KUBAPARIS MUSE #1 Jorge Suárez

AK What is Kilzi about?

JS Kilzi, the word, is an old Aramaic word meaning “the one who works with plaster-chalk” referring to buildings, especially facades back then. Kilzi, the design project, is my family name and a very close part of my soul and who I am. There is no “Kilzi” without me, and more and more so, no me without “Kilzi”. Kilzi is about simple yet complex and robust. Kilzi gets inspired by imperfect quirky things. Cute animals, a group of stones, a decayed milking stool, and a tall thatched house… It is the sophistication on the simple and human. Some sort of modern-self-adapted wabi sabi translated into new-contemporary pieces. Kilzi is in a way an unbearable feeling inside me wanting to create, every minute I am up, and most likely also while I sleep.

AK In your Instagram bio, you wrote that you draw inspiration from nature and vernacular art. How would you elaborate on that?

JS Nature is to me the ultimate source of wisdom, followed by time. Without the long years we have inhabited earth, we wouldn’t know what to eat, how to speak, how to organize life, and then not anything else after that. To feel that an object comes across as wise, is a powerful thing. Something that somehow feels like it’s always been there and occupies its space with no pretensions. A twig, a nest, a group of mushrooms, an old house, a stone-carved sink for washing near the river. All of those things have this attitude that to me is so striking: some severe inner equilibrium.

AK What is your design process like?

JS It’s a total mess, of ideas and little jumps in my heart (literally, when I see something that inspires me my belly jumps and I feel like I should build it immediately). I sketch some ideas in small post-its, or in a notebook, and eventually try to translate them into 3D and create some renderings whenever I can. Then, I try to find out easy ways to build them, go through the painful process of finding who is willing to make it and put some love into it. Often this bit is discouraging. If I get the correct answers from those who I have been collecting info from, I ask them to create a first prototype. That prototype helps me discover new problems to solve and think about, and then I can take some pictures and see if they are well received and sell them :)

AK Any tips for young designers?

JS The idea of giving advice to younger designers makes me sound old and as if I had any expertise to share other than my intuition and the many hours I have put into my pieces these past two years (this is a fairly new project). But there is something I have learned and seem to keep repeating: there is no too-small-of-a-door not to knock. The tall golden door may not lead you as far as you think, or may not even open. But do knock them all and take a patient look inside, and be fearless of trying.

AK Would you share with us three pieces of art (e.g. from the fields of music, literature, visual arts, and architecture) that are meaningful to you?

JS hmm. For music, right now me and my boyfriend like to joke on how random Noh theatre ambientation music sounds like. I enjoy it in a weird funny way. But it changes. Also, I met Arca couple years ago, we had a short and beautiful friendship. Her music inspires me too. Literature, I am sadly not as avid of a reader as I used to be when I was younger. But I remember liking the atmosphere of some far away towns isolated from the world in magic surrealism like in Gabriel Garcia Marques or Herta Müller’s work. For architecture, I can’t seem to have enough of Mexican architects. Recently saw a few pictures of one of Hector Barroso’s houses in Mexico, and I was drawling non-stop. Other than that, vernacular architecture always makes me shake the most. The Pedralbes monastery for instance has amazing corners. Japanese tea-rooms I have had the chance to visit in rural Japan. Or Sant Martí Vell little alleys.

AK When was the last time you were kissed by a Muse?

JS For inspiration, and ideas, I am lucky to write this from Japan, where I have been for the past two weeks. Here there have been so many amazing inspiring moments. I would highlight the train ride along the Hida River! The shapes in the stone made me soooo happy and I wish I could make pieces which had that energy and strength.

AK Thanks Jorge for being our Muse <3