2015 marks the tenth anniversary of Maarten Van Severen’s death, which is why The Maarten Van Severen Foundation and the Department of Design of KASK / School of Arts Ghent have decided to establish a chair with the aim of conveying the relevance and significance of the designer’s work for today’s designers. Every year a leading designer, whose work has an affinity with the work of Maarten Van Severen, will give two lectures and a masterclass. He or she will reflect on the common ground between their work and that of Maarten van Severen and on the qualities of his work in light of the current design culture.
Glenn Martens will host a masterclass for design students at KASK. If you or your school wish to take part, please contact eva.vanregenmortel@gent.be.
English spoken
Tickets 7 euro / 5 euro (student)
via ticketsgent.be
Glenn Martens studied fashion at the The Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp. In 2008, during his final year show at the academy, he was recruited to join the team of Jean-Paul Gaultier. In 2013 he took over the creative direction of the Parisian brand Y/PROJECT. In June 2017, Y/PROJECT won the esteemed ANDAM Grand Prize, one of the most respected recognitions in fashion worldwide. In September 2017, Glenn Martens was selected as one of the Business of Fashion’s 500 people shaping fashion globally today.
Francesca Torzo will teach a masterclass from 5 till 7 March on the Bijloke Campus. The participating students have been selected from five European art schools: Aalto University, Berlin University of the Arts, ENSAV La Cambre, Design Academy Eindhoven, Royal College of Art, London.
Tickets 7 euro / 5 euro (students)
English spoken
Francesca Torzo (1975) is an Italian architect-maker; an architect who creates architecture in a sensory way. She studied architecture in Delft, Barcelona, Mendrisio and Venice [IUAV]. She worked for architect Peter Zumthor and Bosshard Vaquerarchitekten, Zurich. In 2008 she started her own architectural practice in Genoa. She designed and built – to name a Belgian project – the recent expansion and renovation of Z33 in Hasselt.
Introduction by Jan Boelen (Z33).
Tickets 7 / 5 (students) euro
English spoken
“What keeps driving me back to Maarten’s designs is his dedication to purity, which I greet with the greatest admiration and some moments of doubt. Ever since I first saw his works exhibited in Amsterdam in the late nineties I feel a kinship with his treatment of the object. My earliest attempts at making furniture mused on the same orthogonal shapes that made Maarten’s work iconic. As I progressed towards a more organic vocabulary our formal languages may have grown apart, but in essence we explore the same thing: how materials can be forced to answer demands beyond their natural properties. During the lecture, I will further examine the following topics: Archetypes, New forms, Humour, Sensuality, Silence, Performance.”
—Aldo Bakker
Each chair edition is accompanied by a booklet published by Art Paper Editions (19 euro). The first edition, by Erwan Bouroullec, is for sale at www.artpapereditions.org. The second edition, by Alfredo Haeberli, will be launched on 28 february 2018 at 18:00 at Design museum Gent. From then on it will be accesible in the webshop as well.
Alfredo Häberli will host a three day masterclass for design students of KASK/School of Arts Ghent, ENSAV – La Cambre, Design Academy Eindhoven, Aalto University and Universität der Künste Berlin. The Master Class will take place at KASK in Ghent. If you or your school wish(es) to participate, please contact eva.vanregenmortel@gent.be.
Alfredo Häberli was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1964. He moved to Switzerland in 1977 and graduated in 1991 with distinction in Industrial Design at the Höhere Schule für Gestaltung in Zurich. Today, he is an internationally established designer based in Zurich and working for some of the leading companies of the international design industry such as Alias, BD Barcelona, BMW, Camper, FSB, Georg Jensen, Iittala, Kvadrat, Luceplan, Moroso, Schiffini and Vitra. He manages to unite tradition with innovation, joy and energy in his designs and his work is strongly influenced by his early childhood in Argentina as well as his curiousness and studies in everyday life. The results are works with a strong expression and emotionality. In his lecture Alfredo Häberli will reflect on his own work as well as on the common ground between his work and that of Maarten van Severen.
Tickets: 7 / 5 (students) euro
Reserve tickets here, pay at the entrance
MIRY Concertzaal, Biezekapelstraat, Ghent, Belgium.
