Pots of the top
Jurgen Bey & Rianne Makkink, Andrea Branzi, Julien Carretero, Curro Claret, David Dubois, Richard Hutten, Lucas Maassen, Rikkert Paauw, George Sowden, Daniel Weil
April 24th
︎︎︎ May 17th, 2025
What? Again? Yes, and we could even have called it Flowers and Fruit 2, or Flowers and Fruit, the comeback. 8 years after the first exhibition of the same name, 4 years after Primavera, it didn't make things any easier for us, so we tried to come up with a new title just for a bit of hype. Therefore... Pots of the Top. (ref. Top of the Pops…for those who didn’t get it).
And why not? We will not try to give lessons on design, vases and fruit bowls. They're just vases and fruit bowls, that's all. Not exactly original, as we suspected, and perhaps there’s a slight tendency to get bored of them. There have been many exhibitions on this theme in recent years. Too many? The subject is by no means new and has been around for centuries. But it must be said that, with the revival of ceramics, vases and fruit bowls are back in the spotlight. Who knows why? Perhaps a desire to revive ancestral techniques? To stay grounded? A way of refocusing and reconnecting? A need for light-heartedness? Alongside ceramics, metal, plastic and all the other materials available from oysters to banana leaves, including paper recycling rejects, textile fibres, propolis, etc.., have been used, transformed, deformed, drilled, assembled, twisted, stretched, torn, blistered, hammered, re-transformed ad infinitum, put to the test to make some truly original containers. The fact remains that we're talking about vases and fruit bowls. So far, so simple and so clear. Let’s not get our knickers in a twist. Let's just get on with it. There must be something we can do in this area and, above all, let's have some fun. We love flowers, fruit, beautiful, intriguing objects and knickers. Do we need to describe all the works on display? No, because what does it really matter? The name, the logo, the signature, well, dare we say it? Who cares? When a vase is filled with water and flowers, you can't see the signature! It's a no-brainer. Besides, who looks at the signature? Yes, that's the way it is. But what we want is for it to be beautiful!!! BEAUTIFUL!!! B.E.A.U.T.I.F.U.L. So beautiful that you just want to shout it out from the rooftops. Yes, as beautiful as a car, or rather as a racing car with its boot adorned with big exhaust pipes like snakes with explosive breath.1Because design is finished. Designers are finished. Artists have taken up cycling and not a moment too soon. But we've still got flowers and fruit to wrap up. So, what do we do? Let them die and fade on tables, dressers and windowsills? Of course not. No. There's no question of that. There are a few things that lie around, but they must be useful. Beautiful and functional. No leaking vases. A vase that can't stand up, no. No to the vase that weighs two tonnes. A vase that can't be cleaned, no way. And if it shows up all the limescale, yeah, that's a no, I'm telling you. We want something functional. Things that aren't fragile, that can be put in the dishwasher, that the kids can destroy without us crying for days, that your mother-in-law won't throw out the window because she can't think of anything better to knock out the neighbour who mows the lawn at 10pm. Another nature lover. Will we be able to meet all these demands? We can't be sure. We need to be at least a little serious. We're not trying to change the world. We must be realistic, simple and humble. Let's give it a try. In other words, if, like us, you think there's too much beauty in the world, too much creativity, too much curiosity, too much sharing, too much kindness towards each other, come along. We'll talk about those who don't come. We'll talk about functionality. Beauty. Efficiency. Usefulness. Radicality. Beauty in the home and in interiors. What else? Noise, fury, design? Lots of love xx
1. Thanks to Filippo Tommaso Marinetti… Manifesto of Futurism, 1909.
