Gesture dissolves into structure in Soft Gravity Holds by Olivia Cognet

Objects With Narratives presents Soft Gravity Holds, a solo exhibition by French artist and designer Olivia Cognet, in which ceramics, furniture and sculpture converge in an exploration of fluidity. The design exhibition is anchored by a 1.60-meter-tall fountain, Source For A Lost Garden, that serves as both its conceptual and physical centrepiece. “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,” Objects With Narratives notes in an official release.

Crafted from black stoneware, the fountain evokes something ancient and alive. “Water circulates without hierarchy, slipping from one basin to another, overflowing, escaping. Nothing is contained; everything is in motion,” the design gallery explains. The fountain establishes the visual language for the rest of the exhibition. A collection of black brutalist furniture—including tables, seating, lamps and sculptural objects—appears as though it has emerged organically from the fountain itself.

Soft Gravity Holds takes its title from the tension between permanence and impermanence that runs throughout the works. “The fountain is not treated here as a symbol, but as something active, something that never fully settles. Water gathers for a moment, takes form, then immediately breaks apart again. It flows, spreads, disappears and returns. There is no final image, only a continuous movement that keeps reshaping itself,” the contemporary design gallery explains.

Beyond the central fountain, the showcase includes products such as Architecture For Silence Cabinet, Architecture For Silence Credenza, Wave, Chandelier Wave, Underwater Rhythm and Mini Mural Bas Relief, expanding the contemporary designer’s dialogue between ceramics, furniture and sculpture, while reinforcing the exhibition's themes of transformation and fluidity.

Housed within an early 20th-century Beaux-Arts building that once served as a fur manufactory, the Brussels-based gallery has become known for championing collectible design that emphasises storytelling as much as craftsmanship. Within this layered setting, Cognet's works find a natural resonance, transforming the gallery into an environment where design becomes an experiential medium. “More than an exhibition, the whole composes a landscape: a gradual ascent of matter, from water to form. In the end, the gesture briefly becomes structure, and the structure immediately begins to dissolve again, returning to movement, to something that cannot be held in place,” Objects With Narratives mentions.