Please tell us, who are Smith & Winken?

Smith & Winken is a studio laboratory created in 2020 by Valery Kuznetsov and Otto Winken. Smith & Winken combines two designers with a solid professional background and immense experience in architecture and product design.

Smith (Valeriy Kuznetsov) is a co-founder of the Ukrainian studio decorkuznetsov. Valeriy is an author of interior projects, participant of European exhibitions, and winner of international competitions, including Red Dot 2020, 2015. Otto Winken is a Ukrainian engineer and architect of Austrian origin. Otto has numerous architectural and unique design projects under his belt.

What can you tell us about your sculptures Skipper, Kabuki, and 903?

All three sculptures are part of a project called Endless Movement, a limited-edition kinetic sculpture collection that currently contains 20 objects. Skipper, with its moving light sources, is the illuminated one. The alternately pulsating form symbolises the permanency and cycling structure of life processes. The sculpture is built from contrast metal and paper pleats that resemble the durability and fragility of life.

Kabuki is about singing, music, dance, and drama forming a harmonious synthesis in one object. Everything is like in the Japanese Kabuki theater. Every move is thought out and accurate. Its plasticity is focused on creating a single image. The sculpture emphasises the beauty of open structures and focuses on the trajectory of moving parts.

903 is an embryo about to begin its movement and evolution. Sculpture 903 makes an oscillating movement along its usual trajectory. The viewer’s mind slows down and adjusts to a meditative perception of the world without noticing. The vessels move smoothly, as if on the edge of the miracle that is about to happen, of something new that is about to be born. Artificial intelligence has already created a perception of parallel reality. You immerse deeper and deeper, and the matrix has you.