COLLECTIBLE 2018: Camp Design Gallery

We’re gearing up for the first edition of COLLECTIBLE here in Brussels, and we’ve asked some of our favourite galleries about their selection for the fair. In today’s highlight: Milan-based Camp Design Gallery.

TLmag: Which designers are you featuring at COLLECTIBLE?
Camp Design Gallery: We’re showcasing the work of Milanese artist Paolo Gonzato, Lecce-born designer Matteo Pellegrino and Madrid-based Studio La Cube, in a group show titled Extra Ordinary.

TLmag: Is there a theme to your selection?
Camp Design Gallery: We are pleased to present three approaches to collectible design —in this sense, each project is an integral part of the identity development and personal research of the designers, that is, three manifestoes on the extraordinary sense of value given to the object by them.

Paolo Gonzato’s Baracche project is a suggestion from the instantaneous architectures at the edge of the road and bric-à-brac constructions. Those volumes are affected by inaccurate choices, producing involuntary and random shapes.

For Matteo Pellegrino, the direct manipulation of matter —mainly resins, silicones and plastics— is similar to research into new manufacturing techniques. The latter become an instrument of interpretation of the object and its use.

Studio La Cube, instead, focuses its core concept on the cube and its infinite interpretations.


TLmag: Why do you think collectible design is such an important force right now? 
Camp Design Gallery: It’s a way of communicating issues and emotions through objects and environments. The development of layers, telling different things via different aspects, is very interesting.

To contextualise this phenomenon, we can say that collectible design is the natural development of what radical design was in the 60s and 70s. Nowadays we are loaded with information, and that often means not having the knowledge of the content in question. This kind of design can also mean taking the time and the space to understand and interiorise an idea, an emotion… time itself. We’re humans, after all.

Collecting design is a fairly young practice, in continuous development. Information, research and, of course, passion are fundamental to start collecting contemporary design and to understand it better. The design-specific fairs born worldwide are the most dynamic platforms where one can get a global overview of this development, and they’re a place where galleries and designers are in constant dialogue.

TLmag: Why did you decide to participate in COLLECTIBLE?
Camp Design Gallery: Because it’s focused exclusively on contemporary collectible design, and it provides an opportunity to deepen its borders, particularly in Europe. COLLECTIBLE could be an important spot to define a contemporary collectible design system, and we support initiatives that focus on this new way of expression and creativity. Moreover, Brussels is an interesting crossroad for this new market.

COLLECTIBLE, a new fair devoted exclusively to 21st century collectible design, will be held from March 7-11 in the Vanderborght building