Gimena Garmendia

With a background in marketing, fashion and textile design, Gimena Garmendia founded SUDESTADA in 2020 for creative talent and businesses to expand, grow and achieve their wildest dreams. SUDESTADA is a multidisciplinary studio at the intersection of fashion and art focused on identifying and amplifying the voices of all kinds of creatives — from artists to artisans, designers, brands, collectives and more —who are being overlooked by the mainstream narrative of the industry.

@la.sudestada

@gimegarmendia

Andrei Fernandez

Andrei Fernández is an independent curator and researcher who lives in northern Argentina, where her work is rooted. Her projects intertwine ethnographic literature, social economy, and contemporary art. Her focus is on fostering collaboration among artists, activists, and researchers to create platforms for dialogue and the sharing of knowledge. Andrei works alongside the group of Wichí women Silät and co-coordinates Textiles Semillas together with Argentine artist and researcher Alejandra Mizrahi and German curator Michael Dieminger. Textiles Semillas is conceived as a union of weavers, artists, and activists from northwestern Argentina. This union currently brings together twelve women’s organizations, in connection with independent workers and public institutions, dedicated to the learning, marketing, and research of traditional textile craftsmanship.
She is connected to artistic practices that echo postcolonial resistance and the defense of collective memory.

@textilessemillas

@andrei.f_d_z

Claudia Alarcon Puntana

Claudia Alarcón is an artist and artisan of the Wichí people. She lives in a rural community in the northeast of the province of Salta and is one of the founders of the women's organization Thañí/Viene del monte, with whom she has participated in national fairs and exhibitions in Germany, Paraguay, Puerto Rico, and Portugal. Claudia was part of the exhibition La escucha y los vientos (Museo de Bellas Artes de Salta, 2021; Fundación Migliorisi in Asunción, 2021, framed in the third edition of BIENALSUR; Casa del Bicentenario in Buenos Aires, 2022). She has worked in collaboration with artist Olaf Holzapfel and the curator Andrei Fernández on the project Los colores del monte, supported by the Goethe Institut. In 2022, Claudia received the first prize in the category Textile Art at the Salón de Artes Visuales of the Argentinean Ministry of Culture. Since 2023, she is one of the co-ordinators of the Grupo Silät and currently teaches spinning and weaving at the Escuela de Artes y Oficios of the Municipality of Salta.

@claudia_alarcon_puntana

@silat.wichi

@thani_viene_del_monte

María Abdala Zolezzi 

María Abdala Zolezzi is a self-taught fashion designer and the founder of MAYDI, an independent brand dedicated to sustainable luxury, natural fibres and artisanal production. Her work emphasises ethical practices, traceability and close collaboration with skilled artisans and small producers across Argentina. Through MAYDI, she explores traditional techniques, local materials and contemporary design, positioning the brand within an international dialogue on conscious fashion. She previously studied advertising in Buenos Aires and later completed a fashion design course at the London College of Fashion. María worked in the fashion industry in Paris for more than twelve years, beginning her career at the prestigious press agency Totem. Her most recent role in Paris was with Patricia Lerat at the Fédération Française de la Couture, supporting the launch of the Designers Apartment Showroom. Her practice is grounded in a commitment to sustainability, craftsmanship and innovation, contributing to a global movement that foregrounds responsible production and the cultural value of handmade textiles.

https://www.instagram.com/maydi_atelier/

https://maydi.co/

Celina Saubidet & Marina Molinelli Wells

Celina Saubidet specialised in sculpture at the National School of Fine Arts Prilidiano Pueyrredón and continued her training through painting and sculpture workshops with Carlos Scaglione, Ernesto Levin, Juan Doffo and Marta Lanfri, among others. The daughter of a radiologist, she developed an early interest in human anatomy and surgical instruments—an influence that later informed the creation of Cabinet Óseo. Celina has participated in various art clinics, stage design programmes, and artist-writing workshops led by figures such as Fabiana Barreda, Rubén Szuchmacher, Tulio de Sagastizábal, and Silvia Gurfein. This broad creative foundation shaped her own artistic language, resulting in objects, wearable sculptures and pieces across multiple scales. Her work has been featured in major installations of Cabinet Óseo at MALBA, the National Museum of Decorative Arts and Casa Victoria Ocampo, home of the National Arts Fund. She has also exhibited at the Recoleta Cultural Center, Casa FOA, ArteBA, Chandon Art Ground and other venues. Her work has also appeared in theatre productions, TV programmes, performances and interdisciplinary shows.

