Thomas Feichtner (b. 1970) is a product designer. His clients include such long-standing companies as the Wiener Silber Manufactur, Augarten Porzellan, J. & L. Lobmeyr, and Carl Mertens. Feichtner teaches product design at the Muthesius Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Kiel, Germany. He was the 2011 recipient of the Austrian State Prize for Design. www.thomasfeichtner.com Heimo Zobernig (b. 1958) is among Austria’s most internationally renowned artists with exhibition projects across the globe. Zobernig has been a sculpture professor at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna since 2000. www.heimozobernig.com
There is a growing overlap between design and art. Michael Hausenblas speaks to artist Heimo Zobernig and designer Thomas Feichtner about the mutual relationship between the two disci plines. Why is art’s relationship to design a topic in the first place? Why do we feel the need to address this issue? Heimo Zobernig: I think it goes back to the avant-garde, to the artists who set out to make a new world 100 years ago. A lot of these modernist art-makers thought about the issue and wanted to be seen as engineers, for example. Thomas Feichtner: I’d agree with that. But the question also reminds me of how strange it is – to me anyway – that designers are so extremely reluctant to cross the line and go into art. Artists cross that same line all the time with no problem. Where is this line? Thomas Feichtner: I think it’s somewhere in the question about the meaning and purpose of objects. As soon as this isn’t immediately evident, a line has been crossed for the designer, and I think this boundary should be watered-down somewhat. Heimo Zobernig: Our contemporary notion of art has become more porous around the edges – wherever you find everyday objects, or design, in art. Ultimately, I think the context determines what stands for what. The same goes for the kind of display, and where it is presented. Is there more crossover between art and design? Thomas Feichtner: I think design follows art market mechanisms much more in this networked world. Also in terms of how often an object is being produced: it’s not as much of a quality indicator as it used to be. Heimo Zobernig: More and more artists have been invited to design exhibition spaces, lounges, cafeterias, etc. in the past 20 years – a job that could really be done by designers. Artists probably write the briefing themselves and demand total freedom as opposed to whatever the client has in mind, which in this case, is actually what the client wants. Experimental design is also gaining momentum, very noticeably so – is this also a case of design going the way of art? Thomas Feichtner: I would distinguish between an experiment within a design process and an experiment as the end result. I think opening the procedure so that the result is left open is definitely legitimate, though I personally am rather closed to the idea of the experiment as a subject. Heimo Zobernig: I visited a house in Bordeaux that was built and designed by architect Rem Koolhaas. Before construction began, he made a contract with the client agreeing that a lot of elements would not be subject to the typical warranty period because they would have a prototypical character. I’m the same way – when I accept a contract, I have to have total liberty of interpretation. This doesn’t mean I completely ignore the client’s needs, only that I don’t give any non-artistic guarantees. If a work doesn’t serve its practical function for whatever reason, then its function is either visual or symbolic.
Michael Hausenblas has been working for “Der Standard” daily newspaper since 1999, primarily as an editor in the field of design.
The American artist Richard Artschwager said, “If you can sit on it, it’s a chair; if you walk around it and look at it, it’s a sculpture.” Do you think that still holds true? Heimo Zobernig: Yes, I think so. When he said that, the separa tion between the two was even more pronounced. A lot of spatial, installation-based art being made today crosses this line as a matter of course.
Big design auctions selling editions show how the mechanisms of the art market are also moving into design. Do you think the line we’ve been talking about is shifting here as well? Thomas Feichtner: You’re not designing for a target group in that particular field, and there’s no corporate risk behind the product. That gives the designer a lot of freedom. He can address a parti cular topic without having to think about outside factors. It is very interesting to find out how a designer can develop with this kind of freedom. So these objects are also very interesting. They don’t have to be successful in the classical sense, commercially speaking. Heimo Zobernig: Whenever design or art objects turn up in art auctions, it is a good reflection of how the objects in this area pan out relative to one another. A prototypical design product natu rally has another price tag than a mass-produced one. Young artists envy the prices some of these design pieces fetch at auctions, but it is basically negotiated at a pretty similar level. Presumably for collectors, the ones passing a monetary judgment, the division between art and design is fairly balanced-out. Thomas Feichtner: I don’t think there’s any formula or line that makes one design and the other art. The older I get, the less of an issue it is for me. The whole thing would require not only a definition of design, but of art as well. Recent years have seen a lot of talk about the “economic factor” of design. What economic or commercial factor does art have, apart from the art market and its importance for museums? Thomas Feichtner: I completely disagree. Design shouldn’t be part of that value chain; I don’t see design as a marketing tool. There is an inherent risk to design as well. Good design can certainly unleash its share of stomach-tingling, charms and sophistication. A number of very good designs are less beholden to a particular strategy or concept than they are to a good relationship between the company and the designer – two parties setting off on an adventure. It’s about mining the limits. And it also requires risking that the whole thing will be a flop. Could the same be said of art? Heimo Zobernig: I think anyone gearing up for the adventure of art needs individuals around him or her to assume part of the risk, a counterpart group of friends or mediators who work in this area. This is probably very similar, maybe more familial and less strategic. Does the art world turn its nose up at design? In other words: What image does design have in the art world? Heimo Zobernig: I wouldn’t say so, not at all. On the one hand, there is a lot of respect for the design ethic of someone like Victor Papanek, and then you have a lot of admiration for the glamorous design and fashion presentations in big cities like Milan, Paris, New York, etc. A lot of fashion magazines have an enviably better print quality than the majority of art catalogs. Thomas Feichtner: I know there is a much sharper division bet ween art and design at art schools. I have friends that are desig ners and friends that are artists. The struggle, the communication etc. is handled with very similar mechanisms. A designer needs a manufacturer to survive, an artist needs a gallerist. I think it really is comparable. It is a question of the attitude toward art or toward design. Of course there are design firms that see themselves more as service providers than designers.
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