Stoa’s Tardu Kuman: Building Relations through Objects

Tardu Kuman studied philosophy, but has always liked doing things by hands and produced objects for himself. When he was a student in Paris, he made jewellery by bending, casting and clinching metals. During the 6 years he lived in Athens, he designed jewellery in his atelier.

“During that time, my friend and my master Panayotis Kanelakis and I were designing and producing mostly wooden objects one by one. I came back to Istanbul in 1998 and founded Stoa. In Stoa, we produce mostly wooden objects that we design ourselves. It’s not mass production,” he states. “We also use materials such as metal, leather, glass, stone and rock and we try to give them form in our own atelier. Sometimes we add finished products into the design like the car scissors and sailing materials in that rocking chair.”

“If we think that the objects we use also define our lives and impose a specific type of existence, we can say that the whole process is much related to the question ‘What kind of a world do we want?’ We live in a world that everything is consumed so fast, the newest thing is the most valuable one, and fashion and daily trends rule. We try to design and produce objects which offer modern people defined with a limitless need of consumption an opportunity to build relations rather than dilemmas such as ‘wearing off/wearing out’ or ‘being in/being out’ – objects with a potential of building a common historical ground… So I can call them timeless objects in that sense. We try not to lose the naturalness of the materials we use, and we try to make out techniques compatible with that. It means that we produce things in our own manners rather than applying carpenter techniques.”

“The most challenging and fun part of this process when producing something for the first time is trying to reach the perfect aesthetic and ergonomic result by making changes on the prototype. Of course, what we produce is related to the general trend in the world but beyond that, we especially remain distant to what is ‘in’. Instead, we are excited that a wooden table we make can be also used by your grandchildren.”

“I think it’s better to name what comes out at the end of this process ‘individual objects’ rather than furniture. Therefore, we can say that Kuman stands somewhere in between art and artisanship. Lately, I have completed a moving, sonorous construction series I’ve named ‘Storm Bells’. I hope I will have a chance to display it this year. Just like the issue of today’s art is what is arty or not, design and designer’s world should not remain as a field of expertise within the limits of his/her work. Individuals should use the wealth of different disciplines, fields of thought and culture at least in designing and beautifying their lives. I think they will be the locals of the globalizing world. I would like to finish my words repeating Etica’s wisely finale sentence: ‘What is beautiful is rare as well as it’s hard!'”