Speed Date / IMRICH VAŠKO, architect, educator at UMPRUM

Where are you from?
From Bratislava.

Where did you study?
Gymnasium and Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava.

Who was your best teacher?
Coworkers.

Who were/ are your parents?
My mother was a mother, my father an architect, his parents a cook and a tailor, her parents seed merchants.

What don’t you enjoy in design?
Mediocrity, boredom, poor quality, stupidity.

And on the contrary, what do you?
Novelty, cleverness, complexity, originality, beauty.

What do you listen to?
Melodies, sounds, spoken word.

Your favourite film or cartoon?
No particular one, varied and genre-differentiated with incomparable ambitions.

Who do you respect as an authority in and out of your field?
There are many recognized authorities in the field and in life, and the list changes frequently.

What thing did you last buy?
Quite a few things aesthetically changing the interior and garden of our house, a new higher quality sound system and lighting, as well as a refresh of the look and a few books.

Do you buy professional literature? What was the latest book?
I buy less professional literature.

Do you vote?
Last time I didn’t and I could have, before I always went when I could.

Who throws the best parties?
I like to reminisce most about my own parties.

Your favourite dome?
All of the interesting ones.

Party dress. Made by…?
Very individual according to the actual parameters.

Hero from the past?
Very many.

Best/nicest house?
There is no best or most beautiful.

Do you have any stereotypes when you work? How do they show?
I try for original solutions.

What’s on your desktop?
What’s in the current majority offering without individualization.

Best exhibition, work of art?
A continuously changing mass of current and interesting things, without maximalist attributions and absolutizing positions.

What do you respect both from the local and foreign design scene? And why?
Anything new, original, interesting and of high quality for innovation, excitement, beauty and wisdom.

Ethics or money?
Duality.

Extraordinary book?
Pretty much.

Optimist, pessimist, nihilist?
I alternate.

Do you have any hobby?
Not much.

Solo or in a collective?
Individually in a collective.

Slovakia as the Promised Land?
Hm…