It may still be July, but it is never too early to start making a list of interesting events to see this Autumn. Belgium Is Design, the organisation reuniting the regional Belgian institutions Flanders DC (formerly Design Flanders), MAD Brussels and Wallonie-Bruxelles Design Mode (WBDM), is launching for example a showcase in collaboration with New York Textile Month.
The latter is a multiple-location event curated by Lidewij Edelkoort, trend forecaster and Dean of Hybrid Studies at The New School, and Philip Fimmano, that brings together museums, galleries, showrooms, retailers, design studios and students.
"Textiles Revealed" (C/O Unix Gallery, 513 West 26th Street, New York; 26th September – 3rd October 2019), will introduce to the New York audience 11 contemporary Belgian textile designers.
The display will look at material knowledge, research, innovation, technology and production methods through installations and sustainable furniture, wallhangings and textural rugs.
There will be the proverbial something for everybody: for example, fans of minimalism will find pieces by Alice Leens, a designer with an experimental approach to textiles. The thread is the main inspiration and foundation of her work and through it she invites viewers to (re)discover the beauty and the infinite possibilities this humble element can create.
Flavien Servaes and Ani Bedrossian create research-driven textiles with surprising twists about them: one of their pieces looks like a wallhanging or tapestry, but it opens up to reveal a secret passage, turning the tapestry into an architectural element rather than just an interior design piece.
Radical and innovative, Anne Masson and Eric Chevalier have collaborated since 2006, often working with architects, designers, choreographers and fashion designers.
Their exploration of textiles looks at the possibility of transforming what is considered waste into a refined design product. Five years ago they founded the project Laend together with the designer Diane Steverlynck, and as a trio they explore how a rhythm or a chromatic sequence in the thread produces repercussions in the designs and motifs of the fabric that they compose.
Dividing his time between Brussels, Zurich, Paris and Stockholm, textile designer and artist Christoph Hefti works in fashion textiles, print and the performing arts (he combines music, costume design, video and live art).
He designs and develops his series of hand-knotted rugs in Nepal, where he studied traditional crafts in a contemporary key and where he takes inspirations for his works, often moving from the mystical and spiritual tradition of storytelling textiles.
Luc Druez's project DeCluuz revolves around the creation of a series of female portraits, the images are created weaving technical fibers, metallic filaments and electrical and fishing wires as well.
In these large-scale tapestries the historical portraits of ladies emerge in a mysterious way: the women look like ghosts, the materials employed for the portraits create indeed diaphanous, delicate and translucent effects, and, while the visual impact is intriguing, the pieces could also be used as a social commentary, as the image fading away could be referred to all the women who have been written out of history (hopefully the designer will take this aspect forward in another series of portraits).
For ten years Geneviève Levivier has created textiles for leading fashion houses such as Christian Dior, Jean Paul Gaultier and Balenciaga.
The artist and designer is now focused on creating contemporary tapestries characterised by innovative surface effects that play with lights and shadows and that she creates with unusual materials including eggshells (collected from a local bakery), flowers, fibres from recycled jeans, tulle and eco-friendly polymers.
The craftsmanship and technology dichotomy influences the work of the KRJST duo (Justine de Moriamé and Erika Schillebeeckx).
Their tapestries are dense with details and scenes in which contemporary, social and environmental themes are explored in intricate and complex abstract visions.
A few of the pieces that will be on display in New York are made at the TextielLab of the TextielMuseum in Tilburg, so there will be plenty of new techniques to discover for textile experts.
"The exhibition upends preconceived notions of traditional Belgian textiles – often limited to the country's centuries-old linen heritage – instead unraveling an exciting thread among designers from the region. Tufting, felting, digital jacquards and coiling are just some of the techniques employed by a new generation redefining the boundaries of textile creativity," Edelkoort states in a press release about the event.
This will be the first showcase by Belgium Is Design entirely dedicated to textiles, proving there is a great interest in this medium not just in Europe, but also in other continents.
Image credits for this post
1. Alice Leens
Untitled, 2015
100% cotton
ø 83 cm
Private collection
2, 3. BedrossianServaes
A traverser, 2016
100% wool
280 x 240 cm
4. Chevalier Masson & Diane Steverlynck, Tapa daybed, 2015
mixed fibers, steel
201 X 65 x 39 cm
Valerie Traan Gallery, Antwerpen, photo Filip Vanzieleghem
5. Chevalier Masson & Diane Steverlynck, Court circuit rugs, 2016
100% wool
80 x 190 cm, ph. D. Steverlynck
6. Christoph Hefti, Swiss Mask, 2019
Wool & Silk
168 x 115 cm
Maniera Gallery (Brussels)
Private collection
Photo: Jeroen Verrecht
7. Christoph Hefti, Insect, 2018
Wool & Silk
170 x L 230 cm
Maniera Gallery (Brussels)
Photo: Jeroen Verrecht
8. Decluuz by Luc Druez, Lady II, 2019
Lacquered copper (100% recyclable without loss of property), synthetic horse hair (biodegradable). Hand-weaving (jacquard) with polychrome weft. Patina applied manually.
135 x 175 cm
9. Decluuz by Luc Druez, Lady IV, 2019
Lacquered copper (100% recyclable without loss of property), synthetic horse hair (biodegradable). Hand-weaving (jacquard) with polychrome weft. Patina applied manually.
135 x 205 cm
10. Decluuz by Luc Druez, Lady V, 2019
Lacquered copper (100% recyclable without loss of property), synthetic horse hair (biodegradable). Hand-weaving (jacquard) with polychrome weft. Patina applied manually.
135 x 190 cm
11. Geneviève Levivier, Eggshell floral Moon shadow, 2019
65cm ø ;
Steel support : 10 cm
PLA, eggshells (collected from a local bakery), flowers, fibres from recycled jeans, tulle and eco-friendly polymers.
12. Geneviève Levivier
Eggshell floral Ephemeral, 2019
120 x 120 cm
PLA, eggshells (collected from a local bakery), flowers, fibres from recycled jeans, tulle and eco-friendly polymers
13. KRJST STUDIO, Onfire, 2018
Mohair, polymer, polyester, cotton, linen, cash wool. Jacquard weaving
180 x 180 cm
14. KRJST STUDIO, Onfire, 2018, detail
Mohair, polymer, polyester, cotton, linen, cash wool. Jacquard weaving
180 x 180 cm
15. KRJST STUDIO, gallery display, photograph by Sébastien Delahaye
16, KRJST STUDIO In Girum Nocte et consumimur igni, 2016, detail
Mohair, polymer, polyester, cotton, linen, cash wool. Jacquard weaving
160 X 170 cm
Photograph by Alexander Popelier