Approaches

5. “A work of art exists as itself; a chair exists as a chair itself”, wrote Donald Judd in 1993.4 Can you give us your definition of design and explain its relationship to art?

MSz: The word “design” has many meanings: a sign, a drawing, a project or plan… However, the meaning most commonly used is restrictive and connoted – an upbeat attitude suggesting better living. In my work it essentially boils down to noting the current state of the world in a defined area of usages, materials and structures applied to furniture. You do what you can at any given time and place. The predefined generic name of a piece of furniture sets it apart from a work of art. A table for example, immediately conjures up a surface supported above the floor that obeys a basic, original model or archetype. The principal material of art is thought; that of design is the reality of matter. What could be more different than a chair and a painting, a text, a play or a film? Matter in artwork is an expressive exterior whose real content is within, a subject for contemplation and interpretation. A chair, on the other hand, is at most just a chair, and if we sit on it, we can no longer even see it. Its ultimate purpose is simply to support the weight of our bodies. And, for other typologies of furniture this might instead consist of providing a place to put objects on or contain them.