Baroque Minimalism: A Conversation With Muller Van Severen

The invitation came while Fien and Hannes were renovating their house, a timing that proved strangely serendipitous. “We were more aware of materials in the house, particularly the lighting,” explains Fien. “We had some problems with electrical wiring and couldn’t have lights in the ceiling above our table, so we created a table with a lamp attached.” The resulting work, table + lamp, was the first piece of the collection they exhibited in Antwerp. Combining brightly coloured polyethylene, geometric steel, and a lamp whose curved neck springs from a table leg, the unique form of this piece seemed to be a distinct marker of a new creative era. “It was the first time we thought of making furniture, and it was purely because of this problem!” explains Fien. “After the table, we started thinking: maybe this is a good idea, maybe there is something in it.”

The pair took to furniture design swiftly, and in the years since they have developed a signature aesthetic that is both poetic and technical. “Function provides us with a limit or a border,” explains Hannes. “In art, you can do whatever you want; but with function, we somehow feel much freer.” Their work reimagines traditional design forms and recontextualizes materials, frequently using brass, marble, and steel alongside aluminium tubes, wire mesh, and polyethylene. If the material is common in design, they find an unexpected way of utilising it. If not, they translate its functional possibilities with their unique formal language. Their intuitive approach to materials and form, and the creation of what they deem “families” of design objects, has led to critical acclaim and collaborations with notable museums, galleries, and brands; amongst them Hay, Centre Pompidou, Hermès, and Galerie Kreo.