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COLLECTIBLE: You are quite well acquainted with COLLECTIBLE as you have participated in each edition of the fair since its launch in 2018. Could you briefly describe the pieces you have presented over the years and the evolution of your work since your first participation?

Bram Vanderbeke: In 2018 I presented together with the Hardcore collective.  They did a great job with the scenography in recreating the atmosphere from the Parking Garage where we exhibited earlier in 2017. I presented some of the first ‘Stacked’ pieces and together with Wendy Andreu I presented the ‘Regular Pyramid’ and the ‘Fat Pyramid’ for the first time. In 2019 I presented some works with Atelier Jespers, where I also had a solo show at the same time, and with MDR Gallery.

In addition, my ‘Stackable Stools’ were also used for the lectures at Collectible. In 2020 I presented one of my ‘Casted Objects’ with our BRUT collective. With BRUT we always create a specific installation/scenography to showcase our works.

“It’s also a place where I always discover new designers and galleries”

C: What does COLLECTIBLE represent for you as a platform or community?

BV: As a designer it’s a place where I can show my works to an international audience of architects, gallerists, collectors and press. It’s also a place where I always discover new designers and galleries, but most of all a place where I meet people, like potential clients, but also a lot of designer friends.

C: For our upcoming edition, you will be the scenographer of the curated show. As you know, the section will welcome pieces from both emerging and mid-career designers around the theme “TENSION!” which was developed by Julia Haney Montanez (design curator, writer and entrepreneur, USA). What does this theme evoke for you? 

BV: The first thing that came into my mind is how all the different works will interact with each other. I am curious to see objects with different stories, materials, and textures, and to see what unites or divides them.

C: Without revealing too much about it, can you tell us a bit more about what you plan for this year’s scenography

BV: For now I am looking into the architecture of Aldo van Eyck. I am playing with a floor plan with different forms, and negative spaces that relate to each other, but it's all very open still.

About Architectural Objects

Bram Vanderbeke creates Architectural Objects: monumental designs with a distinctive materiality and aesthetic. In doing so, Bram suggests considering the status of these works as intermediate. Not so much to declare them unfinished, but rather as an accentuation of their intrinsic potential – their capacity to vary and alter, according to the circumstances they may once become part of. The works introduce an interaction between space and object and between architecture and function.

Stacking is a vital word in relation to these Architectural Objects. Since it is this stacking – the deliberate and, above all, physical act of placing something on top of another – which is the foundation of many of them. When looked at from a distance, the Architectural Objects generously emphasise their context, revive its identity and introduce a new rhythm. Once in closer view, the objects also reveal their other qualities. On the one hand, this is the moment when the objects unveil their function and when an observer becomes a user. On the other hand, it is the point where materiality takes over, led by the textures and shades of the surfaces, the rawness and solidity of form and substance. They echo a process which is both experimental and intentional, bodily and mental. 

About Bram Vanderbeke

Bram Vanderbeke is a Ghent-based, Belgian designer. He graduated from the Design Academy, Eindhoven in 2016, complementing a prior training in Interior Design at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Ghent. His practice is diverse but consistent and stands out for its material, sculptural and monumental qualities. 

Bram explores and transforms the possible interactions between an object, its architectural environment and its user, further challenged by raw materiality, form and functionality. His works are in the same time autonomous artistic manifestations and utile solutions, an ambiguity Bram deliberately aims for. He creates his Architectural Objects and rhythmic installations in varying dimensions, both in private and in public contexts. The works often influence the spatial perception of the environment they become part of, sometimes by extending an existing space through creating a new space within it.

Bram Vanderbeke is one of the founding members of BRUT, a collective of emerging Belgian designers. He also collaborates with Dutch Invertuals (Netherlands) and Core Studio (Netherlands) Tools Gallery (France) and Nilufar Gallery (Italy).