“A Subtly Choreographed Dance”
On Art and Design with Katharine Kostyál
Lohi Journal Issue 5
Interview by Philip Warkander
@philipwarkander
Photography by Tomas Falmer
@tomasfalmer
In Issue 5 of Lohi Journal, Philip Warkander went inside one of the Kostyál’s Milanese residences and interviewed Katharine Kostyál on her career, recent interior design projects and life in Milan.
“Art has no concrete function after all, but it is central to feeding our imaginative capacity, and to our understanding of our past, present and future. A design object has a function, first and foremost. It’s the inventiveness, the poly, the pushing the limits of form and of material that allows those objects to be an interesting dialogue with art.
I think if you start with the art as the point of departure, which is what I do, one can create a space where the design element and the art exist in a symbiotic, fluid relationship. I am deeply interested in colour, texture, form and light in art and in space, and, above all, in what lends a room or a house real character. Finding that, drawing it out, reflecting the personalities and stories of the people who inhabit that space – that for me is the exhilarating part of working on any interior project. It’s story telling really.
I don’t believe in a puritanical approach to objects and styles. All the interest for me lies in finding a sympathy for style and function in different schools of design and across the centuries, which combine to reflect the people inhabiting that space.”
– Katharine Kostyál on the relationship between art and interior design.
Issue available now.
