Sicilian designer Matteo Guarnaccia, known for his Cross Cultural Chairs project, invited 13 designers from around the world to Kazakhstan to create horse saddles that take cues from traditional nomadic culture, QazMonitor reports citing Dezeen.
Guarnaccia collaborated with local designer Zhanna Ee and local curator Vlad Sludskiy to host a workshop with the designers in August. As a result, they designed five horse saddles.
The designers then brought their pieces to life by working together with local artisans, who introduced them to techniques, such as wood carving and leather embossing.
According to Guarnaccia, the project uses saddles to celebrate the traditional nomadic way of life that historically characterized Kazakhstan, before changes during Soviet times created a more sedentary and settled culture.
"The Soviet Union meant 'progress' and the nomad way of living was no longer a profitable option, so the entire area of central Asia was forced to shift to a sedentary structure, with brand new cities, monuments, indoor markets, and highways," said the designer.
"This 'innovation' didn't leave space for horses and hunting and the nomad way of living started to disappear," he told Dezeen.
"I was interested to explore and understand how this forced transition happened and what was left of the previous culture, in terms of aesthetics and habits."
Each saddle was made from different materials, some using recycled plastic and vintage raincoat, to symbolize various aspects of nomadic lifestyle and philosophy.
"Saddles are a very old object, and during centuries they haven't evolved much, neither in shape nor materiality," Guarnaccia concluded.
At the end of the workshop, the saddles were presented at Kazakhstan's Kasteyev State Museum of Arts and were also exhibited at Paris' Union de la Jeunesse Internationale in October.