Poème Brut highlights designers’ renewed interest in crafts, local techniques and materials. In recent years, their focus has shifted to manufacturing processes and materiality as a counterpoint to globalisation and dematerialisation. A central theme in the exhibition is the outcome of this research into materials and techniques. Some designs use old, forgotten materials and new techniques or technology to process them, while others are the result of an old craft in combination with a new material.
All the design objects are tactile, with a poetic undercurrent and a largely ‘rough’ and ‘unfinished’ design idiom. Poème Brut zooms in on the designer as a maker, as an alchemist who is inspired by the special properties of matter and innovative ways for processing it, as well as its potential in a contemporary context.
The curators Siegrid Demyttenaere and atelier lachaert dhanis selected international iconic designers, as well as emerging young talent. The ensembles show surprising combinations, atypical confrontations and new insights.
