It has also turned its small “human-scale” size into a success factor. Despite looking to Milan as a reference, but a long way from the large numbers and dispersive size of the Furniture Fair and its fringe events, the Belgian Biennale remains an indicator and a platform for many international firms (250 in all and carefully selected) that, as explained by its president José Carlier, “can test their products before a European audience of professionals, students and the wider public”.
The formula has been perfected over the years and seems to look more to the future than the past, as corroborated by the theme chosen for the 22nd edition: the new world or the social networking universe in which the so-called Net Generation or Generation Y (to quote Douglas Coupland) lives.
The guest of honour is Japanese architect Junya Ishigami (the first non-European) who is designing a “light and white world” in Kortrijk. It will be a bit like a large picnic area, a collective installation of tables and chairs recently designed for Living Divani”, explains the Japanese architect. Designer of the year is Bram Boo, a young, self-taught and experimental talent, currently being courted by firms such as Vannerum and Bulo.
Another interesting new feature is the “Design at work” section, highly conceptual and focused on the debate on innovation and new-product development. The president of the Interieur Foundation, José Carlier dreams of turning it into the “Davos of industrial design” or, at least, a way of leading non design-oriented firms towards the design world.
The event is being held in the premises refurbished by Belgium’s studio de Vylder Vinck Tailleu Architecten and a reflecting-surface design. Elena Sommariva