Veronika Kotradyová
The Centre for Folk Art Production has been supporting, protecting and cultivating the traditional crafts of masters for over 75 years. Masters of Folk Art Production are selected by a committee which pays particular attention to original, traditional materials and techniques. The institution also boasts a first in the cooperation between craftspeople and artists, starting at the end of the 1940s. ÚĽUV dealt with original folk production on a nationwide scale, and professionalised it by involving trained artists in the design process. In the new millennium, this was done via the organisation of the “Rings in Water” competition, with students and professionals taking part to find different strategies for using traditional materials, forms and craft techniques. A new initiative is now following on from this idea: to renew and strengthen cooperation between craftspeople and designers to create a joint artwork. This project has been appropriately named “Tandems”. In this article, you can find out more about its first phase, and about cooperation with universities focusing on design. The Studio of Design of the Academy of Fine Arts in Bratislava, led by Ferdinand Chrenka, is involved in the project, as well as students of design at the Faculty of Architecture and Design of the Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava, under the supervision of Veronika Kotradyová.