Exhibition Details

For her exhibition in Brussels, Olivia Cognet opens with a 1.60-meter fountain, a central and manifesto piece.
Loosely inspired by the Manneken-Pis, the work shifts its spirit: here, no figure, no anecdote—only an unstable architecture, traversed by water. The gesture becomes structure, then dissolves.
Crafted in black stoneware with a fine chamotte, the fountain unfolds as an almost archaic form, somewhere between ruin and organism. Water circulates without hierarchy, slipping from one basin to another, overflowing, escaping. Nothing is contained; everything is in motion.
This piece inaugurates the exhibition and gives rise to a broader body of work: a collection of black brutalist furniture conceived as a direct extension of this initial form. Tables, seating and sculptural lamps emerge from the same vocabulary, as if the material itself continued to grow, settle and erode.
The exhibition unfolds in collaboration with Objects With Narratives, located in the heart of the Sablon district, on Place du Grand Sablon, within a Beaux-Arts building from the early 20th century—a former fur manufactory later transformed into a landmark of the Brussels art scene.
More than a gallery, Objects With Narratives develops a singular approach to design: a hybrid territory between art and object, where each piece is conceived as a narrative. Beyond function or aesthetics, their practice engages with the narrative charge of forms—how material, gesture and time produce meaning.
Within this layered setting—at once domestic, industrial and theatrical—the works find a natural resonance. The space itself becomes an extension of the exhibition: a place where design shifts from utility to experience.
Also on view are bas-reliefs, a monumental table, a two-meter chandelier as well as lamps and objects situated at the threshold between art and design.
More than an exhibition, the whole composes a landscape: a gradual ascent of matter, from water to form.