KUENG CAPUTO

Lovis Caputo and Sarah Kueng have worked together since 2006. Kueng Caputo practice design as a response, they produce thoughtful designs. Their pretense when approaching a new project is to question the norm, transcend the obvious, and demonstrate a distinct opinion. The importance of the latter is what they try most to pass on when teaching art students. Kueng Caputo is represented by Salon 94 in New York.

Their first mass production is made out of ceramics. The series is made in Japan and called „As if“.

What is the task of design?

It should make you think about values you want to live in. The short lifetime of products detaches us from developing a relation to the product. We share a short time together, so the curiosity has no time to ask. The product’s story is not understood –where it comes from, what knowledge is included in the thing you use, how it can be repaired or deconstructed. With this rapid change we lose the chance to be involved. We think know-how is one of our biggest resources. Adding experience to someone else’ knowledge makes improvement possible.

Is design always interdisciplinary?

Yes

Which designer influenced you?

We are most influenced by people who share our daily life. We discuss a lot, so we are influenced by the way how they think, how they see the world. We are lucky to be surrounded by great people. Of course there are a lot of designers who really influence us like Charlotte Perriand, Eileen Gray and Lina Bo Bardi. If we could curate a design exhibition, we would like to do this in the Schaudepot of Vitra about all the women’s work behind the designs of the chairs there. Some of the female contributions to the design are already researched, but not mentioned and others need to be brought to light. The design history is not as male as it seems, when you visit the Schaudepot or other design museums. The female contribution exists, it just needs to be mentioned and added to design history.