Aldo Cibic (architect and designer)
A distinction needs making on art and design. Personally, I'm from the Sottsass school. I began working at 22 years of age with a master of design, one of those who have shown the "shift" from art to design most clearly. What I don't agree with is so many designers shifting over to art, especially the art market. For instance, in Basel you have a hyped up art market rubbing shoulders with design. At the present time we're at a point where design needs to tell some new and different stories from the stark reality we're heading for. We're living at a historical moment when it's all uphill; it's no time for dreaming of a blissful future. On the other hand, I am interested in the relationship between art and design when a poetic side to the object can be glimpsed - even a certain uselessness. But free from the violence of today's art world. I don't like the trendy new mania for collecting design. I don't like it as a new market invented just for the hell of it. Nor watching a lot of designers earning a bomb by limited editions in a market parallel to the art market.