Devise and assemble a set for a photo shoot with María and Paco León to promote La Casa de las Flores together with Netflix. A vegetal scenery for an urban project that surrounded the city for The exhibition Metropolitan Forest of the Madrid City Council. A collaboration with Misterpiro for a exhibition at the Kreisler Gallery. Collaborations with Vodafone, for the AD Awards, with Casa Maricruz... it is Kokon the perfect journey through the senses? Totally. And with flowers as an excuse.
Paco Leon.
"I studied architecture and after working in several studios I got fully into the world of retail, devising spaces for firms like Ikea or Leroy Merlin," he says. María Eugenia Diego, floral artist behind Kokon , a project dedicated to flowers seen from the prism of architecture and installations. “I had a crisis at the moment that I realized that I needed to be more creative, work in an artisan way and with a more immediate production process”.
It was then that, fate's handiwork, He found out about a job at Loewe's florist , which opened its doors in Goya street, in Madrid. "The one in charge of creative direction, Elisabeth Blumen, with whom I had worked in the past, told me to introduce myself," she confesses. Without any kind of experience -beyond a brief visit to the Blumen workshop , three years ago – she decided to go for it.
And she managed to get the job. "For me balance and color are a tool super valuable when creating an arrangement. Over time it is very easy to learn the floral technique, but have one architecture and composition base it made my job so much easier,” she continues. That was an express course for become familiar with flowers, touch them and work with them , in addition to connecting in person with the client.
After the closure of the space with the arrival of Covid, Diego dedicated himself to creating arrangements for those who asked for it. But she found that she wanted more. “I wanted to work with large-scale arrangements, more spatial projects, larger installations” she indicates. Not only that, but she also realized how flowers were linked to people's perception of beauty . "Creating pieces that are beautiful in themselves are capable of completely changing a space." And so, Kokon was born.
"I like how the flowers, raised on a large scale, they have such an amazing and important effect for people to be able to connect with the plant world in a non-explicit way”, she explains. reason why many his purpose does not translate into an immediate understanding of his art.
“The meaning of my work is not always self-evident”, she teased. “But it's what I like to be able to play with surprise and impressions so that people connect with them. We eat and drink nature constantly, but we are not aware of its existence. And that's what I like to bring up, our relationship with her," he adds. “I like to give a strange or magical touch to what I do because I think it gives an open question to the viewer, which is not answered”.
Mystery.
And where does the inspiration come from? travel through the flowers with such assiduity ? As a first step, give a name. “ Kokon means in South Africa 'cocoon', 'germ'... the starting point before the flower comes out. Also, being the country a Dutch colony –The Netherlands has always had a floral monopoly in the southern hemisphere– it was the perfect starting point,” shares Diego.
“But also in art, in my walks through the Reina Sofía museum or the Botanical Garden, in nature itself, in the elements that give it life, in how it is distributed… In the mountains, in contemporary art", he explains.“ A city like Madrid drives me a lot to work, its cultural offer is my source of inspiration. It helps me 'shot' of trends, especially when I'm creatively blocked ".
His main work tool are the preserved flowers and organic production , with an extensive treatment so that its durability is more extensive. "I like him. fact of permanence and not only make events and ephemeral decorations that are not compatible with The sustainability", he points.
In the coming months, Kokon has planned several collaborations with different brands and artists, but above all, its mission is unleash creativity in workshops –in the space The mortgage– that fuse plants with floristry and gastronomy ; or in the fusion of disciplines as disparate as yoga and tastings. "I want to delve into the link between all this and the senses," shares Diego.
Workshop at La Hipoteca.