To celebrate this year, we decided to take a look back and find the best articles written about us.
The greatest surprise of 2018 was the piece from NY Times. MBQ was mentioned and recommended as a “jewel-box” for handcrafted items. Another amazing article about MBQ was published in Wallpaper*, the world’s number one global design destination, championing the best in architecture, fashion, travel, art and lifestyle. The article told the story of MBQ’s collaboration with Austrian designers Nadja Zerunian and Peter Weisz. Air Canada ENROUTE magazine wandered throughout Bucharest and selected MBQ among the best tourist attractions in their terrific travel guide.
Now, going local, we were featured in Ziarul Financiar, the Romanian premier financial newspaper, Zeppelin, one of the most important architecture magazines and in Design Therapy, an online project which brings together design and psychology.
Get a closer look at our year through a short selection of words written by the above media.
- NY TIMES: 36 Hours in Bucharest
“For more handcrafted items, take a short stroll over to the jewel-box Mesteshukar Butiq at 7 Edgar Quinet to browse a selection of contemporary housewares and sumptuous leather bags. The items in the shop are a collaboration between designers and Roma craftsmen and women, and are part of an effort to improve the economics of the community. Check out the pounded-copper earrings (88 lei), the array of copper bowls (350-450 lei), and leather-accented whisk brooms (22 lei).”
- WALL PAPER* MAGAZINE: Meet the designers giving traditional European craft an unexpected contemporary edge
“Zerunian and Weisz kicked off their design partnership in 2014 with a collaboration with Roma craftspeople in Romania. Initially, Zerunian was taken on as a pro bono advisor by the Austria-based Erste Foundation to help marginalised Roma craft communities reinterpret their products for a global, design-savvy audience. She soon asked Weisz, a friend of a friend, to come on board to help create a fashion collection with Roma seamstresses. Their collaborators in Romania were the dynamic Bucharest-based social enterprise Meşteshukar ButiQ (MBQ).”
- AIR CANADA ENROUTE: Bucharest Inside Out
“In Bucharest, there’s a strong focus on contemporary design, fashion and home objects. MBQ, which opened three years ago in the centre of the city, is run by Andrei M. Georgescu (pictured, opposite page), a social activist who works to preserve and promote Roma traditions. Everything sold there is made by craftspeople from marginalized groups, particularly the Roma, who have been discriminated against throughout Europe and other parts of the world.”
- ZIARUL FINANCIAR: Meșteshukar ButiQ
“Our wish is to activite the creative community in Romania because we discovered a network of craftsmen that work with everything. But, without a business view, all this communities will not work more than two days a month and will not be sustainable.” – Andrei M. Georgescu, MBQ manager
- ZEPPELIN MAGAZINE: Crafts and modern design
“A new product is the result of close collaboration between the designer and the artisan; the designers’s ideas will be transposed into handcrafted techniques. Having initially worked with foreign designers, we now what to go on with local ones. Together with Radu Abraham we developed the vases and trays made of wood and copper that one the product design prize at RDW 2018.”
“By working together with social entrepreneur Mesteshukar ButiQ in Romania, IKEA is contributing to creating job opportunities for the Roma communities. Traditional handicraft made in wood and wicker is featured in the upcoming collection VÄLGÖRANDE.”