Speed Date / BARBORA ŠPIČÁKOVÁ, art historian, Gallery VI PER
Irena Lehkoživová, Barbora Špičáková.
Where are you from?
I’m from Prague.
Where did you study?
In Olomouc and Prague.
Who was your best teacher?
Lada Hubatová Vacková at UMPRUM and Rostislav Švácha at the Faculty of Arts of UPOL.
Who were/ are your parents?
They are both natural scientists, my mom a geologist, my dad a seismologist.
What don’t you enjoy in design?
That there is too much of building and producing.
And on the contrary, what do you?
Both can sometimes have a big impact on society.
What do you listen to?
I enjoy interviews.
Your favourite film, cartoon, series?
A while ago, I was really into the Israeli-American series Our Boys.
Who do you respect as an authority in and out of your field?
I’m careful with authority figures.
What thing did you last buy?
A couple of promotional things from Premier League football clubs’ fan shops for my sons – Tottenham, West Ham, Liverpool.
Do you buy professional literature? What was the latest book?
I don’t buy much, unfortunately, most recently Your Guide to Downtown, by Denise Scott Brown.
Do you vote?
I do.
Who throws the best parties?
I guess I don’t know, for me, whoever can make it dance.
Your favourite dome?
If it means a view, the top is the bar table by the upstairs window in the Tate Modern cafe in London.
Party dress. Made by…?
Don’t be silly!
Your hero from the past?
I don’t think I have one.
Best/nicest house?
There’s probably more than one.
Do you have any stereotypes when you work? How do they show?
I don’t.
What’s on your desktop?
Only black, there’s not a single file.
Best exhibition, work of art?
A decent experience was the exhibition Content – Rem Koolhaas and OMA/AMO in 2003 in Berlin. And the work – Gordon Matta-Clark was perfect, when he cut holes in the tenements just outside the future Centre Pompidou (Conical Intersect) in 1975. Another favourite of mine is Valie Export and her Tapp und Tastkino from 1968, great.
What do you respect both from the local and foreign design scene? And why?
Anyone who does something out of their own conviction, through their own efforts and enjoys what they do.
Ethics or money?
It’s easy to write ethics.
Extraordinary book?
I enjoy a lot the books from the edition of “Prekliati reportéri” [Cursed Reporters] published by Absynt.
Optimist, pessimist, nihilist?
Cautious optimist, perhaps?
Do you have any hobby?
I like to run orienteering.
Solo or in a collective?
Whichever, collective tends to be more fun.
Slovakia as the Promised Land?
Sure!