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DESIGN! MULLER VAN SEVEREN (2020)
DESIGN! MULLER VAN SEVEREN
FRANCE
VILLA CAVROIS
JUN 16 2020 - NOV 01 2020
In June 2020 after long quarantine due to COVID-19 the Belgian design duo Muller Van Severen were able to begin their long-awaited intervention. The modernist setting of Villa Cavrois a French estate designed in the late 1920s by Robert Mallet-Stevens proved to be the ideal surroundings for the austere but extravagant designs of Muller Van Severen. The retrospective come intervention featured iconic works of the husband-wife design duo, such as the leather and steel Duo seats among brand new works like the Alltubes.
“Time becomes irrelevant in this project, as we want to create the poetic feeling that our objects could originate from the same time as the building"
The show unveiled a careful selection objects, in some cases specially designed for the show itself. Pieces such as the sofa the couple designed specifically for the installation site. The work shown corresponds impeccably with Villa Cavrois: the rectilinearity of the French estate’s yellow brick shell is mimicked in the rational lines of their wire s# series, while the green marble of the dining room reflects their use of mixed marble and the high-gloss hue of their aluminum chairs. Speaking about the installation the designers recall how “time becomes irrelevant in this project, as we want to create the poetic feeling that our objects could originate from the same time as the building, in the same way that the building itself feels very contemporary.”
Muller Van Severen was founded in the early Spring of 2011. With Fien Muller a trained photographer and Hannes Van Severen an artist, it’s natural that their work sits somewhere between design and art. The couple create sculpturally interesting furniture objects, which interact with the space around them, characterized by careful research into art, architecture and materials. The designers explore the boundaries between art and design through a constant search for new innovative ways to make furniture with a sensitivity for functionality and practicality. Their constructions entertain a dialogue of austerity in conjunction with extravagance, lightness and severity, delicacy and solidity. Their fascinating world is based on their study of materials, their sense of color and proportions, as well as their apprehension of architecture
Materiality is another element that defines the work of the Belgium designers, materials often being the starting point of their designs. Striving to showcase the natural beauty of their chosen materials, they let the materials speak for themselves. Their objects reflect a deep appreciation of the materials they use to create their pieces. When it comes to colour, they prefer to use integrally coloured materials, in which colour penetrates to the very core of the object, if applying paint, they do so in textured layers, lending the designs a natural radiance.
One of the design duos first collections, Landscapes for Living symbolized their philosophy to “create is to live”. The collection of multi-functional furniture pieces embodied soulful design. Their works are created to come to life with the human form playing an essential part in the design; their book shelf “model writing desk”, for example comes life when the furniture’s second function is revealed, the piece becomes a bench, writing desk and shelf rather than simply the latter.
After winning countless awards and collaborating with prestigious museums (such as Vitra Museum, Centre Pompidou and Musée d'Art Decorative Paris) and galleries (Galerie Kreo, Side Gallery, Valerie Traan Gallery) worldwide, Muller Van Severen is considered to be one of the most image-defining European design teams of today. Their creations are globally identified in both private homes and public spaces. All of Muller Van Severens own production pieces are handmade by small-scale fabricators and skilled artisans, with an honesty to the rawness and irregularity of the chosen material.