Editor's Letter
By: Eva Slunečková
Photo: Barbora Idesová
Awe, elation and rapture. These are all short-lived experiences. They only last for a moment but they will make your pulse race for weeks. These stimuli invigorate you and take your mind off reality. In the second issue of Spacial magazine, powered by Lasvit, we explore various aspects of the Marvel theme. What do people get excited about? What can transport them into different realms? What arouses their curiosity and motivates them? How do they overcome the seemingly impossible?
We found inspiration in the short story “Children on the Road” by Prague-born writer Franz Kafka, one of the world’s great thinkers. This work is permeated by a dreamy fascination with nature, an unrestrained exploration of the world and with movement. Kafka is discovering the limitless possibilities of expression and joy here, which gradually disappeared from his later work. The introductory essay was written by one of the leading experts on Kafka’s work, the writer Magdalena Platzová. The article offers many imaginative layers and endless exploration of the map of the world, as well as the universe, and presents the latest collection by David Rockwell’s studio in the leading role. Called Constellation, it is reminiscent of the Milky Way.
In our Questionnaire, we asked members of the large Lasvit family what they have been excited about lately. It turns out that by being moved, we often experience something so great that it overwhelms us. We talked to the current issue’s personality, leading architect, design visionary and nature lover Kengo Kuma, about the transformation of monumentality. As a young boy, he was fascinated by Kenzō Tange’s stadium.
Seeing the way Tange managed to connect heaven to earth in a dramatic gesture of hanging roofs enthralled him so much that he decided to become an architect at that very moment. The sense of monumentality in his own work, however, is fundamentally different. Instead of grandeur, he achieves it by using natural materials and structures, relying on craftsmanship skills and long-forgotten techniques, which he combines innovatively with new technologies.
At Lasvit, we also believe that it is not so much the size that matters as the emotions you create and the innovations you manage to implement. For an overview of our completed projects, whether large or small, static or interactive, complex or simple, see Something Mesmerizing. We discuss innovations in the article The Unexpected Symboll-ism of Funghi, the process related to each of them in the article Turning Dreams into Reality, and the specific result – a very complex light installation that responds to music – in our article Oasis of Light and Sound.
Enthusiasm and excitement are emotions that we never tire of. We hope you will also experience them when reading the second issue of Spacial magazine.
