Maestrokatastrof: When We Were the Best

(jiří macek) The collection of painted porcelain from Silvie Luběnová, a.k.a. Maestrokatastrof, ranked among the best Designblok events this year. One could read about it all over the world. Even though we did not report about it, each one of us has captured a piece from the collection. Maybe we were waiting for Christmas - who knows? The porcelain by Silvie Luběnová has a special charm and can take us back in time.

To create her collection, Luběnová first browsed second-hand stores and antique shops all over the Czech Republic. Having assembled a wide range of unexpected diversity, she started recalling her own memories. Porcelain bowls, oval trays, and cake plates received another decorative layer – childhood photos and drawings that seem to play down experiences. “When I was looking at my childhood photos, I realized I was always smiling…” explains Luběnová. “We all had dreams about what will become of us, how we will live, and we believed them light-heartedly. As children, we were all simply the best.”

The project was created in parallel to the latest project of Whitefruits, in which Antonín Tomášek and Gabriel Vach adventured far into the past in a collection entitled Dnes zde, zítra daleko odsud (Today Here, Tomorrow Faraway). “They are more poetic, I tend to see things in a more ironic way,” laughs Luběnová, who also laughs in a picture on a plate from her collection, as if nothing had changed. “In fact, nothing has changed,” she shrugs. This collection of porcelain, in which the past of objects permeates the record of Luběnová’s childhood and fantasies of an imaginary magician named Maestrokatastrof, is full of desires and joy. “Once upon a time. A story of expensive people, beautiful objects, memory traps, and good endings,” as the collection footnote says. Do you understand why we waited until Christmas?


Unique pieces from this collection can be purchased in Dox by Qubus or at www.maestrokatastrof.com.

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