Philip Stark - a star of world scale. He is more than a designer. Stark is a reformer who made design things available. Stark is an inventor, similar to Le Corbusier, who invented dozens of ways to make products easier and cheaper. Stark is a showman who makes a spectacle of his public appearances. Stark is an outstanding producer who skillfully promotes both himself and his creations. Stark - a millionaire who earned his millions of copyright fees. About him written dozens of books and thousands of articles. And, oddly enough, almost nothing is known. Besides what he says about himself Stark, as a Soviet intelligence officer, stubbornly keeps his legend and does not give in to provocations. Although he provokes constantly. What was worth even his latest collections for FLOS, which caused a stir in the ranks of the participants of Euroluce 2005. We asked him about what Comrade Stark himself thinks about his new creations.SALON: Что Вы сами думаете о своих новых коллекциях? Я имею в виду коллекции Long&Hard и Guns. - Long&Hard... Мне очень интересна эта коллекция. Знаете, в зависимости от времени и настроения человеку хочется окружать себя теми или иными вещами. Иногда нам нужно что-то разумное, сдержанное, невидимое, а иногда что-то очень сильное. Long&Hard - это почти невидимая вещь. Форма минимизирована донельзя. И материала ровно столько, чтобы скрыть источник света. Зато как выглядит этот материал! Вот лампа из металла. Взгляните на его обработку, на полировку, какая она разная и как по-разному смотрится. А вот лампа из мрамора. Тончайшие стенки, мрамор будто светится, видны все его прожилки. Я считаю такую тонкую работу с материалом искренней. И в том, и в другом случае мы не стали придумывать что-то эдакое с материалом. Скорее наоборот, мы показали, как в прямом смысле минимальными средствами можно добиться потрясающего эффекта. Вы подумайте: ведь здесь минимум минимума. Такой квадратный корень, который привел нас к успеху... Вообще-то здесь мы показали лишь несколько предметов из коллекции, всего их будет двенадцать.S: Presumably, the Guns collection has a completely different concept? - You know, I'm not a philosopher, not a writer or a singer. But I can express my attitude to what is happening in the world with my work tool - design. And I think that I have to do it. I think that the purchase by a man of almost every object is not accidental. And, as a rule, our choice in favor of a particular subject is justified by a number of reasons. References to social status and fashion are just an explanation of the effect. The reasons lie deeper. First of all, everything we do is connected with politics. With political relations between our country and another country, with the internal politics of the country where we live, etc. This means that when you buy clothes GUCCI is a policy, when you buy a BMW is also a policy. That is, this is already your foreign policy as a response to the political situation in the country and in the world as a whole. In general, I think that when you do anything in your life, this is already a political choice, this is your electoral vote. So I thought: why don't I use my position as a designer for political purposes? After all, this is the only position that I have. Yes, I made a collection of lamps in the shape of a weapon. The Kalashnikov gun is the most successful engineering design project in the history of mankind. Currently, only officially there are more than 1.5 million automatic machines of such a system. And my political gesture in this case is to spread millions of copies not of the real Kalashnikov, but of these gilded floor lamps. For the Guns collection, I took a sample of the most popular types of weapons: Beretta, Kalashnikov assault rifle and American M-16 rifle.S: Do you ever relax? - I do not work. I just dream of lying in bed. Sometimes I spend both days and nights. I have nothing to rest on. All my time is divided into the one that I spend with a loved one, and the one that is without him.S: How does your day begin? - I have two kinds of days: bad and good. I will talk about the good. A good day is when I'm in one of my bungalows in a very deserted place. In the center of a large forest or on a small island where there are no houses, roads, bridges, electricity. I live outside of civilization. When I live alone, I need a very small bedroom, my desktop is usually located at a maximum of 18 cm from the bed. When I wake up, I can stay in bed: dream, draw ... I eat only vegetarian food and natural, healthy products. After breakfast, I do exercises. Then I go for a walk, returning, I cook. Everything is very simple.S: What could you not live without? - I used to think that I live only when I do it. I thought that all I needed was my dreams, design, architecture. You know, the total income of companies from the sale of my products is one billion dollars a year. Therefore, I can not stop this pipeline. Although I still hope to switch from the production of this useless materiality to something else soon. Now in France, I'm starting a television show. This will be a political show.
Passing the gallery 
