2011 a furniture project

expo traan
expo traan
valerie traan
valerie traan

It was with this first exhibition, in early Spring 2011 that Muller van Severen was born. A creative collaboration that gave rise to a furniture collection by the Belgian duo Fien Muller and Hannes van Severen. Presented at Valerie Traan Gallery in Antwerp, one might have assumed that the confident debut pieces were the end result of a prolonged period of development and refinement. After all, why should the creation of furniture come naturally to 2 sculptors? Remarkably, the designs in that show had come about in only two months. Fien had been invited to exhibit her photography and was asked to bring along another artist. She invited Hannes to be part of the show and together they decided to work in a different medium from their usual.

The couple, who met while studying at art school in Ghent, had until this moment been pursuing their individual directions with solo projects and exhibitions. They had always talked about working on a project together but hadn’t found the right opportunity or reason. They fell into the world of furniture almost by accident and perhaps more out of necessity than anything else – at that time, they were in the throws of renovating their house and were in need of several things including a light above their kitchen table. One of their first solutions was to design a table with the table-leg extending and merging into a cantilever lamp. Their design language then evolved very quickly, and the duo thrived with the supposed freedom of a design brief, somewhat new to both of them.

valerie traan
valerie traan
rack + table S