Gonzalo Arbutti is an Argentine artist born in 1972. He lives and works in Buenos Aires. As a child, he spent a lot of time in his grandfather’s workshop, who was a naval mechanic; he retains a passion for manual work and object making.. He then studied design, visual communication, and Fine Arts in La Plata, a city in the Buenos Aires province. AprèDuring his studies, Gonzalo Arbutti founded the brand Cubo alongside a designer friend. This line of 12 wooden toys, focused on motor skills and child learning, met with great success. Their creations were initially sold at  Latin American Art Museum of Buenos Aires (MALBA) and then at MoMA in New York. After about 5 years, the Cubo adventure came to an end. For the past 3 years, Gonzalo has been working in his own studio in the Chacarita neighborhood of Buenos Aires. It is there that he teaches woodworking classes and creates custom orders. He also exhibits at Praxis, an art gallery located in Buenos Aires and New York.

When we arrive at his workshop, it’s his dog, Rafi, who greets us. We first enter a room where his creations are displayed: wooden sculptures, games, toys… Many passersby stop, intrigued, to admire this beautiful showcase. It is in his workshop, between two machines, that Gonzalo Arbutti welcomes us…

1) Your creations are varied; what is the common thread? How would you define them?

The line between design and art is extremely thin. I don’t like being pigeonholed at all costs; carpenter, architect, artist, sculptor, or designer… it’s all very similar and interconnected! In fact, what has always fascinated me is the study of morphology and shapes, especially patterns that repeat infinitely, in a tantric way, somewhat like a mandala. Many of my works revolve around this repetition.

What fascinates me about shapes is taking them out of their context, seeing them from a different angle. For example, I have a little story about Autotop, the car I created for Mon petit Art. I was building a wooden skateboard and I took out the piece that connected the two wheels. I found the shape interesting—it looked like... a little car! I refined it a bit, and Autotop was born. In reality, all creations start like that, from the shape; there’s no design, just morphology...

What inspires me is the mystery in creation. Things appear because we seek them. The form emerges little by little in our hands; it’s a bit magical… Spontaneity is important in creation. That’s why I mainly use wood; it’s an excellent material for shaping forms. It’s malleable, and you can quickly give it the shape you’ve imagined. In this sense, it’s very different from iron, for example, which is more mineral and harder to shape. Also, I have a special connection with the smell and texture of wood. This spontaneity doesn’t prevent my works from being quite refined and carefully crafted, in their form and color, for instance.

2) You have been supporting Mon Petit Art since its very beginning. Can you tell us about your collaboration?

I met Lucila, the creator of Mon Petit Art, over 15 years ago, in 2000; she used to come regularly to the Cubo shop to buy toys for her children! We share a lot in our views on art, play, and their roles in the development and learning of young children. Even back then, Lucila had the idea of starting a brand focused on games and artistic activities. We talked about it a lot together. Since the beginning of Mon Petit Art, I have created games in collaboration with the brand; and it has worked very well!

With Mon Petit Art, we transformed my artworks into games. We asked ourselves how to take the artwork out of its usual place, how to touch it, modify it, and turn it into a playful object. For example, Triada is a construction game directly inspired by my work. The wooden pieces echo the patterns of my grids; it’s as if they were taken straight from my creations!

One of the iconic pieces of Mon Petit Art is Robotop, a small articulated wooden robot. It was born from my desire to assemble things; not only the parts themselves but also the textures, such as wood and acrylic. I was putting pieces together, and the idea of the robot came naturally for two reasons: first, because the shapes are quite rigid, making it easier to create a robot than a human silhouette. But also because the robot is part of my imagination; I was born in the 1970s, a time when the future was inevitably imagined as robotic… that left a strong impression on me!

3) Your creations have a three-dimensional aspectès ludique. What do you like?îAnd in the world of gaming?

All my work, indeed, is connected to play. I am always searching to create playful objects. I have specifically studied the concept of "homo ludens": man as a being made to play and play as the foundation of our culture. In fact, I constantly move between art and play and from play to art.

Board games like Monopoly bore me stiff. I would even say that çIt makes me nervous to have to follow all the rules of the game! What interests me more than the games themselves is the object, the toy itself.same. It all starts with the toy; when a baby grabs a toy, they touch for the first time something that is not their own body or that of their parents, and a connection happens... The toy seems interesting to me in its relationship with space. This is very present in the games I created for Mon Petit Art. For example, the Triada Star has a very interesting shape; it can fit together and occupy space in different ways. Or the Mini Cubes; it’s a single large cube that "fragments" into several pieces of different sizes: so many ways to connect them and occupy space.

I think the game pleases meîand also because it allows you to escape reality, in a bubble outside of time… a bit like in this neighborhood From Chacarita! Everything is calmer there, you can take your time to get things done...

Did you enjoy Gonzalo Arbutti’s world? Find all his creations for Mon Petit Art by clicking here !