Erwan Bouroullec gave the first MVSC lectures for more than 700 attendants and the following week he guided 15 students from 5 different art schools into the wild, -the title of his workshop.
Because the essence of the workshop was rather the process than any kind of final product, Erwan and his birds, -that is the name he gave his students-, decided to continue the workshop until the summer. On regular moments they uploaded images of their process, on the MVSC blog. The result is a fascinated collection of things, created out of the wild, which we proudly present as the first MVSC Cahier and Exhibition at the Biennale Interieur 2016
The cahier is designed by Studio Jurgen Maelfeyt and published with Art Paper Editions. It is of limited edition and will be on sale at the stand of MVSC at the Biennale Interieur 2016. It will be launched there officially in the presence of Erwan Bouroullec on friday 21 october at 18:00. Pre-orders can be placed online at goo.gl/qUjiYI.
The new contemporary design display at the Ghent Design Museum makes clear what designing meant to Maarten Van Severen (1956-2005). Across generations and nationalities, the presentation relates his designs with the work of others: designers, architects and artists whose oeuvres inspired him or reveal a kinship. It illuminates aspects of design that are still relevant to today’s designers.
Maarten Van Severen was not a desktop designer who left the realization of his ideas to others. He was a ‘maker’, in touch with the particularities and possibilities of different materials, who investigated the ‘makeability’ of things through trial and error. His crystallized formal idiom was closely connected to his faultless sense of proportions, e.g. in determining the thickness of a shelf. Also unmistakeable, specifically in terms of spatial impact and choice of materials, is his affinity with minimal art. ‘My work is situated in between the usable piece of furniture and the unusable object,’ Van Severen claimed. His furniture were ‘mental objects’, realizations of images in his head. Unsurprisingly then, Maarten Van Severen was fascinated by the most diverse topics from various cultures, places and times: objects, types of furniture, materials, tools, human posture, light, patterns, textures. The many photos from his archives and the books and souvenirs on display in the exhibition reveal the wealth of the sources at his fingertips.
The exhibition is designed as a changing presentation that allows for new topics in the coming years. The scenography was designed by Robbrecht and Daem architects.
Open tuesday to sunday, 10:00 – 18:00, closed on mondays
Tickets 10 / 8 / 2 / 0
More info: https://stad.gent/design-museum-gent-en
In the Cirque auditorium on the Bijloke campus, Erwan Bouroullec and a smaller group of participants take a closer look at some aspects of the Bouroullecs’ work. Referring to the Van Severen archives that are kept in the Zwarte Doos (Municipal Archives of Ghent), he shows how their work is related to Maarten Van Severen’s, with a focus on the experimental use of materials. This second lecture is the start of a three-day masterclass for a group of student duos from Aalto University, Universität der Künste Berlin, ENSAV – La Cambre, KASK / School of Arts Gent and Design Academy Eindhoven.
7 / 5 (students)
The Bouroullecs have been working as designers since the late Nineties. Like Maarten Van Severen they have a long-standing partnership with the Swiss furniture manufacturer Vitra, resulting in such designs as the Joyn office system (2002), the Alcove Sofa (2007) and the Vegetal Chair (2009). Despite the generation gap their work undeniably has elements in common with that of Maarten Van Severen, not in the least because of the directness of their formal language but also for example because of their fondness for “nomadic” furniture (in the sense of movable furniture as a defining characteristic of a space), their preference for modular systems or their affinity with industrial and artisanal production processes. During this lecture, Erwan Bouroullec will speak about the Bouroullecs own work.
7 / 5 (students)
The Royal Academy of Fine Arts (KASK) and the Royal Conservatory constitute the School of Arts of University College Ghent. The mission statement of the school defines its main tasks: development of the arts, education and research in an international perspective. The school offers bachelor’s and master’s degrees in the fields of visual and audiovisual arts, design, music and drama. The varied range of artistic makes for reciprocally inspiring and relatively open training programs. The KASK & Conservatory campuses are located at the epicenter of Ghent.
The Maarten Van Severen Foundation was established in 2009 by family and friends of designer Maarten Van Severen (1956-2005). Following his wish shortly before his death, the Foundation manages his artistic legacy. It operates from Ghent, where the Maarten Van Severen oeuvre largely came into being.
