| Andrzej Tomasz Rudkiewicz NC Art Design Office Warszawa Poland tel +48.22 720 04 31 ncart@ncart.com.pl www.ncart.com.pl Because Andrezej Tomasz Rudkiewicz did the video taping in English, here I fit in the interview with his colleague Daniel Zielinski. The interview was done by Hermann Weizenegger, translated by Ake Rudolf. "What's your name, how old you are and where do you come from?" "My name is daniel Zielinski, I'm from Warsaw. I've been working as a designer for a couple of years.2 2At which school did you study product design?" "I studied at the academy of arts in Warsaw, in the department of industrial design, where I teach now." "How long did you work as a free-lancer?" "As a professional designer since I finished my studies, but in reality I started to work while still at school." "You work as a free lance designer, but you also teach at art school?" "Yes, of course." "How many days?" "Two days a week, four hours each." "How big is your field of design, in which directions of design do you work?" "Like many of my polish colleagues I don't work in many different fields of design since the polish market isn't that diverse. Because of this I work mainly in designing electronic appliences. I also do a lot of conceptual work not intended for future mass production. Apart from this there's also self-comissioned, personal work; nonetheless, this activity sometimes brings real objects into life." "Do you work in a network? Do you have a network in Warsaw, even Poland, a network of co-operating designers?" "Yes, I work together with others; not necessarly with designers, although there are of course jobs, which you must work upon in a group. I work mainly with designers coming from other fields of design - graphic designers, engeneers - these i wouldn't necessarly call designers, but they are an important part of the development process." "Personally, where would you say lies your 'heart of design' - your personal work, the emotional direction that you take, where you want to go to - something that you wold describe as your vision?" "Difficult to describe. inside of me - like in probably most human beings - exist a couple of different strings; one of them leads me towards experiments, the invention of 'unnecessary' things; things that wake up doubts, that turn upside down the sense of co-existence with objects of daily life. But sometimes I succumb to what is happening in the world and I design useful objects; these often turn out to be highly technical objects, electronics. Although there aren't many opportunities for developing such objects in Poland. But such situations did occur." "Do you have a favourite designer; someone who is important, a hero for you?" "It's hard to say generally. Looking at designers in the world, there are many interesting ideas and approaches to be discovered. But i wouldn't say that i have a proper idol." "The situation is about to change now, poland will enter into the EU on the 1st of May. What do you expect from this development for you?" "I don't have great expectations. I think that it will be a slow, growing process, rather than a radical change. And really, much will depend on how we will deal with the situation. The changes will be slow but permanent." "Do you travel a lot, do you visit design festivals and fairs?" "Not lately. I have been stuck here at work for a while, so i didn't visit design festivals, either." "Ok, what about the polish companies, the production - do you feel there's a change in these now, compared to communist times?" "Yes, things certainly are changing. I don't feel this change very much though, because i started working at a time when these changes already had taken place. but looking back at the general situation before, not only in the design field, the changes were giantic, indiscribable. The hardest thing is changing the mental situation; you keep meeting people, also in professional situations, who still think the old way. This can be a problem, but fortunately there are less and less of them." "I heard that Ikea has shops in Poland now. How did this change the situation for the main stream?" "Ikea has had strong links with poland for years. There are not only shops, but also many factories, producing mainly furniture. Our academy's department of design, where I teach, has been cooperating with Ikea in design development for a few years. Students design objects that Ikea may produce. Exhibitions and worshops have been organized under this cooperation, it looks like a stable cooperation." "Do you know designers in western Europe with whom you keep an exchange of ideas?" "Not many, but this not a symptom of the situation in Poland, rather my personal one. I'm rather a loner." "Now that you are a medium at the exhibition, do you have a message for the visitors?" "Again, that's a difficult question. But I think that a designer's message is his work, not the things he says - or doesn't say." "I have a question - does Poland have a traditional material, if people think of Poland, what comes to their mind?" |
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