Designer and architect. In 1990 he and Jan Němeček founded the Olgoj Chorchoj studio, followed in 1993 by the Artěl company, which manufactures twentieth- century Czech design. Since 1999 he and Jan Němeček have headed the Product Design III Studio at the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague. He works on industrial design, furniture design, architecture and interior design.
LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL
AN INTERVIEW WITH MICHAL FRONEK CONSULTANT FOR THIS CHAPTER
WHAT APPEALS TO YOU ABOUT THAT
PERIOD?
I was born in 1966, so it was when
I began to notice the style of the housing
estates, a black Tatra 613 parked in
front of the most ‘modern’ cinema, the
Kosmos… The pinnacle of technology
at the time was the Škoda 110R, which
looked faster than it actually was… But
I have to say I sensed a great deficit of
quality consumer goods.
WHAT DID THAT PERIOD
CONTRIBUTE TO CZECH DESIGN?
For me, all of the seventies were a kind
of little bubble in which very little
was produced that was interesting on
a European scale. It was a time of getting
by, a time of stagnation – it’s almost
impossible to talk of any progress in
design. They were years defined by
mediocrity. There are of course a number
of exceptions in art or industrial glass
design, and in graphic design. The eighties
pointed to the possibility of change,
a number of art and design groups were
founded, for instance.
WHAT EVENTS DO YOU THINK HAD
THE GREATEST INFLUENCE ON
CZECH DESIGN?
I think Milena Lamarová’s exhibition at
the Museum of Decorative Arts, on the
use of plastics in furniture, must have
seemed like something from another
planet.
WHAT WERE YOUR CRITERIA FOR
SELECTING INDIVIDUAL EXHIBITS?
I wanted the selection to be as objective
as possible, objects that represented
quality Czechoslovak exports during the
years of normalisation.
IS THERE ANYTHING FROM THOSE
YEARS THAT YOU WOULD CALL
TYPICALLY CZECH?
If I had to find something that was truly
Czech, it would probably something that
represented mediocrity, milk sold in
plastic bags.
IF YOU WERE ON A DESERT ISLAND AND COULD TAKE THREE OBJECTS FROM THAT PERIOD WITH YOU, WHICH ONES WOULD THEY BE? I’d probably choose purely practical things: Botas trainers, a pistol from Česká zbrojovka, a toothbrush and a tube of Perlička toothpaste.