If there is a single, definitive Axel Vervoordt style, it is one of almost insouciant luxury. The 67-year-old Belgian designer and curator is famous, first, for his collection of singularly opulent objects. His breadth and depth of interest as a buyer and dealer—in rare and beautiful antiques, in modern art, and sumptuous furnishings and pottery—is staggering. But the way he brings it all together and assembles an environment, creating a pleasing frisson through contrast, or diffusing an object by setting it in a complementary context, is what makes him unique. After he's done with it, a room, a house, or a work of art can often seem as though it has reached some ultimate, elemental completion, as if it could be no other way than how he has made it—perfect, effortless.
But beyond being just your favorite designer's favorite designer—which, trust, he is—he is also among the most esteemed art dealers and curators working today. And although he has gathered together several monographs of his work (including Timeless Interiors in 2007, and in 2013, Living With Light) and, with the architect Tatsuro Miki, created the aesthetic treatise Wabi Inspirations (2011), the variety of his talents allow Vervoordt a holistic approach to his work that few others can even imitate, let alone match. He is a world builder, so perhaps it is unsurprising that he should want to build his own world—which indeed he is doing, reconstructing an entire village on the outskirts of his native Antwerp.
Rick Owens, whose interiors in his Paris home are also the stuff of design legend, has long been an admirer of Vervoordt's work. This past June, shortly after Vervoordt's completion of a magnificent penthouse apartment for Robert De Niro and Ira Drukier's Greenwich Hotel, Owens spoke with the designer about living in the light and what it takes to make a village.
AXEL VERVOORDT: Hello, Rick. It's Axel. We haven't met yet, but we know each other, which is nice. [laughs]
RICK OWENS: Hello. I'm delighted.
VERVOORDT: I would love to meet.
OWENS: Well, I understand that you have a place in Venice. You can invite me over.
VERVOORDT: Are you coming to Venice?
OWENS: I'm in Venice all the time. When I'm not in Paris, I'm at the Lido. Actually, I'm on a construction site in Milan now, because I'm opening a store here. You know, I've been following you for so long that the first time I was able to completely immerse myself in your work was at the Palazzo Fortuny show in Venice—I was there for the opening. Was it Artempo
, with the Anish Kapoor mirrored thing on the bottom floor?
VERVOORDT: It was. Artempo was the first, in 2007, when we had the big work of El Anatsui on the façade outside. In 2009 was In-Finitum. The city of Venice gives me the palace for almost unlimited time to do an exhibition every two years. We've done it four times. I'm going to do the fifth now.
OWENS: That was brilliant of Venice to invite you to do that. How did you pull that off?
VERVOORDT: I wanted to do an exhibit with all my concepts, all my life—mixing old and new, trying to meet East and West, and my fascination with all the world and materials. Because I love things where time shows in the material—especially now, in a period where everybody hates time. Everyone wants to avoid time and wants to stay young. There are no traces of the time. I wanted to do something where the time itself is the big artist. And that's why we called it Artempo, where time becomes art.
OWENS: Right.
VERVOORDT: And they are compared, like an elephant's ear next to an Oxidation Painting of Warhol's. I thought I would only do it once and a few people might like it, but it was a big success—much more than I ever thought. Then I went to Japan with a client, and one of my architect friends said we have to go see the Noguchi workshops. And all the unfinished Noguchi sculptures are the most beautiful, so I decided I have to do In-Finitum, where infinity is in the unfinished. The city of Venice and the mayor all liked what I did, and we helped them restore the palace. Daniela Ferrutti, who's the director there, is like my sister. Our next exhibition is Proportio, which I'm now preparing.
OWENS: So the idea of mixing it in with the pieces that are already in the Fortuny museum, that was pretty radical.
VERVOORDT: Radical because I wanted to have a real palace, which still felt like someone's home, with peeling walls, which you find, especially on the second floor. The director said, "You can't show it, it's not restored." I said, "I love it because it's not restored. That's what I want, to combine that with contemporary art." I don't like the barrier between old and new. I like the continuation. So I wanted to start with the juxtaposition of something that has been for 300 years, and something that was made yesterday.
OWENS: Where are you going right now? I know you're in a car.
VERVOORDT: I was going to the opera to see Beethoven's Fidelio. But I just cancelled; I gave the tickets to my driver because I'm so busy. I'm now home, sitting on the terrace outside with the roses. It's beautiful weather and I didn't feel like I wanted to go to the opera. [laughs]
OWENS: One of my favorite's, Elektra, was here at La Scala last night and I missed it.
