Brand new fair Collectible opens in Brussels

DAMNº was at the busy attended opening night, and it seems as if organizers Liv Vaisberg and Clélie Debehault took the right decision.

Although it took the team a lot of effort to convince galleries and designers to participate, Collectible finally managed to fill all six floors of the iconic Brussels Vanderborght building with an interesting mix of galleries, designers and special projects.

Thanks to the monumental floor drawing of artist Richard Venlet, which is on show at the booth of Maniera, all floors are connected to each other. Besides its own artists Maniera presents in collaboration with the French gallery A1043 the less known furniture of Rei Kawakubo, the legendary fashion designer of Comme des garçons, both at the fair and at the gallery.

Other Belgian galleries include Victor Hunt, who shows the intriguing light installations by Sabine Marcelis, and Valerie Traan, who shows amongst others an interesting project by the Dutch designer Rikkert Paauw.

During the weeks before the fair Paauw collected materials he found on the street in Brussels, which he transformed into a new installation. Another designer who’s specialized in turning found objects into new creations, is Lionel Jadot, who presents some big scale objects.

Playing with materials

© Jeroen Verrecht

© Jeroen Verrecht

If it comes to materials, marble was still omnipresent. Interesting explorations of the material include Ben Storms’ new Twin mirrors, made out of polished stainless steal and the famous, precious Belgian black and polished marble Noir de Mazy. Design duo Sofie Lachaert and Luc Dhanis created a trestle out of marble leftovers from marble specialist Van de Weghe. Swiss designer Adrien Rovero presents at Mobilab Gallery his newest Happy tables, a playful exploration of different materials and connection techniques.

An intriguing project that looks like marble at first sight, but is actually made out of salt, are the tables by Roxane Lahidji. Other designers who love to play with high and low materials, and how they are experienced by the viewer, are Linde Freya from Destroyers/Builders and Studio Dessuant Bone. With their project in collaboration with Belgian company Allaert Aluminium they explore the bounderies between art, design and the industry. Another Belgian company, who’s specialized in bringing these domains together, is hardware specialist Maison Vervloet.

Strong concepts

With her impressive pieces Nel Verbeke explores the concept of melancholy, while Bram Vanderbeke focuses on how space is created. His often minimalist and rough works are presented at the Parisian ToolsGalerie, by the Dutch trend studio Core Studio and by Adorno, an online design gallery from Copenhagen, which brings designers from all over the world together on its platform through a network of regional curators. References to the roughness of Brutalism can be also found in the ceramic objects from FCK Frédérick Gautier, which is represented by Brussels-based gallery Atelier Jespers/Itinérance #3, and in the tasteful chocolate cakes by Danish, but London based food designer Kia Utzon-Frank from KUFstudios.