The architect Bernard Dubois and the designer Isaac Reina are creating a furniture collection for MANIERA.
The Belgian architect, Bernard Dubois, has come together with the Spanish designer, Isaac Reina, to collaborate on a furniture collection that will be presented at the MANIERA Gallery in Brussels from 15 February 2020. Bernard Dubois made his name as co-curator of the Belgian Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale in 2014 and by designing the Brussels Aesop store. Isaac Reina is the former design assistant at Hermès who has been running his eponymous brand of bags and small leather goods since 2006.
The collection consists of eight different objects – a folding screen, a desk, a folding table, a low table, two chairs, a tablet and a lamp – and can be seen as a superlative encounter between form and material. The objects are made from high-quality leather and wood according to traditional techniques. They are simple items without pretension that meet the very highest demands in terms of quality and craftsmanship.
The furniture collection for MANIERA continues the collaboration that Dubois and Reina embarked on for Isaac Reina's second Parisian boutique in the Rue Bonaparte. Dubois created a space in 2018 that reflects the style of Reina’s minimalistic leather wares, resulting in a stark, white room punctuated by bold, angular geometric tabletops made of natural leather. But the series of objects for MANIERA is more than just the sequel to a collaboration between two people, it is a symbiosis of influence and expertise. A conversation. An encounter. A paradox.
Material
Wood, plus both natural and black-lacquered leather are the basic materials for the objects in the MANIERA collection. Isaac Reina is very much a specialist in leather and describes it as a sensuous, living and highly tactile material. Leather is both light- and time-sensitive, which means that it ages over time and develops its own patina and character. Leather is also known for its luxurious and refined appearance, but Dubois and Reina deliberately choose to bring out its other qualities: the flexibility, warmth and softness of the material
Form
Reina's knowledge and experience with the use of leather are combined with Dubois' sense of bold geometric forms and surprising shapes. The objects reflect the complex relationship between surface and volume. All objects play with straight and curved lines. At first sight, this geometric interplay of lines seems strict and analytical, revealing an introverted, calculated approach. But the formal elegance undermines the tautness and creates a freedom and playfulness in the designs. This results in a collection that refers to the work of the Japanese architect, Kazuo Shinohara, or the artists, Ellsworth Kelly and Imi Knoebel.
MANIERA 21
Bernard Dubois & Isaac Reina
19 February - 9 May 2020
Opening on Saturday 15 February, 4pm - 8pm
Bernard Dubois
With his rigorous, analytical approach and a head-on and inclusive aesthetic, the Belgian architect Bernard Dubois (born in 1979) blurs the lines between genres. Drawing references from different periods, he creates coherence and brings together what the history of architecture generally sets in opposition.
Bernard Dubois studied photography, before graduating as an architect from La Cambre in 2009. In 2014, shortly after founding his architecture firm, Dubois was co-curator of the Belgian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, with the project ‘Interiors. Notes and Figures’. He continues to carry out an active reflection on the subjects that are close to his heart, notably in his role since 2016 as co-director of the AA Visiting School Brussels.
Whatever the nature of the project, the vocation of Bernard Dubois’ architecture is to be informed, contextual, and fundamentally cultural.
Isaac Reina
Isaac Reina was born in 1968, in Barcelona, where he later studied architecture before switching to fashion. In 1991, after finishing his degree, he started working on the men’s collection for Antonio Miro. In the late nineties, his curiosity and quest for quality took him to Paris. Isaac joined Hermès in 1998 at the men’s ready-to-wear studio directed by Véronique Nichanian, where he worked across the entire range of the male wardrobe, apart from the accessories collection.
In 2006, he launched his eponymous line of leather accessories. The first Isaac Reina store opened in 2006, at 38 Rue de Sévigné in the Parisian district of Le Marais. In 2015, it moved to new premises in the same area, at 12 Rue de Thorigny, near the Picasso Museum. A few years later, in 2018, a second Parisian store opened at 20 Rue Bonaparte, on the Rive Gauche.