Jorge Lizarazo is the owner and founder of Hechizoo, a textile firm based in Colombia. Lizarazo originally worked as an architect, which has influenced his textiles in terms of structural clarity and use of materials. His designs also benefit from his staff, who bring with them an expertise in the rich weaving traditions of their region. He trains his staff to work with new and unusual materials that complement the often understated and basic textile structure. Man-made materials such as wire, nylon, and polyester ribbon are integrated with natural materials such as silk, agave, cumare, and penca to create contemporary but sophisticated products. In this textile, Lizarazo creates a pattern, Turbo, using 100% polysilk warp and 100% acetate ribbon weft. The pattern itself is based on costumes that Indians use when they practice religious rituals and drink a hallucinogenic herb Yagé. According to tradition, this helps them see and remember their ancestors.
This is the second acquisition from Hechizoo—the first was Marea, a black nylon and copper textile intended as a decorative panel or window curtain. Similarly, Turbo is meant to interact with the interior spaces, not overpower them, much in the spirit of the Bauhaus master weavers, Anni Albers and Gunta Stölzl.
