This new series, Design bites, unveil the backstage of contemporary creation. Tackling various topics from personal designer processes to the position of Collectible design on the global design market; these bites offer different views to suit all tastes. Today we talk with Lise Coirier, director and co-founder with Gian Giuseppe Simeone of Spazio Nobile Gallery.

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COLLECTIBLE: How did you get into collectible design? Why did you start your gallery?

Lise Coirier: Gian Giuseppe and I are both art historians and passionate collectors. We have started the gallery in 2016 as a physical space in which we set up our seasonal exhibitions four to five time a year dedicated to contemporary applied arts, design and photography. We are working at the fringe of fine arts and applied arts, focusing on experimental artistic and collectible design. Parallel to our biannual print and online magazine TLmag_True Living of Art & Design, we felt that we had to fill in a gap in this world of contemporary art and design. We have created this frame of the gallery space to share our own selection of talents which are both emerging and renowned, aiming at creating a particular narrative that has evolved through already seventeen seasons since we created Spazio Nobile which celebrates its 5-year anniversary in 2021.

“We are working at the fringe of fine arts and applied arts, focusing on experimental artistic and collectible design.”

C: Can you talk about the designers you present for COLLECTIBLE SALON? What makes their practice and pieces unique?

LC: Kiki van Eijk, “The New Harvest”, which runs at Lempertz in Brussels. This exhibition showcases new and unique Ceramic Wall Stories, hand-built ceramic mirrors; Domestic Collages, hand-stitched wall hangings; Ceramic Totems, hand-built ceramic objects, as well as a selection of her Matrice collection for Saint-Louis in clear crystal lined colours.

At the occasion of COLLECTIBLE, Spazio Nobile inaugurates a new storefront gallery space with Portuguese artist Bela Silva, rue des Minimes 61, where the artist runs her new atelier in front of Les Minimes late baroque church in Le Sablon district, known as the fine arts destination in Brussels. Spazio Nobile has conceived with Bela Silva a unique and artistic display “Rome me manque” in the gallery window. The atelier exhibition includes Bela Silva’s colorful gouaches and new hand-built sculptural wearable and wall jewelry collection, Four Seasons, along with Petalouda ceramic jewelry created in collaboration with Berlin-based luxury fashion brand Rianna + Nina. 

At Spazio Nobile Gallery & Studiolo, the exhibition “Season XVII- Threads of Nature” connects 10 artists and reflects on the interaction between human and planet. Jörg Bräuer (DE), Nathalie Campion (BE), Lila Farget (FR), Ernst Gamperl (DE), Kaspar Hamacher (BE), Amy Hilton (UK), Samy Rio (FR), Bela Silva (PT), Jacqueline Surdell (US) & Philipp Weber (DE) are tied by a sensitivity particular to everything related to nature and minerality which are at the core of our gallery curation. Spazio Nobile is combining, therefore, glass creations alongside ceramics, wood sculptures, tapestries, photographs and dry pastels on paper. The artworks reflect biodiversity that underlines the richness of organic matter as a basis for artistic experimentation in cross-disciplinary practices. In line with our philosophy, we also present some new unique works with a soul by Ann-Beate Tempelhaug (NO) in stoneware porcelain, crystallized sculptures by Isaac Monté (BE) and hand-tufted tapestries by Vera Vermeersch (BE), as well as glazed porcelain by Marie Corbin (FR). We also highlight our recent editions such as the molten glass sculpture vases by Garnier & Linker (FR), the lighting collection Filigree by Philipp Weber (DE) blown at Berlin Glas as well as the Ostreum & Echinus squeezed molten glassworks by Katherine Huskie (UK). In the Studiolo which is across the street from the main gallery space, this storefront gallery shaped like a window entices the viewer to draw closer to the glass panel in order to discover the world waiting on the other side. We are presenting during COLLECTIBLE WEEK an emerging artist, Audrey Guttman, with her collage works “Through the Looking-Glass”, in dialogue with other works by the artists of the gallery.

C: What are the key questions you ask yourself before starting to conceptualise an exhibition? 

LC: As curators of our exhibitions, Spazio Nobile is aiming at removing any boundaries between the disciplines, while visual arts intertwin with fine arts. By giving impetus to the creation of unique pieces, limited editions and installations that are both experimental and artistic, with a particular sensitivity to everything that touches nature and minerality, the gallery has committed itself over those years to developing its own philosophy and narrative. Bringing the cultures of East and West to the forefront in a dialogue rich in natural and innovative materials, Spazio Nobile explores time and space, the connection between history and the contemporary culture, curating and exhibiting in art and heritage venues such as Maison Louis Carré by Finnish architect Alvar Aalto in France, the Ancienne Nonciature (former Vatican Embassy) at the Grand Sablon or Lempertz (former Galerie des Frères Leroy) in Brussels.

About Spazio Nobile (Belgium) 

By opening Spazio Nobile in 2016 in Brussels, Lise Coirier and Gian Giuseppe Simeone have united their passions for design and art history, initiating a dialogue between contemporary applied arts, design, and photography. Commissioning installations that are both experimental and artistic - and with a particular sensibility for everything connected to nature and materiality - the gallery organises exhibitions dedicated to both rising and established talents.