It would be unfair to label Objects of Common Interest simply as a design studio, since its founders, Eleni Petaloti and Leonidas Trampoukis, are mostly interested in the story before its incarnation, focusing on abstract shape before its material manifestation and light before its spatial dynamic. Architecture, objects, installations, ephemeral environments, and the exposure of their work to unexpected public behaviour, are the core interest of the couple who met as students and have evolved together, through architecture and design, always working on parallel projects that seem to continuously keep them both on their creative toes. Objects of Common Interest was launched in 2015, while their architectural firm LOT had been around since 2012, with both having offices in Athens as well as New York. With their Greek heritage carved into their subconscious (in one of their projects they applied Euclidean geometry), the couple has also managed to blend the two diverse cultures they dwell in into a dual identity that endows their work with an excitingly creative dialogue. After an impressive body of work that includes, among others, the Flatiron Sky-Line, (a series of illuminated white steel arches temporarily installed on Manhattan’s Flatiron Plaza in 2016), Untitled, an installation of glass blocks with colourful laminates for the VIP lounge of Collective Design in New York, and the installation Formations for Art Athina 2018, they have now created a mirrored installation called Landscape for this year’s Collectible Design Fair in Brussels (March 14-17, 2019). Yatzer recently caught up with Eleni and Leonidas to discuss their latest project, their creative relationship, and their design philosophy. (Answers have been condensed and edited for clarity.)
Objects of Common Interest, Tube Lights, part of Landscape installation, 2019. Photo by Lauren Coleman.
共同感兴趣的对象，地铁灯，部分景观安装，2019年。图为劳伦·科尔曼。
Objects of Common Interest, Landscape, 2019. Photo by Marco Arguello.
共同感兴趣的对象，景观，2019年。图片来源：MarcoArguello。
Objects of Common Interest, Landscape, 2019. Photo by Marco Arguello.
共同感兴趣的对象，景观，2019年。图片来源：MarcoArguello。
LOT, Flatiron Sky-Line, 2016. Manhattan, New York. Photo by Brian W. Ferry.
How did your partnership come about? In your creative relationship do you have distinct roles, in that one is the mind and the other the soul? We have been partners in life for a while. Without planning it, we have been following a similar direction, with architecture studies in Greece, Paris, and then New York. We both worked in architecture and Eleni also worked in the art world. Soon we found an expressional interest in objects and this in-between scale of installations, still life objects, and presentations that always have an architectural sensibility, as this is what we have in common. Our creative process begins with the two of us brainstorming together, mostly through conversation, but we do have separate roles later on during production or construction or while working with our collaborators, since we are occupied in multiple projects at the same time. Which is the principal feeling you wish to evoke with your work? We want to evoke feelings through personal perception and not to impose a direct concept or a reaction. This is one reason why we have been designing a lot of different projects, not creating similar variations from one work to the other, but each one starting from a completely new perspective, ideas triggered from our way of looking at things.
LOT, Flatiron Sky-Line, 2016. Manhattan, New York. Photo by Brian W. Ferry.
LOT, Flatiron Sky-Line, 2016. Manhattan, New York. Photo by Brian W. Ferry.
批次，FlatronSky-line，2016。纽约曼哈顿。布莱恩·W·轮渡的照片。
Objects of Common Interest, Bent Stool, 2016. Marble. Relativity of Color glassware, 2017. Hand-blown Glass, Acrylic. Photo by Brooke Holm.
Objects of Common Interest, Tube Chair in collaboration with Falke Svatun, 2018. Chair Foam, Fabric. Photo by Charlie Schuck.
Working from both Athens and New York, what have you seen to be the creative dialogue between the two cities? There has been a great interest in Greece, in particular Athens and the islands, during the past two-three years. It’s not just a post-crisis affection but, from what we believe, it has to do with a creative spirit and extroversion that came from the Greek side and inspirationally reached and touched quite an interesting and important New York crowd, within the field of art and design; and vice versa of course. There has always been an interest in Greece but now it is a true creative interest and the press soon followed. Within this context there have been many initiatives to bridge the distance with collaborations, events, exchanges, publications and so on. We think we have also contributed in our own way, by blending the cultures in our work and initiatives to work both here and there and often talk about the importance of this back and forth from NY to Greece for the creative process we follow. Does an object of common interest always need to have a use, be that practical or not? We always assign a label, a role onto an object, but we always invite personal interpretation and it is often the case that the use changes through the design process to production. A stool can be a side table, a sculptural piece, or an abstract snapshot from a larger installation. We like working with notions of flexibility, ambiguity, illusion or de-familiarization.
