Interviews

The canonical Żywiec costume has survived hundreds of years in unchanged form, resisting the introduction of any contemporary elements. I think, however, that traditions should evolve. Being included on the national intangible heritage list obliges us to take a different approach, to open up and promote the costume. We want to boast.

I miss the creative exchange for which we used to have time at work.

Regardless of the geopolitics and all the prejudice that shapes how we think about China as a market, it’s important to understand that it is just people on the other side of the world.

To understand architecture, you need to enter and feel it, not just talk about it.

A crisis is the best moment to try to make the world a better place.

Baking is my way of bringing people together – says Brooklyn-based pastry chef Natasha Pickowicz, whose old-school community bake sales raise money for nonprofits.

I think a lot about the absurd nature of reality, and you can see traces of these ruminations in my work. There are days when the thought that the world is more and more absurd is terrifying, and there are days when it is reassuring.

Drawing is the best way to say what you want to say without all the “blah blah blah” – says Parisian polymorph artist Vava Dudu, who merges fashion with drawing, painting, and music.

To rethink what is happening, why is it happening in the 21st century, how this became the new normal. That’s how I see the role of an artist.

I started designing jewellery out of loneliness, to start a dialogue and to help other people feel less alone – says Alighieri founder Rosh Mahtani, who talks with us about her wax sculptures, living in London, and finding light in the dark.

Buying a work of art is such an intimate transaction, it requires one-on-one contact between the piece and the viewer. You can’t convey those emotions through the internet – says Gunia Nowik, the founder of a new contemporary art space in Warsaw, the Gunia Nowik Gallery.

Mistakes are vital to art.

The quiet lets me hear my own thoughts.

Books are a reliable antidote to stress related to the overwhelming situation around us.

I dream that one day we’ll be able to outfit a house solely with Polish brands.

Sometimes I manage to convince a children’s book publisher to make the mayor of a town a woman instead of a man, or to have a boy pretending to cook instead of pretending to race cars.

In New York you always feel like everyone is doing something cooler than you.