I step into the front garden, neatly drawn between tall roadside shrubbery and a two-storied house. A concrete stair rises out of the manicured lawn and wraps up mysteriously into air. Within the house, lights wink with the warmth of a Caroll-esque fairytale. While I take it all in, designer Hannes Van Severen walks out on cue of a neighbouring barn that houses their design studio. Dressed in denim and boots, he greets me with a calming smile that puts one at ease. His handshake is firm and he welcomes me into the home where I’m introduced to his life and creative partner, photographer Fien Muller.

Together as Muller Van Severen, this duo have piqued international interests with their furniture work. A look into their studio space will reveal a collection of various pieces in the process; each constructed out of thin wire frames in gestures that suggest a spark of creative humour - “a quest for intersections,” they explain. Sitting around a bowl of fresh yellow fruit picked from their backyard, we drink coffee out of deliciously blue porcelain and backtrack to their origins. Hannes recounts: “Fien studied photography for four years at the Academy of Ghent. I started sculpture at Sint-Lucas in Ghent. After her studies in photography, Fien also started sculpture and that’s when we met.”

And while it took a few years for a collaborative work to bloom, Fien muses that “there was an ambition to work together, we just never found a medium.” They finally found their beginnings “three years ago (as of 2013), when a design and art gallery in Antwerp asked Fien to do an exhibition, together with an invited artist.” Hannes beams: “And Fien asked ME!” At the time, they were renovating this very house that was to become the home they’ve created with their two daughters. Of course Murphy found the need to interject and refused electricity above the dining area. “So we thought of a table with a lamp. It was the first thing we made together, and we immediately felt it was right. The other furniture pieces came spontaneously, and we decided to have the exhibition only with furniture. Muller Van Severen was born.” To get a full spectrum of their narrative, we refill our coffee cups and dig into their story.

What was it like at the beginning, as artists working in different mediums?

Fien: I think we inspired each other as individual artists. When you see our work, it’s not completely different. Hannes creates poetry in 3D sculpture while I, in 2D.

Where’s your line between collaboration and independent work?

Hannes: I think the line is that now there is a function. We have a border. In art, you can go in any direction. With furniture, you have a limit - a function. It feels liberating that we have this.

Who comes up with the first concept sketch?

Fien: Sometimes Hannes starts with a little drawing and sometimes, I; it’s a game of ping pong. But immediately the other can feel what it is and what it can be. Then we build it.

Hannes: We don’t have a strict moment we design. Sometimes we sit in the car…

Fien: … and we see a colour in the shop or the marketplace! We’re designing while we live our daily lives.

How is design then developed?

Hannes: We draw and we start making a prototype right away in the studio - we’re very impatient. We weld it rough, and we see if the proportions are right. We’re chaotic!  

So it’s intuitive.

Hannes: Very. Also we don’t think of our work as “a furniture.” We want to create a sculptural piece that involves the space, to make landscapes in a room with our furniture.

Fien: That’s true. We don’t think of furniture as its own object. You can sit and watch TV while the other one can read a book, while you share a lamp and the frame. You can be together doing different things with the same object.

Hannes: So we like to use thin lines in our furniture to have strict forms but to have as much transparency as possible.

Fien: Like a drawing in space!

Hannes: One that’s playful. It becomes a mix between Baroque and Minimalist. I come from a family that’s minimalistic. My father (Marteen Van Severen) was a designer creating simple straight forms. And my grandfather was a minimalistic painter in the 1950s. Fien grew up in a more Baroque environment. I think it’s a good mix for our furniture, both worlds coming together.

One could say your furniture is a representation of your heritage.

Fien: Yes, mixing two families. My father also was an artist. I used to see him making things; sculpting or painting. We used to see somebody making something with hands. That’s something that we have in our genes.

Hannes: Actually we create things in the same way as our parents. In a primitive way. We don’t make renders of space with furniture in it. We like to do it directly. If we draw something, and it feels good, then we want to see it right away.

Speaking of construction, why do you favour the materials you use?

Hannes: Because they’re honest. You can find them with their standard dimensions at the store.

Fien: They’re very classical too. Marble and steel – they’re rich and beautiful materials. We start, not by making drawings, but by seeing and being inspired by materials.

So how do you balance the individual work with the collaborative, and your personal lives?

Fien: For me, there’s a lot of work with the furniture so for now, photography means making photos of the furniture. But I’m thinking of my own work because that’s what inspires our furniture work. It originally came out of that, our two separate worlds joined together.

Before hopping on the afternoon bus back to Ghent, I enjoy a light lunch together with this creative couple in their warm kitchen. Our conversation takes a turn into travelling, Portuguese cuisine and the colours and vibrant textures of Southern Europe. I inquire as to whether or not such places have influenced their work. With a knowing glance, they acknowledge that their “inspiration is not from ‘this place’ or ‘that moment’ but comes from everything, our normal daily lives.” Perhaps even now over bread, spreads and salad, they’re creating drawings in their minds.

www.mullervanseveren.be
Written for Mercedes-Benz & mb! Magazine