VERVOORDT: I love Elektra. Who was conducting?
OWENS: I don't know. There was one on DVD with Leonie Rysanek that is the most fantastic performance I've ever seen.
VERVOORDT: Yes, that's fantastic.
OWENS: The DVD came out 10 years ago or so. I'm going to send it to you because the décor and the spirit is ... I think there's something in it that would work for you. I would never presume to know what you would like, but I would love to share it with you.
VERVOORDT: Thank you.
OWENS: You're in Belgium now. But you did that beautiful penthouse on top of the Greenwich Hotel in New York.
VERVOORDT: Did you see it?
OWENS: I've seen pictures of it. I haven't been there. It will be a long time before I go to New York.
VERVOORDT: Oh, you have to see the real thing. It's almost impossible to capture in the picture. Once you enter, you come in a different world. There's so much peace that comes over you, even in the middle of the noise of New York. I think it really works. The rooms all have a different level of silence; it's something you really miss in New York.
OWENS: You're going to have a waiting list.
VERVOORDT: It was done with very humble objects, things from New York that we don't throw away, like old wood or old stones on the pier. The idea was to give humble things a very noble place. We left some concrete walls as they are, with inscriptions that, to me, look like a Cy Twombly. Nothing is décor, which makes it very special.
OWENS: Have you always been this gentle?
VERVOORDT: [laughs] I don't know. I think my task is to make people happy and let them recognize themselves in their homes. It's not like I make my own thing for them. But for the Greenwich Hotel project, for the penthouse, we could make a real wabi atmosphere, and it's almost like a work of art. Did you see the Wabi Inspirations book?
OWENS: No, I just got the last one, though: Living With Light.
VERVOORDT: This penthouse apartment is more based on the wabi philosophy, like Wabi Inspirations, which for me is the book of shadow. It's not the book of light.
OWENS: I'm not sure which books of yours I have because you have a bunch of them and I have a bunch of your books. [Vervoordt laughs] But the book of light, I was noticing, has more hints of glamour.
VERVOORDT: More glamour, and the book of wabi is very serene and very silenced. It's the opposite, but complementary. One day you have to come see where I live. We live in this big house and there are rooms, which are quite glamorous, but we also have these very serene wabi rooms, and sometimes I would rather go sit there, you see? More of that when you come.
OWENS: The reason I asked if you've always been this gentle is because I know that we've both talked about patina, in what you do and what I do. But I wonder—because yours comes from such a gentle place—if mine comes from being more destructive.
VERVOORDT: I see.
(cont)
But beyond being just your favorite designer's favorite designer—which, trust, he is—he is also among the most esteemed art dealers and curators working today. And although he has gathered together several monographs of his work (including Timeless Interiors in 2007, and in 2013, Living With Light) and, with the architect Tatsuro Miki, created the aesthetic treatise Wabi Inspirations (2011), the variety of his talents allow Vervoordt a holistic approach to his work that few others can even imitate, let alone match. He is a world builder, so perhaps it is unsurprising that he should want to build his own world—which indeed he is doing, reconstructing an entire village on the outskirts of his native Antwerp.
Rick Owens, whose interiors in his Paris home are also the stuff of design legend, has long been an admirer of Vervoordt's work. This past June, shortly after Vervoordt's completion of a magnificent penthouse apartment for Robert De Niro and Ira Drukier's Greenwich Hotel, Owens spoke with the designer about living in the light and what it takes to make a village.
AXEL VERVOORDT: Hello, Rick. It's Axel. We haven't met yet, but we know each other, which is nice. [laughs]
RICK OWENS: Hello. I'm delighted.
VERVOORDT: I would love to meet.
OWENS: Well, I understand that you have a place in Venice. You can invite me over.
VERVOORDT: Are you coming to Venice?
OWENS: I'm in Venice all the time. When I'm not in Paris, I'm at the Lido. Actually, I'm on a construction site in Milan now, because I'm opening a store here. You know, I've been following you for so long that the first time I was able to completely immerse myself in your work was at the Palazzo Fortuny show in Venice—I was there for the opening. Was it Artempo
, with the Anish Kapoor mirrored thing on the bottom floor?
VERVOORDT: It was. Artempo was the first, in 2007, when we had the big work of El Anatsui on the façade outside. In 2009 was In-Finitum. The city of Venice gives me the palace for almost unlimited time to do an exhibition every two years. We've done it four times. I'm going to do the fifth now.
