Interviews with two representatives each of ten areas of applied and desing art on their own careers and the current state of profession | The artists talked to Hedvig Dvorszky and László Attila Márton

- How did you find your way to the area in which you became a well-known and recognised artist?
- In which of your works do you think you succeeded in realising the objectives you had set?
- What is the current situation and the future of your profession like? What are its opportunities?

After receiving my degree in 1978, I was employed at the interior architecture office of the General Building and Planning Company, where I was entrusted with my own projects almost immediately, starting from making preliminary designs to working drawings. During the ten years I worked here my favourite project was a school with 16 classrooms. It was a smaller scale task but it was here that I was able to first experiment with a large number of built-in items of furniture and see the theory we learnt about spatial design in practice. Later I designed a lot of built-in furniture for different spaces which were manufactured and enabled me to create unique interiors. Porcelain designer Eva Kadasi and I jointly designed furniture inlaid with porcelain, and by combining manufactured porcelain and furniture elements we created a new quality. Geometrical and floral ornamentation was assigned a structural function in my chairs, and resulted in an entirely new chair-construction method.

My most complex commission so far was the interior architectural design for the dormitory building, surgery centre, refectory and the VIP-Skybox level for the 3,000-capacity stadium of the Puskas Academy in Felcsut. I was lucky to be able to work together with Imre Makovecz. My organic approach is influenced the most by the spatial thinking of Frank Lloyd Wright. At the same time, I believe that the architecture of Imre Makovecz attained world fame by virtue of his outstanding drawing skills, through which he was able to show his relationship to the world, and thanks to his personal tone he was able to connect the attitude of old master artisans with what is sacred, and that is in great demand in today’s societies.

The diversity of European cultures does not necessarily refer to new technologies but to variability and the ability to adapt to new situations, which is in dire opposition to the approach represented by modern, globalised production. It is also important to use Hungarian and other European folk art traditions and try to reinterpret them through technology, as it is through this that contemporary designers can join thousand-year-old cultural roots while they can also find their own individual voices. The real challenge today is how the modern approach, which emerged in the early 20th century, can be continued in a way that it would accommodate the decorative arts to form part of it as a national characteristic.

Interview conducted by Hedvig Dvorszky

I became a furniture designer by accident, so to say. I was interested in interior architecture too but I made a few furniture designs that earned me some small prizes in Austria and Hungary, and that allowed me to step onto the Budapest design scene, which was very lively at the time. I began to build up my own business in 1999. I did not want to work for people who do not understand me and are not willing to pay for the kind of high quality furniture that I wanted to design. I went to many exhibitions, first only in Budapest and then in Vienna and in places further away. After thirty-five “unsuccessful” foreign shows, we finally met our first agent in 2010, thanks to whom we now have more than one hundred distributors abroad, so me and my seven colleagues, as well as our manufacturers, can primarily make a living from furniture rather than from the distribution of bio paints used for their surface treatment.

My ambition was to build a brand, as well as to design and make high quality, durable and timeless furniture: furniture that people love, value and that can survive generations, like those of our pieces that were inspired by the oeuvres of the classic designers of the 1950s.

Hungary could become an important player in the furniture business. Manufacturing furniture is not particularly difficult. Yet, unfortunately, the Hungarian furniture industry declined rather than advanced in the past twenty years. I would be happier if my business could achieve even better results than now in a more competitive domestic environment. But I found my own competition elsewhere: we have tried a lot of various things and had our furniture made in Italy, the Czech Republic and Germany.

It is interesting that after we managed to cross the border of Austria – where, just like in Hungary, we are not the most successful business – we are generally thought to be a Swiss company. I must admit: it feels nice. My Swiss designer colleagues actually envy us for having a solid manufacturing background here in Hungary, as they are unable to produce the same high quality products at competitive prices. And customers do notice high quality. I never wanted to be a cheap manufacturer and the highest possible quality has always been my goal. I think this is the only way to success.

Interview conducted by László Attila Márton