Last week, the Belgian capital hosted contemporary design fair Collectible for the eighth time, attracting an enthusiastic crowd of creatives to the fairground and galleries beyond. 

Brussels’ Collectible is one of those unique design fairs where you can really sit with the pieces that strike you and have intentional conversations with their makers. The frenetic energy of other industry events is not to be found at Espace Vanderborght, a nearly 6,000-sq-m 1930s behemoth around the corner from the Belgian capital’s Grand Place. Collectible – which celebrated its eighth edition last week, ninth if you count its 2024 satellite in New York City – is the brainchild of cultural entrepreneur Liv Vaisberg and art and design consultant Clélie Debehault, who believe in creating exchange between contemporary design, art and craftsmanship. Vaisberg is also one of two behind Design Biennale Rotterdam. Drawing on the experimental, speculative spirit of Rotterdam’s design community, Biennale no. 1 took place only days before Collectible no. 9 kicked off. It’s evidence of the domino effect Collectible’s success has had in giving designers space to shine on the Benelux stage. 

Photos: Pierre Castignola, Studio Pim Top

Cover: Antwerp gallery Uppercut occupied a large section greeting Collectible visitors this year. Top: Collectible's Curated gallery elaborated on the theme 'The Reality of the Virtual', with scenography by Duyi Han. Bottom: Online gallery Adorno presented Future50, a curated selection of emerging designers.

The North Star of Collectible each year is its Curated section, dedicated to emerging and mid-career independent designers and design studios. NYC artist and writer Brecht Wright Gander curated the micro-gallery alongside journalist Adrian Madlener, gallerist Max Radford and Centre Pompidou design curator Olivier Zeitoun, exploring the ‘Reality of the Virtual’ by showcasing pieces conceived at the intersection of traditional craftsmanship and modern technology. The theme – represented by a swirling Midjourney-inspired floor mural hand-painted by Chinese artist and designer Duyi Han – aptly captured a larger mood at the fair. Trawling Espace Vanderborght’s five floors over the span of a day, it was more obvious than ever how strongly digital interfaces are influencing contemporary product design. Nature’s rebellion, though, also made itself known: many designers offset gridded, pixel-like forms straight out of cyberspace with unexpected organic materials and shapes, a contrast coexisting even in singular pieces. This tension seemed to be the clearest unifier of the body of work on show at Collectible this year. Antwerp gallery Uppercut, Paris-based platform Steidz Studio and online collectible design gallery Adorno had particularly strong presences at this edition, with selections reinforcing the Curated narrative.   

Fresh energy 

While most of Collectible’s action takes place at Espace Vanderborght, there was a range of auxiliary stops on this year’s agenda. Asifose, a collective of young artists and designers, welcomed visitors into its atelier for a first exhibition entitled Peeping Through. The live-and work-space, called Espace Aygo, is a huge townhouse in the northeast of Brussels that was derelict before the friends moved in. A feat of epic proportions, their ‘domestic experiment’ was commemorated by the New York Times last autumn, and the local excitement around and pride for what the creatives are doing in the space is palpable. Peeping Through explained that. Uniting the work of 30 artists, the show is a house-within-a-house, a set in which the lives of three characters play out.

Photos: Antoine Grenez

Asifose's inaugural exhibition at Espace Aygo took visitors into a faux domestic space centred on three fictional characters and outfitted with the collective's art and design pieces.

Elaborating upon the storyline further would be trivial – it’s a plot better left to the live experience – but the composition of design pieces and artworks used for scenography was unforgettable. Examples of the delights to be found? Large ceramic bread slices emblazoned with folklorist paintings, an asymmetrical, paint-swiped carpet with beaded edges and a white sink rendered in the shape of a toothy mouth (complete with a stuck flosser). The collective effect was surreal, even jarring, and cohesive in its fun nonsensicality, but the truth is that each of the elements is strong enough to stand alone with ease.

Take a seat

‘What fuels our fascination with chairs?’ A big question, and one that assuredly would evoke a lot of interesting answers from FRAME’s community. It’s the driving query behind Matching Seats, an exhibition that opened at MAD Brussels, an engine for supporting and empowering creatives in the Belgian capital. On show until 3 May at the cultural organization’s headquarters, Matching Seats presents a range of iconic chairs from the expansive art-and-design collection of Galila Barzilaï Hollander. The MAD team made this curated cut from pieces owned by Barzilaï Hollander – who also has an exhibition space in the Belgian capital: P.O.C. (Passion Obsession Collection) – and paired them with fashion accessories conceived by creatives they collaborate with, striking a dialogue between these design outputs. From Maarten Ceulaer’s spherical Mutation Series prototype to a seashell-backed, Botticelli-inspired chair by Zaventem Atelier’s Lionel Jadot and a seat crafted entirely from Barbie parts by Anna Monichi, the selection is a novel reminder of the myriad ways to conceive, use and even appreciate a chair.

Photo: Olympe Tits

At MAD Brussels' Matching Seats exhibition, a chair by Maarten De Ceulaer is paired with a bag by Eunji Oh.

A visit to Brussels is also not complete without a stop at Objects With Narratives, an impressive functional art and collectible design gallery with a prestigious address on Place du Grand Sablon that opened just ahead of Collectible 2024. Presenting diverse craft-oriented works over 2,000-sq-m, the local favourite is run by brothers Nik and Robbe Vandewyngaerde, and Oskar Eryatmaz. It’s currently presenting solo shows by Jumandie Seys and Lukas Cober, and Ben Storms and Jadot have residencies at the location.

Stay tuned for our roundup of product highlights from Collectible 2025.