OWENS: That was brilliant of Venice to invite you to do that. How did you pull that off?
VERVOORDT: I wanted to do an exhibit with all my concepts, all my life—mixing old and new, trying to meet East and West, and my fascination with all the world and materials. Because I love things where time shows in the material—especially now, in a period where everybody hates time. Everyone wants to avoid time and wants to stay young. There are no traces of the time. I wanted to do something where the time itself is the big artist. And that's why we called it Artempo, where time becomes art.
OWENS: Right.
VERVOORDT: And they are compared, like an elephant's ear next to an Oxidation Painting of Warhol's. I thought I would only do it once and a few people might like it, but it was a big success—much more than I ever thought. Then I went to Japan with a client, and one of my architect friends said we have to go see the Noguchi workshops. And all the unfinished Noguchi sculptures are the most beautiful, so I decided I have to do In-Finitum, where infinity is in the unfinished. The city of Venice and the mayor all liked what I did, and we helped them restore the palace. Daniela Ferrutti, who's the director there, is like my sister. Our next exhibition is Proportio, which I'm now preparing.
OWENS: So the idea of mixing it in with the pieces that are already in the Fortuny museum, that was pretty radical.
VERVOORDT: Radical because I wanted to have a real palace, which still felt like someone's home, with peeling walls, which you find, especially on the second floor. The director said, "You can't show it, it's not restored." I said, "I love it because it's not restored. That's what I want, to combine that with contemporary art." I don't like the barrier between old and new. I like the continuation. So I wanted to start with the juxtaposition of something that has been for 300 years, and something that was made yesterday.
OWENS: Where are you going right now? I know you're in a car.
VERVOORDT: I was going to the opera to see Beethoven's Fidelio. But I just cancelled; I gave the tickets to my driver because I'm so busy. I'm now home, sitting on the terrace outside with the roses. It's beautiful weather and I didn't feel like I wanted to go to the opera. [laughs]
OWENS: One of my favorite's, Elektra, was here at La Scala last night and I missed it.
VERVOORDT: I love Elektra. Who was conducting?
OWENS: I don't know. There was one on DVD with Leonie Rysanek that is the most fantastic performance I've ever seen.
VERVOORDT: Yes, that's fantastic.
OWENS: The DVD came out 10 years ago or so. I'm going to send it to you because the décor and the spirit is ... I think there's something in it that would work for you. I would never presume to know what you would like, but I would love to share it with you.
VERVOORDT: Thank you.
OWENS: You're in Belgium now. But you did that beautiful penthouse on top of the Greenwich Hotel in New York.
VERVOORDT: Did you see it?
OWENS: I've seen pictures of it. I haven't been there. It will be a long time before I go to New York.
VERVOORDT: Oh, you have to see the real thing. It's almost impossible to capture in the picture. Once you enter, you come in a different world. There's so much peace that comes over you, even in the middle of the noise of New York. I think it really works. The rooms all have a different level of silence; it's something you really miss in New York.
OWENS: You're going to have a waiting list.
VERVOORDT: It was done with very humble objects, things from New York that we don't throw away, like old wood or old stones on the pier. The idea was to give humble things a very noble place. We left some concrete walls as they are, with inscriptions that, to me, look like a Cy Twombly. Nothing is décor, which makes it very special.
OWENS: Have you always been this gentle?
VERVOORDT: [laughs] I don't know. I think my task is to make people happy and let them recognize themselves in their homes. It's not like I make my own thing for them. But for the Greenwich Hotel project, for the penthouse, we could make a real wabi atmosphere, and it's almost like a work of art. Did you see the Wabi Inspirations book?
OWENS: No, I just got the last one, though: Living With Light.
VERVOORDT: This penthouse apartment is more based on the wabi philosophy, like Wabi Inspirations, which for me is the book of shadow. It's not the book of light.
OWENS: I'm not sure which books of yours I have because you have a bunch of them and I have a bunch of your books. [Vervoordt laughs] But the book of light, I was noticing, has more hints of glamour.
VERVOORDT: More glamour, and the book of wabi is very serene and very silenced. It's the opposite, but complementary. One day you have to come see where I live. We live in this big house and there are rooms, which are quite glamorous, but we also have these very serene wabi rooms, and sometimes I would rather go sit there, you see? More of that when you come.
OWENS: The reason I asked if you've always been this gentle is because I know that we've both talked about patina, in what you do and what I do. But I wonder—because yours comes from such a gentle place—if mine comes from being more destructive.
VERVOORDT: I see.
(cont)
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