Beyond the Usual Practice | Maniera + Studio Mumbai

Beyond the Usual Practice | Maniera Gallery, Brussels
[Maniera + Studio Mumbai]

Three years after the first show in Maniera, Studio Mumbai comes back to the Belgian gallery to present their practice in a new furniture series inspired by local resources and traditional Indian crafts which results in the combination of tradition and modernity that sets the studio apart.

As it has been doing since 2014 with architects and artists, Maniera gallery commissioned Studio Mumbai to develop furniture and objects for use offering them an excursion beyond their usual practice.

Using humble and universal materials, quite uncommon for furniture like stone, brick and cowdung or subtle materials like textile, glass and Japanese washipaper, Bjoy Jain and his team created furniture and objects in inspired not only by Indian crafts but ancient Egypt tools motivated by the fascination for the level of sophistication and refinement they contain. The studio works collaboratively with local artisans, craftspeople and draftsmen to design and build projects through an explorative creative process.

In a metropoli like Mumbai, Bjoy Jain has developed an atypical attitude to the project: his work is slow, inclusive and pays enormous attention to detail, using scale models rather than plan in a collective rather than as a project manager. Thoughtful and uncompromising to the last detail, the architecture of Studio Mumbai shows a deep concern for the relationship between man and nature and insists on the importante of the genius loci.

More than just furniture, the objects issued by Maniera are a deliberate search for collisions between the realms of architecture, design and art.

Studio Mumbai operates on the belief that the hand and the mind are of equal importance. Jain prefers to describe it as a ‘human infrastructure’, referring to the masons, carpenters, engineers, colourists, technicians and, of course, architects who all play a part in the creative process.

Thoughtful and uncompromising to the last detail, the architecture of Studio Mumbai shows a deep concern for the relationship between man and nature and insists on the importante of the genius loci.

As architects often have a close relationship with the visual arts and artists are often inspired by the spatial environment, Maniera intends to crystalize these proximities into new design proposals. More than just furniture, the objects issued by Maniera are a deliberate search for collisions between the realms of architecture, design and art.