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MAGAZINEWe spoke to Carolina Wachter
about the Avant Garde
collaboration she hosted...Tell us about this collaboration
Avant Garde is a collaboration inspired
by kinetic art, whether sculptures or
paintings. The characteristic of this art
is the visual use of movement and the
idea is to transmit that concept in the
works. Besides the artistic concept of
kinetic, I tried to incorporate another
element as a way to give a higher
demand to those participating in the
challenge. The second concept is the
use of high-tech, such as 3D printing or
laser cut, incorporated in haute couture
design. That is, haute couture designs
that use this type of technology in its
production. The idea of merging these
two concepts was to reach innovating
designs, proposals which probably
would be used in the future, a new era
in cake design. I wanted to guide every
one of the members to their maximum
creativity, reaching in some way the
disruption of paradigms in what
concerns cake design.What inspired you to do this theme?
I have been a Bakerswood Ambassador
a few years now, besides being an
industrial designer and cake designer
for eight years. I was asked to develop
an issue and propose it as a challenge
to the group. I was specifically asked
to prepare something innovative. I
had already participated in some of
the challenges of the group but not
as organiser. I did have experience
in organising collaborations having
made the Children’s classic books
sweet collaboration in 2017, it was
a wonderful experience for me. As a
little one, I always liked haute couture
dresses and kinetic art was something
that always called my attention so
I considered incorporating it in the
challenge as a concept of design
very interesting. In this challenge, I
didn’t participate as a creative but as
organiser. In this way, I would have
100% of my time to make correctionsto the members as well as be a good
guide at the same time.Tell us about a few of the pieces that
have been made
It is difficult to choose just one piece
since there are many that stand out. But
if I had to highlight any, I would stress
three that are my favourites:
The piece by Linda Hackett I love
because it is simple, monochromatic
and she incorporates the use of
wafer paper, which I consider very
contemporary. I love the purity of lines
in her designs. In spite of using many
elements, being monochromatic, it
manages to be pure. The second piece
I really love is by Liliana Jimenez.
Kinetic art plays a fundamental role and
she manages balance and movement
perfectly, you can see each part is
calculated for this job. I like the piece
by Crina Biris simply because I am
acquainted with her work and love to
see how she develops her processes,
starting from the blueprint up to the
final result. For me, she really is a
unique artist in the world. She managed
to generate pure and tidy movement.
Others I consider outstanding are
those from Ana Remígio through the
merging of three different dresses and
its production, Sandra Draskovic for
the visual impact her job causes in
colour and movement and Dora Luca’s
is no doubt something that surprised
me since her proposal is very different
to the others. She used royal icing
amazingly for a concept that is very
modern, she broke the paradigm.How many members are in your
collaboration and how did you
decide on this group of people?
A total of 45 artists from different parts
of the world. In this challenge, you were
invited. It wasn’t just a matter of asking
to be accepted because both concepts
were difficult and it was stipulated it
would be a challenge for people with
advanced abilities, not for starters
in the group but for people with
experience in cake design. To make theselection, I didn’t have a rule, I simply
limited myself to evaluate everyone’s
work in their portfolios on social
networks to get to know if they had the
abilities to come to a good end in this
challenge. According to this, they were
accepted or invited.Did anything go wrong during the
process?
I believe there are two fundamental
aspects where we had problems
in this challenge. On the one hand,
to make clear to the participants
how to generate integration of the
two concepts in just one design. In
some cases, although the design was
well done, the integration I hoped
for was not reached. The second is
the visual presentation, to get each
participant to understand this should
be mostly professional because it is my
presentation chart to the world, this is
my work. It is said that an image says a
thousand words and for me, the quality
of a good photo is always essential.
Many times you do an excellent job, but
your photos don’t give justice to the
marvel you have done. Due to this, we
invested much time making corrections
to each member in their photos. In
some cases, they were asked to make
them again in order to improve the
presentation of their art.If you were to do it again, what would
you do differently?
Should there be a second version of
this challenge, one of the points I would
change is concepts, that they get to
know how to integrate them. I think
this is what resulted in more difficulty
in some opportunities. I would not
change the rest since I worked with an
exceptional elite group.If you were to do another
collaboration, how should others get
involved?
I would work to get others involved.
This gave me great satisfaction. I love
design in all its forms and destiny took
me to this sweet world by accident.Avant Garde Cakes
COLLABORATION