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Contributor:
Indianapolis Museum of Art
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Channels: Beatrice de LafontaineEuropean Design
Learn what inspired Beatrice de Lafontaine to create beautiful and useful household objects from her speech at the European Design Symposium hosted by the Indianapolis Museum of Art. In 2001, Beatrice de Lafontaine founded when objects work, a company that produces everyday household objects created by Belgium's leading designers, whose work has a minimal and simple aesthetic.
Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. First of all, I would like to congratulate the museum for this initiative and for the very beautiful exhibition.
So, my name is Beatrice de Lafontaine. I am based in Belgium, and I have a company since 2001, editing and design objects you can use everyday in your house.
When I started this company in 2001, many people told me, "why do you want to make objects?", "there are already so many objects." And I told them indeed.
But my objects are different, different from existing collections. I have worked very long in the world of interior decoration doing installments for very famous architects
all over Europe and the high level luxury houses. And I was very often called in when the job was done
to do the final touch, to find the right objects for those houses. And with that several times I was having a problem, and for that reason I just started of my own company.
So, for me it’s very important the form and the proportion. I really want simple forms and correct proportions. Beside that I try to make timeless objects.
You can say, "when do you know it's timeless?" I agree. But I try to follow my emotions and my personal feelings
which are nourished by the architects I am working with. So, here you see a little atmosphere of my collection
and creatings in the living room. With this, I show an overview... small overview, of the few items I make.
As you can see, I work with different materials, which is very important. For example, I have crystal. This is also crystal. Besides this I have glass.
Our prospects, in the metals. I have the heavy metals. I have titanium for the fork, stainless for the handles, stainless for the cooking pots, and aluminum.
You see I play with the difference of materials, that’s very important for me. So, you see different collections from different designers,
which after all still match together. So, for me its also important to work with honest and authentic materials. As you can see, there is a lot of craftsmanship in my collection.
And I have a regular collection and besides that I have also some limited editions.
So, for me when I start to build up a cooperation with an architect, there needs to be a story or a reason why I make an object, that’s very important for me.
So, when I start working with an architect, I try to find out what he personally needs in his house and if he finds something he really likes, I know the idea is really authentic to the character of this architect.
And like this, I become an honest object, according to me. So, the first man I worked with was the architect, a British architect, John Paulson.
He made my first collection which I launched during the Milan Fair in 2001. So according to John, there were five objects each one needs in his house.
So, it was a vase, a candleholder, a tray, a picture frame, and a bowl. So, these are the things.
This is the bowl from John. This is a bowl bronzed. So, inside there is some sand. So, with this, you can put the bowl in every direction.
So, for John it was also very important to bring a duality in each object. The second object he made was a candleholder. So, his house looks really minimalistic and clean
but don’t open the cupboard because it’s a big mess. [laughing] So, by this reason, John never found his candles or his candleholder when he wanted to use it. So, for that reason, he made a box.
You can put the glass into it, you can put candles into it, and the foot of the candleholder is the cover of the box.
The third object was a tray, which you can use all together, the two forms, or you can use them separately.
The other item was a vase, which you can use with a container in it, when the stems were not beautiful from the flowers and when you have beautiful stems like this,
you can use it without container. So, the reflection of the massive prospects looks very beautiful when there is light on it.
Then he made also picture frame. You can use it horizontally or vertical. There are no screws on the sides and this picture frame has two sides. One side in white lacquer
and the other side is blond wood. So, according to John, you need one picture for the family and one for the mistress.[laughing]
When John had to build the monastery in the Czech Republic, he was commissioned for that. He lived there for a very short time
between the monks and there it was a very strict life and he discovered when they were eating, they were having a napkin and into that napkin, there was covered some cutlery,
some a glass, and a dish. So, when they started eating, they opened the napkin, they put it in their blouse,
and they put the cutlery on the table and when they were finished, they were washing in a big bowl in the middle of the table their items, and they were and roll it in the napkin and putting it back in the cupboard.
So, by this John was inspired and he developed for me the essential set of cutlery. He didn’t want to have more, a fork and knife and a spoon.
He made a glass and goblet for the coffee which has completely the same forms and he made me also a dish
which you can use on both sides. So, you can start your first plate on one side and when you have your second course you turn your dish.
And there is also a salad bowl with it. Fortunately, he didn’t design the napkin which you need to use to clean your mouth and to wash your dishes. [laughing]
So, the third thing he did for me, was he was invited by the French Government to give a special exhibition concerning his architecture and for that
they were asking to show him all the pictures of his architecture, which he didn’t want to do. He said this monastery which was an empty monastery is quite interesting for me.
So, I will develop a bench and I will put this bench in several positions and the people need to sit on it and the view they have, is for me, a lesson in architecture.
So, I launched these benches in limited edition in concretes and in woods, unfortunately they are sold out at the moment.
So, the other designer I am working with is Vincent van Duysen. So, Vincent is a Belgium architect. So, he worked for other brands like [inaudible], B B Italia, swarofsky.
Vincent lives as a single man. So, he wanted to have a play of pottery he could use in his kitchen for whatever he was thinking about, for dish, for bowl, whatever.
So, he developed a kind of pot in different heights, with different heights of lids and when he was walking with me
through the Belgium seasides, because I live at the seasides. He took some sand, and some shells, and he... and some woods, rough woods, and he gave it to me
and he said Beatrice you need to take this colors. So the colors of this pottery is really inspired on the colors you'll see on the Belgium North Sea.
So, last year he made a second collection again with containers with different purposes. So, you have a champagne bucket... a bucket for the woods, a bowl for an apple. It's all made in Belgium blond woods, this collection.
The, oh.... The other designer I want to talk about is Martin van Severen. So, I meet with him, the last collection he wanted to launch is a set of cutlery.
So, whatever Martin was designing, he was always thinking about eating foods, inviting friends. So, wherever he was invited worldwide, he took with him the set of cutlery from the airport,
from private clients, whatever. So, at the end of his life, you see, he gathered the whole collection of cutlery because he really wanted to find out, what is the best material
to eat, what is the best form, and the best way to eat. Because he hated to eat with stainless cutlery.
He didn’t like the taste in his mouth, according to him. So, for that, these are the prototypes he developed. You see, he really made a whole study during his lifetime.
So, he made for me a set of cutlery. The knife is made of zirconium ceramic which is very sharp. It’s very heavy. The fork is made out of titanium which is very light. So, the play with the light and the heavy was important for him.
And the spoon was made out of Japanese urushi lacquer. So, the urushi lacquer is something, is a procedure, find around the Himalayas.
So, it comes from a tree. So, it’s the base is Japanese woods, which they lacquer to each side 35 times. So, the insides of the spoon have to be wide for the... for the food.
The outside have to have different colors. These are the three perfect colors he likes. So, when the people in Japan were lacquering these spoons, a whole village was lacquering at certain moments, by hand, these spoons.
So, when the job was finished, they were really happy that it was finished. [laughing]
So, you see again the spoon positioned on another way. So, this very shortly, an overview of my company and I would like to thank you very much. Thank you.
I THINK YOU WILL LIKE THIS... I KNOW JOHN PAWSON- GOOD STORY TO SHARE THERE. ENJOY XO
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