The Royal cup, souvenir for Cotroceni National Museum

This year I  won the first object design competition. A competition organized by the Cotroceni National Museum in collaboration with The Institute.

Through this project, the MNC aims to develop its souvenir shop, an important attraction for all museums in the world. The project has challenged local designers to create souvenirs inspired by exhibits in the museum, central personalities related to this palace or historical moments.

The initiative seemed to me avant-garde, new to Romania. The involvement of local creators in urban activities, especially in a national museum, is a joy, a sign of normality that we hope to propagate to other museums.

Revisiting the Cotroceni Palace for the purpose of documenting, made me see everything with other eyes, I discovered details and stories I had not noticed before.

“The royal cup is inspired by the decorative motifs of the royal or neo-romanian living room (1913-1916), composed of” King Arthur’s great meal “and 24 chairs designed by Queen Maria and made in furniture workshops in Vienna. I chose to use the secondary motifs that decorate this furniture, which attracted me through the naivety of design, the Celtic dragons along with the mermaid and the lion, which are found both at the base of the table and in the design of the parietal grille. These symbolic characters give, at a closer look, a ludicrous appearance to this room, which reveals the Queen’s joyful humour, who also puts a personal footprint here. Now the “royal cup” is available for sale in the souvenir shop of the Cotroceni National Museum, along with other pieces created by Romanian designers.