Studio Olgoj Chorchoj for Manifesto exhibition
25. 11. 2018
The firmly established and widely acknowledged studio mysteriously named Olgoj Chorchoj is formed by the professors lecturing at the Prague Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design, Michal Froněk and Jan Němeček. Michal decided to pursue the career of a designer “sometime in the early 1980s when we were surrounded by the so-called normalization standards of living, which was unbearable, and when I began realizing that things could be done in an utterly different way”. Jan was training for the profession of an art girdler, planning to become a freelance craftsman, while a title from an art school seemed to be the easiest and instantaneous way of achieving the goal. “But it was the school that made me interested in design as such, and I wouldn’t return to craft ever after.” Michal: “I think that design means perfecting the existing condition.” Jan: “The thing I love about design is that is keeps changing incessantly.”
The Manifest presentation of the two designers result from their tests carried out at the IGS symposium, previously held in the famed Czech glassmaking city of Nový Bor. It bases on co-creating a glass chandelier in cooperation with the famed Czech company, Preciosa. The event is eventually fuse all aspects characteristic of the Olgoj Chorchoj production: working for a particular commissioner, love of glass and producing the final item.
Favorite music: Michal – from Bowie to BadBadNotGood, Jan – Michael Nyman, Benjamin Britten
