BUBBLE INCENSE ALTAR

Unexpected concept of porcelain, which in itself serves as an aesthetic element regardless of its primary purpose. The incense altar by renowned porcelain designer and educator Daniel Piršč is not just a functional object. It is a unique work of art. The rounded shapes and the changing power of the metallic finish blur the boundaries and blend fantasy with the reality of the external environment. Two shapes associate a fluid mass, which is being entered by a scented stick. In one case, by vertical free fall, seemingly falling through the altar, in the second case, an illustration of the sticks movement along a sideway trajectory, while deforming the material in front of it. You can choose one of three colours, but they never completely define the final form. No two pieces are the same. Where the surface curves more, the colours change and give each piece a completely unique look.

DANIEL PIRŠČ

The large Baroque building with a beautiful courtyard in the centre of Mikulov which Daniel Piršč bought as a residence for his studio was originally an inn. It was named “U Divokého muže” (At a wild man). PIRŠČ PORCELAIN has been based here since 2005.

Daniel Piršč, an associate professor at the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava, speaks in a thoughtful and quiet voice, his gestures supporting his statements. He interprets his successes simply as “it just happened”.

Absolutely necessary props in his studio are a french press for copious amounts of coffee (of course served in a cup from his own collection ‘Maryša’), a pool table, and a cat. The cat stamps a trail of porcelain dust paw prints around the studio. The building radiates the same energy as the whole city of Mikulov – a feeling of grandeur somewhat misplaced.

The white-painted spaces are ready to host a large art company at any time. A bar counter, that pool table, and just a few pieces of carefully selected designer furniture are mixed in with old bazaar pieces. Spacious French doors connect this area with a large grassy courtyard during the summer.

Piršč’s works are distributed here as if they’ve been somehow left behind, and so they don’t dominate the space. A steely blue falcon ‘flies’ on the largest wall. The connecting corridor to the workshops is decorated with two large four-leaf clovers – the largest pieces produced as part of the 3D wallpaper collection, one of the most famous collections by Piršč. All artistic production is concentrated in the building of the former stables. The long vault once housed more than thirty horses.

High above its original floor today a modern concrete surface is connecting the space onto a single level. This has created an elongated room that is illuminated through the south windows and which is filled with kilns, desks, and shelves full of fired porcelain, moulds, and already finished objects.

The shelves, full of newly produced porcelain a composition by itself revealing the constant development of Piršč‘s work and displaying his different creative periods. The diversity and the pure number of design ideas as well as the unprecedented technologies of porcelain finishing reveal that Daniel Piršč has been working in the field for several decades. From the time of his studies at the Prague Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in the early 1990s through active participation in the local design festival “Křehký Mikulov”, to currently classified projects which will be presented later this year.