在雅典和纽约工作，你认为这两个城市之间的创造性对话是什么？在过去的两三年里，人们对希腊，特别是雅典和这些岛屿产生了极大的兴趣。这不仅仅是一种危机后的感情，但从我们看来，这与一种来自希腊的创造性精神和外向有关，在艺术和设计领域，这是一种充满灵感和感召力的纽约人群，也是非常有趣和重要的人群；当然，反之亦然。人们一直对希腊感兴趣，但现在这是一种真正的创造性兴趣，媒体很快就跟进了。在这方面，采取了许多主动行动，以缩小与协作、活动、交流、出版物等之间的距离。我们认为，我们也以自己的方式作出了贡献，在我们的工作和倡议中融入了各种文化，在这里和那里开展工作，并经常谈到从纽约到希腊的这一点对我们所遵循的创造性进程的重要性。共同感兴趣的对象是否总是需要有用途，是实际的还是不实用的？我们总是在对象上指定一个标签，一个角色，但是我们总是邀请个人的解释，而且通常情况下，在设计过程中，使用会改变到产品上。凳子可以是侧桌子、雕塑片，也可以是大型安装的抽象快照。我们喜欢灵活、模棱两可、幻想或不熟悉的概念.
Objects of Common Interest, Layer Stool, 2016. Marble, Wool Felt, Steel. Photo by Matthieu Salvaing.
Objects of Common Interest, Layer Stool, 2016. Marble, Wool Felt, Steel. Photo by Matthieu Salvaing.
共同感兴趣的对象，层层凳子，2016年。大理石羊毛毡钢。照片由马蒂厄萨尔瓦多。
Objects of Common Interest, Layer Stool, 2016. Marble, Wool Felt, Steel. Photo by Matthieu Salvaing.
共同感兴趣的对象，层层凳子，2016年。大理石羊毛毡钢。照片由马蒂厄萨尔瓦多。
Objects of Common Interest, Layer Stool, 2016. Marble, Wool Felt, Steel. Photo by Matthieu Salvaing.
共同感兴趣的对象，层层凳子，2016年。大理石羊毛毡钢。照片由马蒂厄萨尔瓦多。
Objects of Common Interest, Layer Stools, 2016. Marble, Wool Felt, Steel. Photo by Matthieu Salvaing.
共同感兴趣的对象，分层凳子，2016年。大理石羊毛毡钢。照片由马蒂厄萨尔瓦多。
Where do you feel your work belongs the most? Open spaces, a home, or a museum? We have created work for public spaces, such as Formations for the Art Athina building entrance or Flatiron Sky-Line that was installed at the Flatiron Plaza in New York and later moved to a museum context at the Musée National des Beaux-arts du Québec. Other works are part of private collections, commissioned in collaboration with companies, such as Spectacle for Design Miami in partnership with Maharam, or live only in memory since they were temporary works, such as the glass block installation designed for the VIP lounge at the Collective Design Fair in New York. We would say that works installed in open or public spaces such as a city or a museum, where there is interaction with the public and exposure to unforeseen behaviour, is of high interest to us as it inspires new ideas for interactive projects. Where in the world is your favorite public space? If you could reshape one public space which one would you choose and why? The two of us have different spaces in mind, and each holds its position as a special space. It may not be our favorite design-wise, but more because of a personal connection we might have. Eleni has been talking about memories at the ‘Wasser Blitz Brunnen’ urban sculpture in Munich, for Leonidas it is the Chase Manhattan plaza in downtown NY, with Isamu Noguchi’s Sunken Garden and Jean Dubuffet’s Group of Four Trees sculpture. These places have definitely been connected with special moments.