Marina Molinelli Wells is a designer trained at the University of Buenos Aires’ School of Architecture, Design and Urbanism (FADU-UBA). She has taught in several renowned studios—including Leiro/Rondina and Schiaffino—before becoming a senior teaching assistant. She currently teaches jewellery-making in her studio, emphasising the value of craftsmanship. Her formation includes courses and workshops in techniques, airbrushing, special effects, casting, enamelling and modelilng, along with training from Jorge Castañón, Carlos Herzberg, Leonardo Greco, Araceli Pourcel, Mariana Segura and others. The daughter of a surgeon, Marina drew on this legacy when co-founding Cabinet Óseo with Celina Saubidet in 2004. The studio explores bone anatomy and organic forms found in nature, translating them into unique jewellery, accessories and interior objects. She has taken part in exhibitions at Casa FOA, DARA, Casa Matriz Tramando, TiendaMalba, the Fortabat Collection, the University of Palermo and museums in New York and Paris.

https://www.instagram.com/cabinet.oseo

https://www.cabinetoseo.com

Dolores Maella

Founded by architect Dolores Mallea, Sur del Cruz is a studio and workshop based in Buenos Aires working at the intersection of architecture, design, art, and material research. Rooted in a deep understanding of wood, Dolores' practice is driven by experimentation and a commitment to continuously refining craftsmanship. Sur del Cruz thinks through making, exploring new ways to encode and transmit artisanal knowledge. The studio also serves as an external consultant for the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) on wooden housing, in collaboration with architect Joaquín Lavelli. The workshop constantly grows and adapts to the changes in Argentina. Everything done in the last ten years has been thanks to each person that was part of the Sur del Cruz team.

@surdelcruz

@lolimallea

Clara Aynié

Aynié is a Buenos Aires–based brand that arises from the desire to recover traditional crafts rooted in handmade work, weaving and leatherworking. Inspired by and framed within a century-old family saddlery—historically led by three generations of men—its new concept is now carried forward by great-granddaughter Clara Aynié. She continually rediscovers and redefines ancestral techniques, creating enduring products through responsible manufacturing. Grounded in the exploration of new techniques and noble materials, and within a contemporary framework, Clara reinterprets her family’s legacy by creating functional and elegant accessories for everyday life.

@aynie_bsas

Maia Lutteral

Maia Lutteral is an industrial designer from the University of Buenos Aires, currently working between New York and Buenos Aires. In 2020, she co-founded Dallá Paracá, a studio that collaborates with Argentine artisans to create limited-edition pieces rooted in local symbolism, folklore, landscape, and craft traditions. In 2024, she launched the first season of En Europa No Se Consigue, a podcast on the past and future of Argentine industrial design, produced in partnership with Mantel. She is currently part of the design team at a New York–based industrial design agency and also collaborates with artist Sam Stewart.

@maialutteral

@eneuropanoseconsigue

@dalla____________paraca

Lidewij Edelkoort

Co-Founder World Hope Forum

Li Edelkoort is a trend forecaster, publisher, humanitarian, design educator and exhibition curator. From 2015-2020 she was the Dean of Hybrid Design Studies at Parsons in New York where she founded a Textile Masters and the New York Textile Month festival. Her thought-provoking writings and podcasts have become increasingly popular at a time when she is regarded as an activist and champion for change. In 2020, she co-founded the World Hope Forum with Philip Fimmano as a platform to inspire the creative community to rebuild a better society. Launched in 2020, PROUD SOUTH is a mesmerising visual book that celebrates the creative forces from the southern parts of the planet. Through the colourful and expressive lens of contemporary fashion, photography, styling and art, Edelkoort and Lili Tedde bring together emerging and established talents from wide and far, illustrating that the axis of global creativity has indeed dramatically shifted. In 2025, Edelkoort is launching a second edition of PROUD SOUTH focusing on craft and design. Of the movement, she says, “A southern generation of creatives is standing up, expressing local craft, embracing regional materials, recognising ancestral practices and cherishing indigenous values.”

@lidewijedelkoort