagues about them.
