Docking Station for Stijn Meuris

From the way in which OBJET PORTRAIT was created, we can deduce that for Roel every creation is primarily an encounter. It is a dialogue with the other, which can be a person, a community, an environment, an object and so on. Actually, this involves the two most basic human questions. What is the world? Who am I? As human beings it is the task of all of us to find a relationship between these questions. That makes us who we are. We recognize both in Roel's meeting activity as a designer: his open attitude towards the world and his own freedom to interpret it. Nine people are listened to candidly about their way of being in the world. Although they are people 'of the world', with an explicit public image, they are withdrawn from this mundane image. They reflect on their own roots. How do they understand themselves in their way of being?

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Armed with this human wealth, Roel then makes his own interpretation of it. He develops two objects for each of these nine people, one applied and one free. One functional, the other symbolic: the two domains, in other words, between which he constantly moves. Each of these objects is, as it were, the 'face' of the people involved in which something of their soul is expressed. But the soul of the designer also takes part in the debate. As the design process proves: it is a long, uncertain, groping road that leads from listening to speaking. Finding this connection is what it comes down to. It is a meeting between two freedoms. Why should such dialogue not be possible? Or is this a utopian idea? That is ultimately the question he confronts us with Objet Portrait.

PAPERCLIP

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Stijn and newspapers are inseparable. Crumpling, browsing and folding are all actions that this news medium is accustomed to. But a newspaper doesn’t have any packaging to increase its value or to make it more elegant and desirable. For this reason, I designed a leather pouch for Stijn that folds to accommodate the shape of the newspaper. Unfold to open, insert the newspaper and close. The newspaper and the pouch form a whole.

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DOCKING STATION

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Docking Station is part of the Objet Portrait project in which Roel Vandebeek captures the identity of 9 well-known Flemish inspirations in unique objects, installations and utensils. Musical front man, vigilant troubadour, stargazer, professional loudspeaker: Stijn never seems to stop talking. I designed the Docking Station especially for him, as a solid counterweight to get away from our fast-moving world: a human base station. Get cosy in the concrete arms of this element where you can unload stress and load power simultaneously.

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Portrait photography by Lieve Blancquaert