In Good Hands
Things are in good hands with them. When Fien Muller and Hannes van Severen take on furniture and everyday objects, they simplify them yet also make them more precise, lighter yet also more refined, and more striking yet also more cheerful. The Belgian design duo view the objects that surround us through the eyes of visual artists, recognising their minor imperfections. They transform heavy, box-like pieces of furniture, such as chests of drawers and wardrobes, into open structures that catch the light. They also refine the unavoidable cable that dangles between socket and light source in many homes so that it becomes part of the lamp. They shift the perspective on objects, sometimes only slightly, as with the mirror framed by a wreath of small arches, and sometimes very distinctly, as with the daybed that connects two curved seating surfaces around a corner.
Always clear and recognisable in form, Muller Van Severen create designs that make everyday life a little more beautiful — and rather more amusing, too. "We take everything very seriously," says Fien Muller. 'Just because something is small doesn't make it any less interesting to us. A candle holder must have the same quality as a piece of furniture.' Her life and work partner, Hannes van Severen, adds: 'We were trained as artists, so we are very visual. For us, every object must have a sculptural presence.' Muller and van Severen have worked together as designers for 15 years now. To celebrate their anniversary during Milan Design Week, they presented the exhibition "Silhouettes" and the book "A Lot of Work", created in collaboration with the Apartamento Magazine team. We met with Fien Muller and Hannes van Severen on this occasion to have a conversation with them.
Cult Design with Distinctive Appeal
The fact that things are in good hands with Muller van Severen is, incidentally, a widely held opinion – at least if one takes commercial success as a measure. Their designs for Hay are among the bestsellers of the Danish design brand, including the "Arcs" collection with vases, lamps, mirrors and serving trolleys, as well as storage furniture, an outdoor table with a concrete base and cutlery. However, their breakthrough came with the products they brought to market with the Belgian brand Valerie Objects. The chairs – as simple as they are colourful – and the lamps made from bent or kinked tubing were everywhere for a few years and are still among the much-loved design objects that many people know.
Not least with their self-produced designs, Muller van Severen have secured a place in the canon of contemporary design, including their first collaborative work: a square table with a curved, swivelling lamp as an extension of one table leg. "That was a very important piece for us," says Fien Muller. Crossing elements, typologies and functions with one another has since run as a common thread through their work. As with the daybed connected around a corner, the shelf-table or the shelf-armchair combinations. Or the "Duo Seat and Lamp", a steel tube ensemble made up of seat, reclining surface and lamp. It looks like a Freudian therapy setup designed by a minimalist artist.
Yet however reduced the designs of Muller van Severen may appear, they are "not neutral", as Hannes van Severen emphasises. That is why they are not boring in their simplicity and distinctiveness – there is always a small break, an irritation or a humorous moment. "We have a clear language, we can't deny that," van Severen continues. "We try to stay true to ourselves as best we can and do something honest," Muller adds. Hannes van Severen is the son of the late designer Marten van Severen, whose furniture designs are still produced by Vitra today. His brother Kersten van Severen is a successful architect. Fien Muller also comes from an artistically and culturally rich family – her father was an antiques dealer.
Origins of a Shared Language
The anniversary exhibition at the Salone del Mobile in Milan, however, received a rather mixed response from the public. Muller van Severen had oversized aluminium candle holders made. In the shapes of the holders, their designs appeared. For example, they referenced the paper-cut-like volumes of their "Bridges" chests of drawers for BD Barcelona. The candle holders, which were up to two metres tall, were topped with equally outsized, real candles. Each holder is a unique piece; the exhibition was created in collaboration with an art gallery. The Design Week audience found this retrospective somewhat too self-referential. For the Belgian duo, however, the exhibition is part of an almost cyclical working method: from time to time, they need to "do something strange," as Hannes van Severen puts it, in order to look at objects from a different perspective. "It's necessary to step back sometimes."
The concept of the book "A Lot of Work" is also interesting, as it arranges many of their works, in keeping with the title, like a picture book. But not just images of the design objects and furniture – interspersed between them are also photographs of artistic works by the two from the time before they switched to design together. In this uncommented and non-hierarchical presentation, it becomes clear: they developed many of the themes of their design work back then as artists. The bold colours and daring colour combinations, for example, Fien Muller already experimented with in her staged still-life photographs. Garland-like lines and paper-cut-like outlines also appear there. And Hannes van Severen worked as a sculptor with furniture and architectural fragments, creating entire families of variations, similar to some of their design projects. An introductory text by van Severen confirms this observation – their respective artistic works now look almost like exercises for their shared designs. “Muller van Severen did not come about slowly or hesitantly. It arrived almost fully formed, as a shared language that felt immediate and inevitable from the outset. Not hers. Not mine. But something that belonged to both of us from the very beginning.”
