1. Where were you born and where are you from ?

I was born in Cacak, Serbia. When I was twenty, I moved to Italy.

2. What is your first memory connected to the art world ?

I was seventeen; on the summer interrail trip, I visited the Uffizi in Italy, the Prado in Madrid, the Louvre in Paris, the National Gallery in London, etc…and I decided to become an artist.

3. Have you always worked in the art/design field ?

My parents couldn’t efford to pay my study in Italy so I have been working since I was twenty. I was waitress, baby sitter,  Santa Claus and fashion model.

At 26 I began my career in the fashion industry, first working in London and Milan as a textile designer. I had attended the Florence Academy of Fine Arts and then, I eventually settling in Como. Here I founded the first atelier with Aurel where we reinvented bespoke vintage design pieces.

4. What led you to the design creation ?

It was all about it.

5. How would you describe your creative process and it influences ?

We like to be inspired by anything, from art to music, architecture to photography, literature to cinema, fashion to travel. During the process, it is important for us to discover “what lies behind,” the philosophy, the concept, to create pieces that are not just to use but can also influence and change culture and habits. Design is also a vehicle to make people think, and it has the power to create changes.

6. Could you describe a typical day of your work ?

After a couple of energetic coffees, I usually go to our studio in the center of Como where I work with my design, communication and sales team. I spend most of my time here but for the making-of phase I often go to our workshop as well. There we create the pieces of our collections. Both spaces are very close to my home so I’m lucky to enjoy my lunch break at home, in relax, with Aurel as my chef 🙂

7. Why did you choose the specific materials you work with ?

I always loved to experiment and explore the use of different materials in product design.

Resin has naturally become the distinctive signature of our brand. Resin is fluid in nature, which enables a fascinating variety of nuances and shades; it also allows us to play with transparency, refraction, and interaction with light. Resin is a material that produces unpredictable results. That’s why we feel it is particularly akin to us: we adore surprises and imperfections in our work as mistakes expand creativity”.

Concrete is definitely one of the preferred materials in our collections and collaborations because it is in total contraposition to the transparency and shininess of resin, and yet, at the same time, its workmanship and potential are so similar. This material is also dear to me because of my Serbian origin: it takes me back to the Brutalist period that introduced its aesthetics.

8. What are the technical particularities of your creations ?

We process different materials: we cast resin in our studio, we experiment with concrete, we print our unique patterns with the silkscreen.

9. What advices could you give to beginning artists who would like to create sculptural design works ?

Embrace free and unconditioned design! Think ‘outside the box’.

10. If your works had to belong to a design movement, in which one would you define it ?

Rock design 😊 It probably doesn’t exist but I’d like to create it to include a scratchy sort of design – like a Sex Pistols song. Because throughout our creations we want to set a mood, to convey a feeling. We want an object makes you feel something and acknowledge its presence.

11. What designers have influenced you ?

I am in love Space Age design , Paco Rabanne , Pierre Cardine, , Andre Courreges, Verner Panton, etc…There is a wide range of events and people which have inspired us: Dada movement, abstract American expressionism, cinema, design from the thirties to the sixties, Mark Rothko for his colours, Alighiero Boetti for his playing with coincidences, rock from ’70s for the mix of music and contents, Oscar Wilde for his irony.

12. What contemporary designers do you appreciate ?

Forma fantasma, so forward and conceptual, and Vincenzo De Cotis.

13. What contemporary artists (in any kind of art) have you been inspired by ?

Surely, one of the Aurel’s idols is the American artist Richard Serra, one of the titans of modern art, and Vivienne Westwood is my queen. She was revolutionary and it still is with her activism in designing a sustainable future.

We are also inspired by Donald Judd, Joseph, Joseph Kosuth and Enzo Mari.

14. If you had to summarize your creations in one word or sentence, what would it be ?

Soulsearching

15. Is there anything you would like to add ?

Art in real is better !

Proust Questionnaire with very short answers (one or a few words) :
(The Proust Questionnaire is a set of questions answered by the French writer Marcel Proust. Other historical figures who have answered confession albums are Oscar Wilde, Karl Marx, Arthur Conan Doyle, Stéphane Mallarmé, Paul Cézanne…)