And now, bencAb x moooi
Would you dare tread on a whimsical tableau of a Finnish fable?
What about a greatest hits compilation of Dutch flower paintings? What about a scarf transcendentally expanding into infinity?
No, no and no. These carpets made by by the Dutch design company Moooi are meant more to be hung than to cover the ground beneath our feet. These are not ordinary floor coverings for our humdrum housing. Wall art or contemporary tapestry? You name it.
One look at a “Polar Byzantine” piece by Finish graphic designer Klaus Haapaniemi, “Eden Queen” by Marcel Wanders (the Lady Gaga of design), or “Jewels Garden” by Maison Christian Lacroix, and we would all be — pardon the pun — floored. Well, when sisters Jeanne Lim Wee and Filaine Tan of Abitare Internazionale (the exclusive distributor of Moooi in the Philippines) saw those signature rugs at a Moooi exhibition in Milan, all they could think of was how this concept would work using artworks by a Filipino master.
“BenCab!” was the key word in their eureka moment.
Filaine explains how Moooi would set up an offsite salon during Milan Design And now, BenCab X Moooi
Week every year. (She adds, “This brand is all about expecting the unexpected.”) On view in 2016 were carpets that were the fruits of the brand’s collaborations with renowned practitioners from the world of interior design, fashion, visual arts, textile design, illustration and illustrative photography. Featuring names such as Barbara Broekman, Bertjan Pot, david/nicolas, Edward van Vliet, Ross Lovegrove, Neri & Hu, and Valeria Sommella — aside from Haapaniemi, Wanders and Lacroix.
Jeanne says, “The carpet backdrops were huge and were arranged along with Moooi furniture and lighting pieces. The giant prints, the beautiful fixtures… those were what inspired me.” She thought at that time how it could work with Filipino iconography.
Jeanne shares, “And why BenCab? Because he has a style that is distinctively Filipino but with an approach that is contemporary at the same time.” Figurative with a seamless intervention of abstract elements.
To convince BenCab about the beauty of this project (which would become a key part in Abitare’s commemoration of its 20th year), Jeanne and Filaine superimposed BenCab’s paintings on the pictures of the salon setting by Moooi (a word which means “beautiful” in Dutch). The National Artist for Visual Arts was convinced about how these Moooi “paintings in carpet form” would work. Jeanne adds, “BenCab saw the vividness of the prints — kahit malalim andun pa
rin ‘yung colors.” Each piece is an extremely high-definition print from the groundbreaking Chromajet 800 printer (a monolithic 100-hundred-meter machine) that produces photorealistic images in diverse and accurate tones with an unlimited mix of colors. This provides a playful illusion of depth and layers, resulting in a multidimensional carpet. Jeanne and Filaine chose acrylic as material for the BenCab carpet because of how colors seem to pop out with each piece, unlike wool which tends to subdue hues.
“The base of wool is yellowish,” says Jeanne, “while acrylic is white, parang canvas talaga.”
For his part, BenCab says he realized how it can be considered a new medium with a much larger scale. “This new material is fascinating, even the technology involved. The possibilities in this project are endless. I may be the first artist to work with Abitare (in the Moooi carpet project), but I hope there would be collaborations with other Filipino artists in the future.”
BenCab’s team sent around 30 photographs of his artworks. Jeanne and Filaine, together with BenCab, narrowed down the choices to eight: images from the “Larawan” series, as well as Isadora and the iconic Sabel. The “BenCab + Moooi” carpet collection, which comes in eight designs with only eight highly coveted pieces per design, will be exhibited starting May 26 for an entire month at Manila House in BGC, with pieces also on view at the Abitare showroom in Makati City.
Jeanne shares, “And the project with BenCab took all of nine months — this is our baby.”
BenCab concludes, “As an artist, you should not limit yourself. (And with Abitare's project with Moooi under its design-your-own carpet line) more people get a chance to hang a BenCab.”
Imagine Sabel cavorting in one’s parlor, the weight of Philippine history upon her shoulders. And those pillow vendors walking the endless carpets of the world.
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Abitare Internazionale is at G/F Mezzanine Crown Tower, 107 HV Dela Costa St., Salcedo Village, Makati City. For information, call 892-1887 and 892-1890, or email abitare1997@gmail.com.
With BenCab’s collaboration with Moooi, initiated by Jeanne Lim Wee and Filaine Tan of Abitare, more people get a chance to hang a BenCab. Imagine Sabel cavorting in one’s parlor, the weight of Philippine history upon her shoulders.