Ludwig Menzel

Studio EM04

Silversmith

©Jürgen Baumann

©Celine and Konrad Jünger

©Celine Jünger

©Celine and Konrad Jünger

Creativity tamed and untamed

Ludwig experiments with the notion of the known
Innovation and tradition can be found in form and technique
He feels enjoyment of craft is vital for its future

In 1964 Ludwig Menzel was born into a family of ceramicists. However, he pursued a different path. In 1990, upon completion of his education at the Zeichenakademie Hanau, he joined the workshop of the internationally renowned goldsmith and silversmith Hermann Jünger. For ten years he learned from the grand master, refining his skills and expanding his knowledge of materials and techniques before building up his own workshop in Berlin, which has been the base for his work since 1997. Out of this laboratory of ideas, Ludwig has developed an outstanding aesthetic in which his playful urge to experiment and question the familiar manifests through technical mastery. Therefore, his works are an expression of both tamed and untamed creativity, something that has been recognised nationally as well as internationally.

Interview

©Celine and Konrad Jünger

©Celine and Konrad Jünger

Are the notions of tradition and innovation relevant to your work?: Yes. There is tradition in the form and the technique, but there is also the potential for innovation in both. In my work it is mostly a combination, but it changes; sometimes the innovation is in the form and the tradition in the technique and sometimes it is vice versa.
What comes first, form or technique?: The technique is always bound to the idea that I want to realise. Thus, a technique is applied or altered according to the result I want to achieve. It is a means to an expression.
How would you describe the process of creation?: It is a search for an expression and I am always hopeful that I will find it in the process of creation. It is a process of immersion in which head and hands form a symbiosis.
What will it take for crafts to remain relevant in the future?: Pleasure, on the part of the craftsman as well as the collector. Pleasure is a sufficient ingredient for creating and collecting, but crafts only have a future if it is present on both sides.

Ludwig Menzel is an expert artisan: he began his career in 1991