你觉得你的工作最适合哪里？开放空间，家，还是博物馆？我们已经为公共空间创造了工作，例如艺术阿蒂纳建筑入口或Flatiron Sky-Line的建造，安装在纽约的Flatiron广场，后来搬到魁北克省国家艺术博物馆。其他作品是私人收藏品的一部分，是与公司合作委托的，例如与Maharam合作的迈阿密设计奇观，或者仅仅生活在记忆中，因为它们是临时作品，比如为纽约集体设计博览会的VIP休息室设计的玻璃砌块装置。我们要说，安装在开放或公共空间(如城市或博物馆)的作品，在那里与公众进行互动，并暴露于无法预见的行为，是我们非常感兴趣的，因为它激发了互动项目的新想法。你最喜欢的公共空间在哪里？如果你能重塑一个公共空间，你会选择哪一个，为什么？我们两人心中有不同的空间，每个人都有一个特殊的空间。这可能不是我们最喜欢的设计，但更多的是因为我们可能有个人的联系。在慕尼黑的“Wasser Blitz Brunnen”城市雕塑中，Eleni一直在谈论记忆，因为Leonidas是位于纽约市中心的大通曼哈顿广场，有Isamu Noguchi的沉船花园和Jean DuBuffet的四棵树雕塑。这些地方绝对与特殊时刻有关。
Objects of Common Interest, Formations. Spatial Installation at Art Athina 2018, Athens, 21–24 June 2018. Photo by Omar Sartor.
共同感兴趣的对象，形成。2018年6月21日至24日，雅典，阿蒂纳艺术公司的空间安装。照片由奥马尔·萨特拍摄。
Objects of Common Interest, Formations. Spatial Installation at Art Athina 2018, Athens, 21–24 June 2018. Photo by Omar Sartor.
共同感兴趣的对象，形成。2018年6月21日至24日，雅典，阿蒂纳艺术公司的空间安装。照片由奥马尔·萨特拍摄。
Objects of Common Interest, Spectacle. Spatial Installation at Design Talks Theater at Design Miami, 2017, Miami Beach, December 7–10 2017. In partnership with Maharam.
共同感兴趣的事物，奇观。空间安装在设计会谈剧院在设计迈阿密，2017年12月7日至10日迈阿密海滩。与Maharam合作。
Objects of Common Interest, Spectacle. Spatial Installation at Design Talks Theater at Design Miami, 2017, Miami Beach, December 7–10 2017. In partnership with Maharam.
共同感兴趣的事物，奇观。空间安装在设计会谈剧院在设计迈阿密，2017年12月7日至10日迈阿密海滩。与Maharam合作。
What are you inspired by? Has your Greek heritage influenced you in any way? We are inspired by the everyday, moments of abstract beauty and randomly found things. We are inspired by art, mainly the circumstances that have allowed art forms to emerge and the stories of the artists that led them to create the art they created: minimal art, land art, surrealism… We do carry our Greek influence in all of the things we do, not just in the form of historic references or education – that would be more direct or evident, but rather as a feeling or an influence that is cultural and helps us maintain a sensitivity and an underlying identity in our work and personal life, not necessarily visible to all, but for us it is what drives us and motivates us. We have been living and working between Greece and New York for a while so we never really lost any connection with any of the two worlds. Do you believe traditional crafts still have a role to play in contemporary design? Is there one you most admire? Yes definitely, traditional crafts will always have a role to play in design no matter what new technology is being developed. In fact new technologies always draw inspiration from traditional crafts as they aim to resemble them in their outcome. We have been fortunate to be working with many craftsmen, mostly in Greece as we have been trying, since the beginning, to support and also discover new talent. We have been inspired and learned so much working with a piece of marble, not so much in terms of the technology of the craft but from the attention and care that is given to the material by the people who work with it.
你受什么启发？你的希腊血统对你有任何影响吗？我们受到每天抽象化美的时刻和随机发现的事物的启发。我们受到艺术的启发，主要是让艺术形式出现的环境，以及导致他们创作艺术的艺术家的故事：最低限度的艺术，土地艺术，超现实主义的…。我们确实在我们所做的所有事情中都有我们的希腊影响，不只是以历史参照或教育的形式-这将是更直接或明显的，而是作为一种感觉或一种文化的影响，帮助我们在我们的工作和个人生活中保持一种敏感性和一种基本的身份，这并不是所有人都能看到的，但对我们来说，这是我们的动力和动力。我们在希腊和纽约之间生活和工作了一段时间，所以我们从未真正失去与这两个世界中任何一个世界的联系。你认为传统手工艺在当代设计中还能发挥作用吗？有你最欣赏的吗？是的，无论开发什么新技术，传统工艺都将在设计中发挥作用。事实上，新技术总是从传统手工艺中得到灵感，因为它们的目标是在结果上与它们相似。我们很幸运地与许多工匠一起工作，大多数是在希腊，因为我们从一开始就一直在努力支持和发现新的人才。我们受到启发，学到了很多与大理石一起工作的经验，不是从工艺技术方面，而是从与它一起工作的人们对材料的关注和关心中学到的。
Objects of Common Interest, Parallel Bench, 2016. Marble, Steel Tubes. Photo by Matthieu Salvaing.