As a unique design museum in Belgium the Design museum Gent wants to be an international meeting place for amateurs, researchers, designers and producers of modern and contemporary design (from 1860 to the present). The museum holds a singular collection that it develops into a unique whole. The collection forms the basis for the internationally focused exhibition programme that thematically investigates recent developments and historical evolutions.
Lensvelt is producer of a substantial part of the collection of the Flemish designer Maarten Van Severen (1956 – 2005). His pieces are renowned and appreciated all over the world because of their unique materials, quality and finish. Van Severen was a personal friend of Hans Lensvelt.
Each chair edition will be accompanied by a booklet published by Art Paper Editions. Order online at artpapereditions.org
Erwan Bouroullec
Alfredo Häberli
Aldo Bakker
Francesca Torzo
Häberli
Alfredo Häberli was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1964. He moved to Switzerland in 1977 and graduated in 1991 with distinction in Industrial Design at the Höhere Schule für Gestaltung in Zurich. Today, he is an internationally established designer based in Zurich and working for some of the leading companies of the international design industry such as Alias, BD Barcelona, BMW, Camper, FSB, Georg Jensen, Iittala, Kvadrat, Luceplan, Moroso, Schiffini and Vitra. He manages to unite tradition with innovation, joy and energy in his designs and his work is strongly influenced by his early childhood in Argentina as well as his curiousness and studies in everyday life. The results are works with a strong expression and emotionality. In his lecture Alfredo Häberli reflected on his own work as well as on the common ground between his work and that of Maarten van Severen.
Scroll through the blog to view the students’ work during and after the master class.
● Mette Kahlos
● Stefan Traeger
● Mathilde Pecqueur
■ Royal College of Art, Londen
De (on)eindigheid van het (on)gecontroleerde
Het werk is een studie naar de relatie tussen objecten en hun betekenis ten opzichte van elkaar en de kijker, waarin een oneindigheid aan compositie en een constante mogelijkheid tot verandering centraal staan. Door de functionele verwachtingen van een object te abstraheren en deze “ideeën van functie” te herengageren, wordt er een nieuwe eigen vormen(taal) gecreëerd. In deze staat van flux ontstaat er een wisselwerking tussen de 2-en 3 dimensionale mediums: fotografie, sculptuur en installatie. Dit resulteert in situatie gebonden presentaties met een sterke aandacht voor compositie en materialiteit.
The work is a study on the relationship between objects and their meaning juxtaposed of each other and the viewer, wherein the endlessness in composition and a constant ability to change is the central course. By abstracting the expected function of an object and by rearranging these “ideas of functionality”, a new idiom is created. In a state of flux, an interaction is formed between the 2-and 3 dimensional media: photography, sculpture and installation. This results in situation bound presentations with a strong focus on composition and materiality.
« ALL-IN-ONE DENSITIES »
Mathilde develops a research laboratory where material and form are simultaneously shaped.
Welding and padding principles applied to a tubular knit offer shaping possibilities. It becomes a game between what is held together and what is left open, considering that what is open may be filled. The pieces created explore those multiple possibilities by mixing parameters of structure and colour, playing on vibrations, on transparencies and opacities, sometimes revealing, sometimes dissimulating, and allowing singular forms to arise. A sensitive, tactile, almost sensual material is displayed, one that navigates between the body and spaces, enveloping some while inhabiting others.
By unfolding immutable materials such as wool, myths and worlds are summoned, proposing an experience of comfort that becomes consolation, nest, protection even in the actions and handlings that the materials call for. Through her ‘object-materials’, the textile designer positions herself in a collaborative practice by already inducing shapes and fundamental parameters for what will be the final object. She sits side by side the industrial or fashion designer, right from the heart of the creative process.
Pleats and print in motion
Side two: swirl print
Side one: graphic print (morphed drawings)
First pleated by pleating company
Afterwards I transfer printed the piece at both sides with two different designs
Transfer printed polyester with own design/drawings
Afterwards pleated by pleating company
Long origami piece with swirling print
Folded by hands with origami paper molds
Prototype:
“Compose” is a coffee table made of three elements: two wooden blocks and a glass table top. The blocks, tinted with Indian ink are isolated from each other allowing infinite compositions. The table is as minimal and graphical as possible while a strong graphical identity raises from the grid of the wood, enhanced by the ink.
