"BIZNES meble.pl" international 1/2018

report X the potential of Polish design 8 BIZNES meble.pl [ international edition 1/2018 f Gaca. – On the other hand, studying in the Netherlands totally changed my life, because I met many wonderful people, mentors who could help me in shaping my consciousness, gave me incredibly great freedom in creating, but they also could direct me well. The Dutch are very direct, and thanks to the fact that they are open, I found cooperating with them very well and I feel great in this country. A very important stage in my work was internship at well-known fabric designer – Ulf Moritz – emphasizes Aleksandra Gaca. – He designs very innovative fabrics for interiors. That is when I got interested in the fabric in the interior. However, the breakthrough was cooperation with the company Hybrids+Fusion in 2002, when I created a three-dimensional fabric. No one was interested in it then, because it was as- sociated with manual work and I wanted to cooperate with the industry, look for innovation in the weaving techniques, cross borders. Ferdinand Visser from the Hybrids+Fusion company was the first person who took serious interest in my designs and together we created a col- lection. I must admit that at that time, in the years 2002-2004, we won a lot of prizes, but the consumer was not ready for these fabrics, so the producers were also very sceptical about them. Market mechanisms are very interesting, some- times the designer thinks about some- thing, has an idea, it can be very inno- vative, but it will not always be accepted on the market, because the consumer is simply not ready for it yet. Obviously I follow what is happening in Poland, I took part in several exhibi- tions, I won prestigious awards – says Aleksandra Gaca. – I see many changes on the Polish market, especially during the last decade. Finally, Poland has opened up, design awareness has changed. There are talks about how to design, about the role of craftsmanship. It is also important that a lot has started to happen on the field of promotion, designers take part in foreign exhibitions and have the oppor- tunity to confront their work with others. AUTHENTICITY ABOVE ALL Mariusz Małecki have created collec- tions of furniture that is sold under the ziben studio brand for many years. He left Poland in 2007 for private reasons. Many friends and acquaintances who persuaded me to move live here, in Berlin – says Mariusz Małecki. – After gradu- ating in the Netherlands and Poland, I started cooperation with Meble Vox. When I was living in Berlin, I decided to open my own company that designs and manufactures high-class furniture and custom-made furniture. This is what is happening today, and I finished coopera- tion with Vox in 2011. The moment which Mariusz Małecki considers to be the most crucial in his career is the one when he decided that he would open a ziben studio and be a designer independent from industry. I think that Polish designers are not very well known in Germany and generally in Europe – says Mariusz Małecki. – What German client appreciates is Polish craft – Polish carpenters are well spoken of. For German client, it is more important how furniture is made and of what kind of materials it is made, than who made it. My design was often compared to Scan- dinavian design and many people were surprised when I said I was from Poland. I think that this is not that important for design to have a nationality, only to be au- thentic and timeless. According to Mariusz Małecki, what happens on the Polish market is quite different from what happens in other European countries. The cause is an im- mature and clingy customer – empha- sizes Mariusz Małecki. – Polish market is growing, but I think it requires a little more time. Obviously, I follow what is happening on Polish market and what is happening in Polish design, or rather in design in Poland. There are few fresh, in- teresting projects or they are not presented well enough. VERSATILITY AND EXPERIENCE Referring to the specifics of work for a foreign investor, Robert Majkut sees two important issues – one typically associated with cooperation with peo- ple and the second with the specificics of the place. There is something like the manner of implementing project that is specific to a given country and its cul- ture – believes Robert Majkut. – For example, with Asian investors, there is less talking about the budget of the pro- ject, and more about what they want to achieve and they focus on the project it- self. In Asia, sometimes it is possible to do extremely difficult things in a surpris- Aleksandra Gaca. Photo by Jolanta Wilczek-Raybould. The ‘Fabric of Life’ exhibition, which took place in 2017 at Masterly the Dutch in Milano, during Milan Design Week. Photo by Dennis A-Tjak. The ‘Iloczyny’ (‘Intersections’) installation by Izabela Bołoz was realized in 2016 in cooperation with the Copenhagen metro in the heart of Copenhagen on Kongens Nytorv square.