Objects of Common Interest, Parallel Bench, 2016. Marble, Steel Tubes. Photo by Matthieu Salvaing.
共同感兴趣的对象，平行法官席，2016年。大理石钢管。照片由马蒂厄萨尔瓦多。
Objects of Common Interest, Relativity of Color, 2017. Glassware made from Hand-blown Glass – Acrylic. Photo by Brooke Holm.
共同感兴趣的对象，颜色的相对性，2017年。手工玻璃制玻璃器皿
Objects of Common Interest, Side Tables, 2016. Marble, Cast Acrylic. Photo by Brooke Holm.
Objects of Common Interest, Side Table, 2016. Marble, Cast Acrylic. Relativity of Color glassware, 2017. Hand-blown Glass, Acrylic. Photo by Brooke Holm.
How has technology influenced your work? Has it helped you achieve the supposedly impossible, and if so how? Technology is not something we base our work on, but it offers us the freedom to create, knowing that concepts we want to create will be feasible, so there are no restrictions other than a conceptual one. We have not yet flirted with the impossible. Tell us about your latest installation, Landscape, for the Collectible design fair in Brussels. This is the first time you have worked with light, why is that? This is a question we have been asked many times lately. We had been preoccupied with many different projects, from architecture to design, and didn’t have the clarity and time required to develop light fittings. Tube Lights, our first light project, feature glowing curved formations, shapes that appear to be pliant and soft, allowing for ideas that we have used in our vocabulary – illusion, geometric clarity, simplicity and complexity etc. – to be applied in lighting objects that stand alone as sculptures, yet also as lights. Sight Unseen, the online publication and curatorial platform from New York, invited us to take over their special project booth at Collectible, with an open brief. Landscape is a space installation we created by exhibiting Tube Lights together with a limited edition series of upholstered seating elements.
技术如何影响您的工作？它帮助你实现了所谓的不可能，如果是这样呢？技术不是我们在工作的基础，但是它为我们创造了创造的自由，知道我们想要创造的概念将是可行的，因此除了概念概念之外，没有任何限制。我们还没有与不可能的人调情。告诉我们你最近的安装、风景和在布鲁塞尔的可收藏的设计博览会。这是你第一次和光线一起工作，为什么？这是我们最近多次问的问题。我们一直忙于许多不同的项目，从建筑到设计，并没有为开发灯具所需的清晰度和时间。管灯，我们的第一个灯光项目，特征发光的曲面，形状看起来是柔韧的和柔软的，允许我们在我们的词汇中使用的想法-幻觉、几何清晰、简单性和复杂性等。-应用于作为雕塑单独站立的照明物体，还可用作灯光。在纽约的网上出版和网上平台上看不见的，邀请我们在可收藏的特殊项目展位上，用一个开放式的简短介绍。景观是我们通过展示管灯和有限版本的软垫座椅元件而创建的空间安装。
Objects of Common Interest, Untitled. Installation at the VIP Lounge at Collective Design 2018, New York, March 8–11 2018. Photo by Clemens Kois.
共同感兴趣的对象，无标题。2018年3月8日至11日，纽约，集体设计2018年贵宾休息室安装。图片来源于克莱门斯·柯伊斯。
Objects of Common Interest, Landscape installation for Collectible Design Fair in Brussels, Mar 14-17, 2019. Photo by Jeroen Verrecht.
共同感兴趣的对象，可收藏设计博览会的景观安装，布鲁塞尔，2019年3月14-17日。图片来源于Jeroen Verrecht。
Objects of Common Interest, Landscape installation for Collectible Design Fair in Brussels, Mar 14-17, 2019. Photo by Jeroen Verrecht.
共同感兴趣的对象，可收藏设计博览会的景观安装，布鲁塞尔，2019年3月14-17日。图片来源于Jeroen Verrecht。
Objects of Common Interest, Landscape installation for Collectible Design Fair in Brussels, Mar 14-17, 2019. Photo by Jeroen Verrecht.
共同感兴趣的对象，可收藏设计博览会的景观安装，布鲁塞尔，2019年3月14-17日。图片来源于Jeroen Verrecht。
Leonidas Trampoukis – Eleni Petaloti portrait. Photo by Mattheu Salvaing.
keywords:Design
关键词：设计