Sous la maison, la cuisine
As part of a carte blanche at the Hortamuseum, the former home and workshop of Victor Horta, I developed a textile installation within the kitchen and laundry room – spaces historically assigned to domestic labor and largely kept out of sight. Drawing on the house’s dual circulation system, marked by the coexistence of visible and hidden staircases, the project examines architecture as a tool of social distinction, control, and invisibilization.
In collaboration with the manufacturer Van Neder, we developed a woven cotton and linen velvet, which was starched and shaped into three-dimensional forms – vases, pots, and bottles. While velvet traditionally embodies comfort, status, and display in early twentieth-century bourgeois interiors, this iteration is deliberately rough, matte, and dry to the touch, devoid of shine. These soft containers inhabit the domestic space as quiet presences, evoking the invisible labor that sustained it while reflecting on the role and symbolism of household textiles.
At Hortamuseum, Brussels
2024/25
