Welcome home is an installation realized in MAD Brussels institution. Two hanged brass hooks float above a large floor tray-plate, ready to collect drops of rain. Hooks and ceiling fixing system are in brass, floor tray-plate in white enamelled steel. A wall version is also part of the collection.

FR

Welcome home est une installation réalisée au sein de l'institution MAD Brussels. Deux crochets suspendus en laiton flottent au dessus d'un grand plateau de sol, prêt à recueillir les gouttes de pluie. Les crochets et le système de fixation au plafond sont en laiton, le plateau de sol en acier émaillé blanc. Une version murale fait également partie de la collection.

EXHIBITION /

Linking minds Belgitude / DAMN° / Palazzo Letta / Milano.

MATERIAL /

Hooks satin brass / Hanging steel cable D1mm / Floor tray white enameled steel.

DIMENSION /
Ceiling hanging version : Hook D24 x 120 x H210 mm.

Hanging stainless steel cable D1mm x 3 meters.

Floor tray plate D800 x H30 mm.

Wall version : Follow that link.

DESIGN /
Jean-François D'Or.

EDITION /
Edited by Vervloet.

PRICE /

Contact us to get prices and delivery time.

Pictures © Stéphanie Derouaux © Laetitia Bica.

How to paint a glass of water in a way that is neither indifferent nor fanciful, but as who would say with genius? I then thought that Hegel would have been very sensitive to this object which has two opposite functions at the same time: to reject water, to protect it, and to keep it, to contain it. He would have been delighted, I think, or amused, as one seeks to be when on vacation, and I have called the picture Hegel's Holidays.

FR

Comment peindre un verre d'eau d'une manière qui ne soit ni indifférente ni fantaisiste, mais comme qui dirait avec génie ? J'ai alors pensé que Hegel aurait été très sensible à cet objet qui a deux fonctions opposées à la fois : rejeter l'eau, la protéger, et la garder, la contenir. Il aurait été ravi, je crois, ou amusé, comme on cherche à l'être quand on est en vacances, et j'ai intitulé le tableau Les Vacances de Hegel.

René Magritte.

L'été est revenu de vacances. Le soleil a un coup de soleil. Sa lumière orangée, éreintée d'avoir doré et chauffé les peaux d'agrume de ces corps lézardés, doit se reposer. Je chantonne cet air de Barbara Les noix fraîches de septembre et l'odeur des mûres écrasées. De retour à la maison, l'été se dit: Qu'il fut bon d'avoir été. Welcome home.

EN

Summer is back from vacation. The sun is sunburned. Its orange light, exhausted from having gilded and heated the citrus skins of these cracked bodies, must rest. I hum this tune by Barbara The fresh nuts of September and the smell of crushed blackberries. Back home, summer says to itself: How good it was to have been. Welcome home.

Furthermore, all my life I’ve been in love with hats and umbrellas, so for me a nice umbrella stand is a must. Usually it’s the kind of item people prefer to hide behind the door, whereas I think they deserve recognition, especially in a country with as many rainy days as Belgium. I have designed a practical umbrella stand in brass that welcomes you home, despite the showers outside.

Ideas often come to him from daily life. When his doorbell was broken, Jean-Francois D'Or experimented with a music box outside his entrance, and when he noticed that it conjured up a smile on every visitor’s face – Even the police were well-disposed ! – he decided to turn this makeshift object into a real doorbell. It had a fabulous effect, so I realized I had to do something with it. The result is a low-tech mood enhancing doorbell, made of brass with a mirror effect; to arrange your hair before the door opens but as the image is upside down it’s more of a clin d'oeil to make us smile even more broadly. After a long day’s work you want to come home and feel good.

It started with the bell, but Jean-Francois D'Or didn’t stop there. He developed two more objects to give us that welcoming feeling: a subdued jolly door handle and a simple yet assertive umbrella stand. When I am looking for new projects, like for example the door handle, I usually play with existing objects. Coincidentally, I had a tobacco pipe in my hands and the more I looked at it, the more I was convinced that this could be an excellent door handle. 

For his Belgitude series, Jean-Francois D'Or worked with Maison Vervloet, ironmonger and purveyor of decorative hardware, a family company still going strong after a respectable 112 years. I’ve been working with them for many years. They excel at craftsmanship and working in brass. Of course, during such a long history quite a few door handles have been made. 45,000 to be more precise. I learned that when I shared my idea of designing a door handle for ‘Belgitude’: at Maison Vervloet they are obviously not easily impressed. So of course they teased me, and this door handle inspired by a smoking pipe is the result! The working relationship between Jean-Francois D'Or and Maison Vervloet has always been one of mutual appreciation, which ensures that everything is possible approach. Talk about ‘Linking Minds’.

Veerle Devos | Belgitude | DAMN° magazine | Picture © Laetitia Bica. 

Exhibition Linking minds Belgitude | DAMN° | Palazzo Letta | Milano.