- Art & Design
In an old studio, where light finds its way between porcelain forms, Goedel Vermandere and Jan Arickx are working on something that is hard to name. Their label Coup de Foudre is not a business in the classical sense, but a fusion of makers, material and moments. They create light objects that hover between art and craft, with porcelain as a loyal but unruly ally.
Their working method cannot be captured in diagrams or step-by-step plans. Whereas many designers start from a blueprint, Vermandere and Arickx rely on the memory of their hands. The creative process is fluid, the outcome never fully controllable. Porcelain, their chosen raw material, is a material that cannot be tamed easily. It is fragile but not vulnerable, insulating without blocking light, mathematically explainable and yet always a little mysterious. This unpredictable character makes each creation unique. 
The makers consider this unpredictability a strength rather than a nuisance. In their work, they constantly move between contrasts: between head and hand, between knowing and searching, between maker and material. There, in these fields of tension, they find meaning. They describe their trajectory as a journey without a fixed end point, in which the creative process is at least as important as the final object.
Coup de Foudre creates light objects that hover between art and craft, with porcelain as a loyal but unruly ally
Yet the result is never non-committal. Each light object bears their signature, their sensitivity to space and proportion. When their designs end up in a home or public space, they enter into a dialogue with their surroundings. Their work grows or shrinks according to the place, withdraws or just claims a central role.
Coup de Foudre lives between art and application. Their light objects are more than sculptures, but also deviate from functional design in the traditional sense. They illuminate and enrich. They are the result of a collaboration between two people who are artisans as much as artists. Individuals who oscillate between trust and doubt, between control and letting go, between intensity and stillness. 
The sheer aesthetic of their work stems from that balance. There is modesty in their objects, but also something that lingers - a lightness that is not just visual, but almost emotional. For Vermandere and Arickx, that is perhaps the greatest value of what they make: that it can bring light and warmth, not only literally, but also as a form of comfort, recognition or beauty. 
Curious about the rest of the book “Belgian Craftsmanship II”? Available at shop.imagicasa.be.
Portrait and atelier images by Coup de Foudre
Project images by Lenzer
Text by Elke Aerts