Design – After a two years hiatus, Collectible, the international fair for 21st-century collectible design, went on show in Brussels for the fifth time bringing together a selection of established and emerging galleries, design studios and renowned editors. Archipanic explored Collectible 2022 and selected six furniture design projects with an unexpected quirky imprint.
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Brussels-based gallery MANIERA presents the Barbar Series of sand-cast aluminum lamps by Studio Anne Holtrop. The Netherlands and Bahrain-based designer takes cues from the formal language of the temple using its geometrical forms, arches and straight lines, to create objects that pay tribute to the monument. The hollow lamps are fully made out of aluminium that is first melted into moulds with sand and then carefully polished on its surface.
Inspired by the surrealist movement and Belgian painter Magritte, Swiss Objects With Narratives puts together ‘Sur-real fiction’, a micro-exhibition that invites visitors into an ethereal experience. From here, Supertoys Supertoys imagined a world beyond this world, a speculative approach infused with child-like imagination. The Dutch studio’s “Cosmic Light Chasers are playful pink creatures of the Great Nothing.” image by super talented.

Cosmic Light Chaser by Supertoys Supertoys – Image by David Selander, @dreamdescriptions.
Known for his signature work with discarded cupboards and paper, Vadim Kibardin premieres his Black Mirror collection. The series comprises a chair and coiffeuse table expressing a tense dialogue between function and aesthetics. Rational and emotional worlds collide to give birth to a burst of energy encapsulated in one artistic functional design object.
Fien Muller and Hannes Van Severen of Belgian duo Muller Van Severen present Frames, a new series of sculptural wall lights and mirrors. By cutting and folding a steel plate, openings and depths leave room for various functions, at the same time, they “also make a connection between reality and the imaginary.” The closed and open structures are accentuated by light sources or by bringing colour and material forward and backward.
Belgian designer Maarten de Ceulaer expands its Mutation furniture series that looks like it wasn’t made by hands but has grown organically from cell mutations of chemical reactions. “Perhaps it’s a virus or bacteria that has grown dramatically out of scale. The Mutation pieces make you look at furniture in a different way. Maybe one day we would be able to grow a piece of furniture like we breed or clone an animal, and manipulate its shape like a bonsai tree.”
Margherita Ratti curated the exhibition of La Bocca della Verità gallery in Brussels which features unexpected ‘tabernacles by studiointervallo from Italy. Made of vibrant marmorised paper the design can work as a quirky cabinet with golden surfaces inside.