Where are you from?
I was born and live in Bratislava.

Where did you study?
At the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava and I did an internship in Paris at the École supérieure des arts et industries graphiques.

Who was your best teacher?
The best teacher I have not met yet.
The one I remember the most from AFAD is Palo Bálik, with whom I finished my bachelor’s thesis. Then at the master’s degree I always liked to consult Sylvia Jokelová for a long time.

Who were/ are your parents?
My mother is a chemist, she worked in the soil science and meteorological institute and my father is a physicist, he worked as a software developer in the energy industry. Today they are both retired.

What don’t you enjoy in design?
Universal design, accessibility.

And on the contrary, what do you?
When it’s not about certainties, but about curiosity. When design creates new qualities. Generosity, even at the cost of a certain limitation. I like the poetic and useless rather than the practical and desirable.

What do you listen to?
At the moment, Tuxedomoon.

Your favourite film, cartoon, series?
Sicario (the first one), The Wire …

Who do you respect as an authority in and out of your field?

What thing did you last buy?
It was definitely something second hand, I’m a regular customer.

Do you buy professional literature? What was the latest book?
I read more online. I get a lot of professional literature as gifts and I also buy for someone else rather than for myself. Most recently I bought Anna Daučíková, it’s a great read thanks to Monika Mitášová and a nice book by Adela Svobodová.

Do you vote?
Yes.

Who throws the best parties?
I haven’t been to one in a while, but it will probably always be Photoport for me, when it was still on Pražská Street.

Your favourite dome?
Observatory Tatranská Lomnica. My parents took me there when I was little. My father’s friend worked there. I remember it like today. Its huge vibrams and the iron dome.

Party dress. Made by…?
Ironically, I’ve always dressed practically for parties.

Your hero from the past?
Architect Friedrich Weinwurm.

Best/nicest house?
For example Ricardo Bofill, Les Espaces d’Abraxas; or Giancarlo De Carlo, Villa Ca Romanino; or Svetko, Hauskrecht, the apartment buildings on Medená Street in Bratislava …

Do you have any stereotypes when you work? How do they show?
I try not to open my computer for as long as possible.

What’s on your desktop?
Some kind of diffuse mac OS Sierra mountains.

Best exhibition, work of art?
Mark Leckey – Lending Enchantment to Vulgar Materials, Wiels Brussels, 2014. It was a complex experience, very thoughtful and perfectly crafted. In the sense of a complex work: musical dramaturgy, theatre, set design. This was also the tour of The Knife 2013.

What do you respect both from the local and foreign design scene? And why?
Stuart Bailey for his lyrics and the Serving Library project; Mirko Borch for his work for Bavarian State Opera, Linda and Daniela Dostálkova for their ability to shape and articulate; Peter Liška and his thoughtful performances; Metahaven for their timeliness; PLURAL because they have ideals; Juraj Sukop for his consistency …

Ethics or money?
I was brought up for ethics, not for money. But it shouldn’t be things that are contrasted as good and evil.

Extraordinary book?
The Death of Bunny Munroe, Nick Cave.

Optimist, pessimist, nihilist?
I’m an idealist with tendencies towards nihilism.

Do you have any hobby?
I’ve never had a hobby in the sense of a regular leisure activity. Everything I do is somehow related to my work and family. For the last year Martin Jančok and I have been working as a DJ duo, so now I’m more intensively into finding music.

Solo or in a collective?
The further I go, the more individual.

Slovakia as the Promised Land?
From time to time at home we consider moving to another country.