Way back when in 2005 had ik een interview met oppergod van de designwereld Karim Rashid. Hij (toen 45, nu 51 dus) was in Nederland, gaf een lezing in Breda, ik was uitgenodigd en kon ‘m interviewen. Monique, die zich op dat moment in Amsterdam schoolde als styliste, oh sorry topstyliste, was helemaal aan het stuiteren in de woonkamer. ‘Karim Rashid! Karim Rashid! Ga jij naar Karim Rashid?’
Anyway, Karim Rashid dus.
Op dat moment was ik nog in dienst bij Reed Business, als hoofdredacteur van FZ, en kwam o-ver-al binnen. Ook daar in die grote kerk in Breda. Het gesprek met Karim was bewust heel kort, geen gedoe, geen videoopnames (wel een fotograaf besteld: Koos!), waar ik toen erg mee bezig was waren: SPEEDINTERVIEWS. Zo snel mogelijk tot de kern van iemands zijn komen. Ook bij Karim Rashid. Hieronder een fragment van het speedinterview met hem. Niet over design, architectuur of mode, maar over living in the NOW.
( … ) I am half a Jew, half English, but also the way I was brought up with a father who is an artist but also a designer. And he lived very much in the NOW, in the present. You know. And we travelled around the world. So I never felt attached to any place, or any culture, any language or any religion.
You’re in this global big world and you can go anywhere… But still, in reality there are more people living in the past and the future than in the present. In the NOW. I think it has something to do with the notion that we have memory that we tend to spent al lot of time in the past…
Yeah, what can you do..
Sometimes I would like to have an operation to cut that part of my memory out. I don’t wanna get old and think about myself as a child. It’s imprisonment. You’re trapped. Like Jean Paul Satre said on existentialism. You’re trapped, when you become very old all your memories will become very strong of when you were young. This is the present.
So that’s the optimum of living in the present to not see your youth as your big moment.
Ofcourse, do you know what my big moment is?
Now.
Now! Right now. Here I am talking to you. This is my big moment. Hahaha.
Your questions weren’t that much about business… they were very philosophical, right?
Yeah, it´s what you said that I´m interested in: the human being. Okay, thanks for the interview… and have a nice life.
Same to you.