Material: spruce, glass, aluminum
Dimensions: H 320 W 540 L 1000 mm
Exhibited in Greenhouse, Stockholm Furniture and Light Fair 2017, Sweden.
www.arianerelander.com
This phase of research led me to the making of a first mockup, in an attempt of creating my own modulation of the space. In a research of abstract composition, I opted for 3 unique elements, 2 black lines and a transparent frame, structurally working by the triangulation of the pieces. Inspired by the architectural plans, it became the first step of a minimalist table as well as an abstract image. What became a functional object is not more than 2 black lines inside an almost invisible frame.
Later on the process turned to an exploration of shadows from transparent layers exposed under a light source while adding one unique structural element made of black paper to explore a more architectural dimension. This setup allowed me to capture an infinity of composition through the constant movement of the shadows.
The process went on with an exploration of the sketching paper for a more subtle play with the transparency and the apparition of the shadow as an element of composition and structure to compose an abstract image.
The next step, still working on the plastic elements, was to play with the opacity of the material resulting from the sanding of the surface or simply the repetition of the surfaces. From those elements, I started a work on superposition and layering to compose abstract pictures and start a modification of the space.
The first step of the research is an exploration of the colors and phenomenon of reflection using glass paint, allowing a variation in the opacity and nuances of the color. Applied on plastic surface, it brought another dimension when capturing the reflection of the surrounding environment.
The work initiated during Maarten Van Severen workshop was focused on a research of abstraction and graphical composition inspired by a play with light and shadows.
Inspiration: stains of lights
The (in)finity of the (un)controllable
The work is a study on the relationship between objects and their meaning juxtaposed of each other and the viewer. By abstracting the expected function of an object and by rearranging these “ideas of functionality”, a new idiom is created, wherein an endlessness in composition and a constant ability to change this is the central course. An interaction is created between the 2-and 3 dimensional media (photography, sculpture, installation), where materiality and situation bound presentations are the most important aspects.
BUT-BEND-ROUND-CROOKED-IF-REVERSAL-PLEA-CONSEQUENCE
Tests: first prints fixated on pleated polyester
I scanned my prints and transfer printed them, to be fixated on fabric
Weaving drawings into each other to create morphed prints
Drawings for transfer printing
Testing different possible pleats
Opening the molds after ironing to discover the pleated fabric
Accordion pleated fabric with transfer print.
Accordion pleated fabric with transfer print.
Drawings/designs being printed with transfer printer. After printed, cut out and placed polyester on top. Put between press: heat and pressure will secure design on fabric.
First pleating tests in polyester. Include following steps:
- Pleating two identical paper molds
- Stretch molds open
- Put piece of fabric in between
- Pleat molds together with fabric
- Iron with steam
- Let it cool off and open … tada!
Loom
Chair
Loom
Loom
Loom
This loom is tailor-made to weave a seat for the rocking chair.
Steam cabin
Steam cabin
Steam cabin
Steam cabin
Steam cabin
Larger steam cabin with bag instead of iron casing. This allows the wood to be bent during the steaming itself, which prevents the chances at defect.
Furthermore, there is a framework which is used to bend the beam, with the help of screw clamps and angle bars.
The final product will be some kind of rocking chair, the curved beams will become the bottom slats of this chair.
Small steam cabin
Test version to steam wood and thus bend it. Will be used for smaller elements.
Nowadays a large part of the population enjoys the privilege of consuming food almost everywhere at any time. Where this comes from and what its ingredients are, seems rather secondary to the majority. Instead the factors of price, availability and convenience are important. By combining traditional food production and digital possibilities, Fermo motivates to deal with food consciously. Fermo allows the production and exchange of fermented products. On the product level, the classical fermentation pot is reinterpreted. With a smart add-on, the fermenting pot can quickly transform into a tightly sealable pot. Afterwards the product can be offered for exchange to the community via the app.