Igor Macák is the only ceramist who, together with his wife Iveta, runs his craft in the Crafts Alley in Košice.
Location: Hrnčiarska Street 19, Košice
Foreigners like ceramics with motifs of nature, plants and fish the most.
Almost every foreign travel guide book about Slovakia mentions traditional Slovak folk majolica Modra. It was in the factory where this ceramics was produced and at the school called SOU Slovak Folk Majolika Modra that Igor Macák completed his ceramic education in 1978. “In this unique ceramic school as well as in the factory for the production of Modra ceramics I got an excellent foundation for my later ceramic work”, remembers the potter from Hrnčiarská Street in Košice. Later he worked in the realisation workshops of well known company Dielo at the Slovak Fine Arts Fund. He, together with his co-workers, put into practise the works of art of leading artists in the field of ceramics in Bohemia and Slovakia. It meant that an academically educated artist created a design and we translated it into ceramic form,” explains Macák. The original products of the author are now also sold under the brand of UĽUV – (The Centre for Folk Art Production). “ÚĽUV also sells our products because our work is based on traditional methods, which are usually enriched by our specific decoration and colouring: we also have our own decoration approved by ÚĽUV”, say the Macáks.
If a tourist enters the ceramics shop at 19 Hrnčiarská Street in Košice, he will find himself in a paradise of baked clay, bowls, vases and glazed mugs. Here he will find various types of ceramics with a wide range of motifs, glazes and shapes, from tiny ceramic original crosses, through whole ceramic sets and services to reliefs with folk and Slovak motifs. What do visitors to Košice like most? According to Mr and Mrs Macák, each visitor prefers something different: “Germans mostly buy ceramics baked at high temperatures (1050 °C) with glaze inside and natural motifs of plants and fish. “Finns like our trapezoidal glazed ceramic relief with motifs of Christ, Virgin Mary, which we took from wooden washing paddles in Slovakia”, Iveta Macáková observed. Those original washing paddles were used in the mangling of linen only in Slovakia, it was a specificity of our region. The ceramics produced by Igor and Iveta Macáková were also given to several presidents of EU countries who attended the joint summit in Košice. “There were large bowls and vases with a tulip pattern”, the couple describe their original ceramics that went into the hands of the heads of states. Igor Macák also demonstrated his pottery craft at an exhibition about Slovakia, which had been organised in the European Union in 2004 on the occasion of Slovakia’s accession to the EU. The local audience were interested in the engraved decoration with a fish and a plant motifs.
The ceramicist also exhibited his products in the German town of Annaberg-Buchholz in Saxony. “It was ceramics inspired by the Bukov Mountain culture. It dates back to the Neolithic period around 5000 years B.C.. When creating this pottery, we based it on historical sources,” says Iveta Macáková, revealing their inspiration.
Thus, in the Macákovs’ ceramic shop, the tourist travels directly back in time, even imaginatively can be transported to the time of the earliest European civilisations and their ceramics of that time. “Archaeologists approached me with a request to create a copy of a find – the oldest toy in our territory – it was a ceramic trolley for children. This toy dates back to the Ottoman culture of the Old Bronze Age, about 1450 years B.C., and was found in the vicinity of Nižná Myšla”, explains Igor Macák. Visitors can see a ceramic copy of the cart with wooden wheels on the shelf directly in the shop on Hrnčiarská Street. What is remarkable about the work of Igor and Iveta Macák is that they remain faithful to the quality of ceramic workmanship, Slovak motifs and motifs of the region of Eastern Slovakia and keep up with the times. “We still buy technical literature on ceramics and are inspired by finds in our territory. We embody the acquired knowledge about ceramics into new decors and treatments, using our time-tested technological procedures”, Iveta Macáková reveals the secret of the success of their artistic creation which lasts more than thirty years of business in the field of ceramics and art.
© by Daniela Capcarová
photos by Bartolomej Cisár
