Soft spot: Textile artists transform the Horta Museum with their velvet designs

Velvet was one of Victor Horta’s favourite materials – so it is apt that it plays central stage in the fascinating new exhibition Smooth as Velvet in his former home.

The famous architect (1861-1947) and designer also saw textiles as the very source of architecture, a matrix from which all ornamentation originates. Moreover, the tail end of the 19th century, when his Saint-Gilles house was built, was a boom time for textiles.

“In this nine-month event, the emphasis is on young artists,” says museum curator Benjamin Zurstrassen. “We also want to show the ‘holy triangle’ between the museum, Horta and the artists. 

“The five textile experts all appropriate the space differently, creating a dialogue with Horta,” he continues. “The aim is to create a living, lively space, making the Horta House a type of laboratory.”

In addition, the museum, having already forged close links with highly skilled artisans, has launched another trilateral collaboration between creators, their expertise and a location. This year, Weaving Mill Van Neder (based in Kortrijk) that produces machine-cut loop pile velvets and Arles-based sisters Florence and Martine Moulis, who create sabre-cut velvets, have been chosen to give life to the guest artists’ oeuvre.

So far, so technical. More importantly, it is a joy to tour the already beautiful house and to experience its marriage of old and art nouveau. In the kitchen and laundry room, Louisa Carmona transforms everyday objects such as containers and bottles, using a special type of velvet that looks more like canvas.

There is also a selection of pieces with household words of the time like ‘essanger’ [pre-washing dirty clothes before putting them in the wash’]. When Horta lived in the house, this would be a steel bath, today it would be a washing machine. “This is a way of reviving the past,” says Carmona.

Move to the breakfast room and sewing sisters Flore and Pauline Fockedey have transformed the seating into a velvet case reminiscent of a tram. The wall coverings have a shell motif – which they say refers to the fact that the museum places spiky shells on the chairs on which you cannot sit. 

The boudoir enchants with an almost surrealist puppet theatre. Called The border, it is inspired by the Horta house garden. The curtains of this small theatre have been painted on to duchesse fabric, then sabre-cut by hand to reveal the velvet, but only on certain sections. Again, while the exhibition is called ‘velvet’, it is not the rich textile as we know it, and the ‘puppets’ are actually exquisitely made silver figurines.

Finally, the 2010 Henri Van de Velde Career Award winner Marc Van Hoe is the well-established artist of the pack – having worked with textiles and velvets for the past 60 years. In the family room, he has created wall hangings and table coverings of velvet produced from linen and from natural and artificial silk.

Seeing velvet as “a beautiful soft skin,” Van Hoe explained that his sumptuous curtains and table cloths made with ‘baguette’ velvet, an age-old technique featuring intricate stitching, are based on the German master Hans Holbein’s ‘The Ambassadors’ (1533) and Antwerp-born Jan de Critz’s ‘The Somerset House Conference’ (1604). 

Smooth as Velvet
Until 30 June
Horta Museum
Rue Américaine 27
Saint-Gilles

Photos: (main image) Smooth as Velvet, Horta Museum ©Thomas Lancz; Care Cover ©Flore et Pauline Fockedey; Kitchen & breakfast room ©Paul Louis; ©Thomas Lancz