An interview with Marika Račeková
Adriena Pekárová
Marika Račeková (Berkyová) graduated at the glass studio of the applied arts department at the AFAD in 2008. Her professional career has started with a job of a designer and graphic designer in the only Slovak glassworks – Rona a. s. in Lednické Rovne. Along with her job of an in-house designer preparing predominantly decoration patterns for Rona-branded glassware, Marika comes with free style glass items. In 2009, she was awarded the Rona special prize which is part of prize awarding event organised by the glass gallery Nova. The award produced an opportunity for her to design her first glass collection in a glassworks. Marika called the collection To be… and presented it to the public in summer 2011. „I had it on my mind for some time – I planned to test all glass decorating techniques currently available in Rona. I selected decors from various cultures which are full of colours and structures, transformed them and used on a blown vase of an irregular shape. The collection comprises of 15 vases, each of them has been inspired by one country – Japan, China, Russia, Italy, France, Central Asia countries… To be… is the title I have invented to describe that for me, traditional décor is timeless basis that works well. Historic decors and ornaments on textiles, containers, interiors and faces of buildings have undergone some form of „time travelling“ from past to present. I have transferred them into a different medium and, their aesthetics has changed. However, cultural message they carried has remained intact. When preparing the collection, I used various techniques such as spraying and painting with organic paints, grinding, diamond engraving, pantographic gold-including engraving.“