ANA KRAS
The world of furniture design can sometimes be perceived as separate from other artistic practices. Like fashion or architecture, long periods of research and development go into putting a piece of furniture into production. Because of this, sometimes the great works never make it onto the pop culture radar. Enter a young designer named Ana Kras. Though she is now living in New York, Kras grew up in Belgrade, Serbia during the height of the political turmoil there. It is quite special that a young person coming from such a situation could grow to become such an innovative designer. Her creations employ all of the characteristics of high design, but incorporate a fragile and organic quality that is supremely unique and separates them from the norm. Perhaps her most popular creations are a series of lamps she has designed called Bonbons, which are basically a wire frame with delicate strips of yarn and other material stretched over them. She has also designed tables, chairs and clothing racks. Though she is relatively young in her career, there is no doubt that Ana Kras is going places. Over a late night skype conversation between Los Angeles and Sweden we asked Ana to tell us her story.
by Aaron Rose Portrait by INGRID SOPHIE SCHRAM ANP: I would like to ask you about growing up in Belgrade. I think it’s a very special story. Can you speak about what it was like there when you were young, the creative scene in Belgrade and how that has influenced you? Ana Kras: Yes. Well I grew up in a very turbulent time of a very turbulent country and I can only assume it left some marks. I mean, it surely influenced a lot the way I think, speak, and work. The first war started when I was around five and since then there has always been some kind of war around, even up to today. When I was an early teenager the borders were closed for years, and the country was pretty disconnected from outer world and influences. I was lucky enough that I was still kind of young when it changed a little for better so I could move and see other things, because what was around me was very sad, deeply sad. ANP: Wow. I cannot even imagine... AK: I was fifteen when NATO bombed Belgrade and the same year later I went to Japan. I remember I had to take a van to Budapest, Hungary to get a flight because planes were not flying from Belgrade. The van was packed with people and bags, and the driver of the van would take some village dust roads to avoid paying the fee for using a normal road. How do you call that, the road fee? ANP: The toll AK: Ah yes. Toll. That means great in German I think? ANP: Haha. It’s not so great in the USA. AK: When I think about how the situation in Serbia influenced me, and also influenced my work later, I think that the chaos and the politics were there to teach me how the world is pretty mad and how easily from one day to another you can lose all you have for no reason. My family was there to teach me how you can find a way to be happy with so little and how to use those skills for whatever you do. ANP: Okay. That’s really interesting. Which I can completely see in your work. There’s also something very fragile in your creations. Not so much that they are breakable, but in your use of materials to tell stories. They are emotionally fragile...
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AK: Thank you, that sounds very nice. ANP: Do you not agree? AK: I don’t disagree. It’s just hard to see that in your own work. I always wonder if those influences are visible in the final result. I think that it has more to do with how you approach your thinking, and what keeps your attention and how you solve problems. ANP: For you it’s more pragmatic. What you can make with what you have? AK: Yes. What I can make with what I have. That is what I was taught at my university. Not by teachers, but by the circumstances and the lack of possibilities. The university was there to push me to be self-taught because there were almost no classes and lectures and no workshops and not a single computer in the entire furniture design section. When the country is poor, destroyed and corrupted, the universities are the same way. Growing up in such a place feels a bit like having a very wise mentor. Can you imagine? Not a single computer? That sounds like a joke. It’s crazy. So everything was measured by hand but that’s why we had to learn ourselves. We had to teach ourselves all the 3D programs and do all the work on our own time, without any supervision. ANP: All trial and error... AK: Yes, but that somehow worked for me because I love to work and I love to work on my own. But there were a lot of kids that needed that push and support, and they didn’t get it. ANP: Have you seen a lot of creative people in Serbia have to give up their dreams? AK: Hmmm. I don’t think there can be anything to make you give up your dream. ANP: Good answer. AK: If you do, then that’s not big of a dream. ANP: Exactly. I want to talk about how you work in different mediums. AK: Okay. ANP: You draw. You take photographs and design furniture. How do they all relate to each other in your opinion? Do they influence each other? AK: I think they are a family! To me it is all pretty much the same. I mean, it all comes from the same place in