Which comes first; idea or material?

That is a very good question, because what makes me the most happy in my atelier is when these two, let’s add method to this as well, these three concepts come together to create surprise hallways of creativity. That’s why I can’t prioritize one over the other. Occasionally the characteristics and features of a material supports and helps realise an idea. Then again on other times an idea can flip over materials and methods, initiating the process.

Who is your dream collaborator?

There’s not one – there are many. Since I did not go to school for ceramics I was alone during my learning process. In fact I did not collaborate with anyone in my atelier except the team I trained myself. A dream of mine is becoming the apprentice of an old friend; Polish ceramics artist, designer, and trainer Marek Cecula. Currently I do not have the time or the money for it, maybe I’ll do it in spring.

I would also very much like to become an apprentice in ateliers around the Far East – in China, Korea, or Japan. I find the historical depth and journey of ceramics production quite appealing. If time travel was possible I would choose to visit all ateliers beginning from the Neolithic age. (laughs)

Is there anything you have recently read that you would recommend?

I can recommend something I read three or four years ago, which has become a bedside book for me; Edmund de Waal’s The White Road. I don’t think it’s been translated into Turkish yet. Another book of his, The Hare with Amber Eyes, has been translated as Kehribar Gözlü Tavşan.

In The White Road, Edmund de Waal attempts to uncover the “passion” for porcelain both as an artist in his personal life, and as a social phenomenon, tracing various historical figures related with the topic in question and travelling through geographies. Porcelain is a mysterious material; it can take any form you want but also dictates its own conditions. You need to know it well, and de Wall is really keen on getting to know porcelain, and can relay his close contacts through writing.

What about an exhibition you wish you were a part of?

I visited an Ettore Sottsass retrospective last year at The Met Breuer, which is located in New York. Sottsass is a versatile designer who also has a special relationship with ceramics and glass. He has never strayed away from using these two materials in his designs.

The answer to this question in a way answers a former one. I would have been delighted had I met Sottsass and worked together with him as part of the Memphis Group. By combining plain, familiar forms with colours, Sottsass designs everyday objects that have a brand new language, that are in fact quite deep, associative, totemic – designs that show one how rich their own existence really is.

Which one of your works excites you the most?

I’m currently returning to my atelier after a hiatus of two or three years. I had become somewhat distanced from my atelier during the time I was in New York. The only thing that currently excites me is shutting myself in my atelier again. (laughs)

More information on Tulya Madra can be found here.