Lensvelt launches 120 Maarten Baas x Walter Van Beirendonck limited edition chairs

Maarten Baas has collaborated with Flemish fashion designer Walter Van Beirendonck, under the tutelage of well-known design and furniture label, Lensvelt, to produce the ‘Characters’ limited edition series. Comprising 120 Maarten Baas chairs, the collection will soon be launched at the Lensvelt gallery.

 The Dutch designer has previously collaborated with Lensvelt and Walter van Beirendonck. In fact, a collaboration with Lensvelt led to the showcase of an immersive installation at the 2017 Milan exhibition ‘May I Have Your Attention Please’, which also marked the launch of the 101 Chair, the precursor of the Maarten Baas chairs.

This collaboration combines Baas’ playful and artistic style with Beirendonck’s atypical ideas to produce flamboyant, life-like furniture pieces, thus taking on the name ‘Characters’. The zany chairs were created on Baas’ suggestion that Beirendonck design a special edition of his 101 Chair. The partnership between the two has ensured that the ‘Characters’ series is ergonomically sound as well as artistically experimental.

The chairs in this series embody the name accorded to them, with each piece expressing a different emotion. Touted as the most expressive parts of our body, the eyes and the lips, recreated with buttons and differently coloured embroidered cloths respectively, are able to express a wide range of expressions, thus making the collection appear like animated characters in a movie. The wigs, made out of soft mohair, and placed on top of the backrests further add individual identity to all the pieces.

The end result is a series of chairs dressed in cheerfully coloured fabrics: white, black, blue, yellow and orange, expressing a wide spectrum of feelings: cheerful or angry, hopeful or distressed, and portraying all ages, thus manifesting the theme of diversity and inclusion. On the one hand, this series can be touted as a celebration of differences, and on the other, as the creation of exclusive products that can be named and placed in spaces as soulful objects. The words, ‘Love’ and ‘Hold’, on the armrests further add to the charm of this collection.

 The exhibition of the ‘Characters’ series will remain on display (private view by appointment) from 17th November 2021 to 14th February 2022 at the Lensvelt gallery, Herengracht 178, 1016 BR Amsterdam, Netherlands.