Making design relevant and accessible
With incredible design projects such as curating Littlegig 24H Festival and editing a major decor magazine under her belt, Bielle Bellingham’s next project has been unveiled: Decorex Africa 2022.
Bellingham will steer the Decorate section of the Cape Town and Joburg shows and 100% Design Africa, together with the contribution of esteemed local architect Theo Bothma, who will curate the Build section of the shows.
When asked about the “why” of her involvement with RX Africa’s dynamically recharged exhibition platform, Bellingham enthuses: “I am beyond passionate about the role of art and design as catalysts for positive change. Having spent most of my career serving the one percent who can afford exceptional design, I now want to champion making decor and design relevant and accessible to everyone.”
On the forefront of decor, design and lifestyle trends for almost three decades, Decorex Africa is poised to ignite the country’s top-performing cities – Johannesburg and Cape Town – with fresh vision and purpose.
Using the radical power of curation and combining exceptional content with hard-working mechanics, the brand is transforming into a hybrid marketplace and growth accelerator in which its investment in virtual infrastructure will drive client
growth 24/7.
“We’re on a mission to find better ways to produce and consume things,” she says. “By rethinking how we do things today. Because we have greater control over our work in the design niche than we’ve ever had in the past, we need to design for people’s needs – not their wants.”
Bellingham advises that her favoured approach for reimagining the show will revolve around the “build in public” practice. This premises the need to take an audience along for the ride as a product or service is developed,
thereby opening each artist up to constructive criticism.
Bellingham is a design specialist with a vision. “I admire beauty, but also recognise its lunacy,” she says.
“And I recognise that creativity is a force, a burden and an absolute privilege; I value both intuition and interrogation.”
Few realise the responsibility placed in the hands of Bothma and Belligham. “We are attempting to open up the show to more than just the usual suspects; we want to create an event that is relevant and accessible to the everyone,” she advises.