Belgium is Design — Is This Real?

Belgium is Design, a gathering of Belgian institutions promoting design, asked us to develop a strong concept for their event at the former Belgian Embassy during the ‘Paris Design Week’. For them we created the ‘Is this real?’ concept to visually & spatially sign the installation. Like a tribute to Belgian surrealism, the concept sentence highlights the capacity of the promoted businesses to innovate, to preserve & transmit knowledge, to develop projects and products that are true ambassadors of Belgian culture.

The concept and materials used for the signage were also specially inspired by the venue that hosts a series of mirrored walls including a impressive 5m high one, all heritage listed. It was a technical challenge to find the right materials (i.e. glueless adhesive coloured vinyl cut-outs) to leave the space as untouched as possible after the event. Also, the turquoise colour plays an ‘in-between’ trick which ties into the concept while the stretched typography style makes the visitor wonder about his perception.

Last but not least, during the opening of the exhibition, we invited Les Mireilles, a parody show of the famous old-fashioned French singer Mireille Mathieu, to do a much talked-about performance.

Anouk Boyer Mazal is a Brussels based photographer. We commissioned her to do our portfolio of pictures but also for an imaginative series where you can glimpse our favourite projects (the last photo on this page).