THROUGH THE NIGHT WITH Laura Catania

Name: Laura Catania
Age: 31
Place of Birth: Gelsenkirchen
Job: Support Machine

Professional Education:
Master of Arts in Communication Design
Website: www.lauracatania.de
Social: Instagram

*** Hier geht es zu deutschen Version des Beitrags / Click here for the German version of the article ***

“…I came back, from Berlin, because I felt that I had a mission in Düsseldorf and that it really mattered whether I live in this city or not.”

When Laura Catania came to Düsseldorf to study, she didn’t plan on staying. Meanwhile it’s been nine years and she no longer has any intention of leaving. Why? Not only because her designs (corporate identity for the Philara Collection, website design for the Moholy-Nagy Foundation and Andreas Gursky, for example) are in high demand, but also because she recently bought a laundry machine. We met Laura not only for an interview, but also for a spontaneous night out and about Düsseldorf.

You were born in Gelsenkirchen, but you are a Düsseldorfer- by-choice. When and why did you come to Düsseldorf? And why did you stay? Gelsenkirchen has only football, and when I gave up playing, it was clear to me that I had to leave! In 2008, it clicked. There were these studies in communication design that I completed relatively quickly after nine years. I didn’t stay, I came back, from Berlin, because I felt that I had a mission in Düsseldorf and that it really mattered whether I live in this city or not. That was different in Berlin. I love Düsseldorf! Salon des Amateurs and Kunstakademie Düsseldorf were mainly responsible for that. I met virtually everybody who plays a crucial role in my life in these institutions or at least through them.

Which designer has had the most lasting influence on your work? Thomas Spallek.

Which design would you like to have created? The corporate design of Volksbühne Berlin that the autono- mous graphic design studio LSD developed in 1992. For me, it is one of the smartest designs for public institutions in the field of arts and culture in a city that was then undergoing a radical change (or is so permanently). I wouldn’t say I would have liked to create the LSD design myself, but it has left a lasting impression on me and I admire it. In the foreword of the book “LSD Berlin — Gebrauchsgrafik und Fotografie”, Diedrich Diedrichsen wrote appropriately:“[…] The LSD design for Volksbühne and the cultural milieus in its surroundings is like a tree to lean on for the volatile situations of a stirred-up Berlin. A constant among so many variables. A framework that, particularly in the pictures in this book, allows volatility to defend its suggestive beauty against the ambitions of those who, amidst all this chaos, want to rebuild the city in a meaningful and stable fashion.”

Most recently you designed a website for Andreas Gursky. Which other artist would be the customer of your dreams? Next to Andreas Gursky, the customer of my dreams would be Madonna.

And with which artist would you once like to hang out with in Düsseldorf ? Katharina Sieverding is a city’s best companion — no matter in which city. Apart from that, I would like to have a date with Trisha Donnelly sometime.

What do you like most about Düsseldorf? “Voll von Zeitgeist und Glamör, einfach die geilste Stadt, ich schwör.” (Full of zeitgeist and glamour, simply the most wicked city, I swear.) Source: “Düsseldorf, du Stadt der Wunder” — Chiqueria

Is there one designer or artist in Düsseldorf whom you particularly appreciate and if yes, who? There is one person in Düsseldorf and it is Julia Stoschek, because she was the decisive impulse for me to take an interest in art and for everything to happen as it did.

Three places in Düsseldorf that you must show your visitors: The rose garden at Stadtmuseum, Salon des Amateurs and the Düsseldorf main station where they can board the train to Neuss direction Insel Hombroich.

For a kaffeeklatsch we find you at: Schinkentoni at Carlsplatz

What is your favourite place to spend a convivial evening with friends? Most of the evenings with friends are by an accident

Your favourite bar: Ellington Bar or on very special occasions time and again the strip joint Solid Gold. I like to go to Weingalerie at Carlsplatz, especially in summer.

Dance the night away! Location: Salon, Ding Dong!

Thank you!

Text: Barbara Russ
Photography: Sabrina Weniger
© THE DORF 2017

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