- Interior
- Art & Design
Anyone who discovers Annelies Toussaint's work quickly notices that haste and overwhelm have no place there. Under the name Hymn of Silence, she creates objects, spaces and rituals in which silence is not a void but a carrier of meaning. Tea, textile art and interiors flow together to form a whole in which every action is deliberate.
Central to her philosophy is delay. In her studio in the green, far away from external pressure or expectation, Toussaint is guided by intuition. Her living space, which she designed herself down to the smallest detail, acts as an extension of her inner world. Ancient techniques such as Sashiko, a Japanese embroidery method, guide her. They require time, precision and attention. Every pattern, every line is the result of hours of handwork. The fabrics she works with are tinted with pigments from clay and stones she collected on travels. Thus, each work bears traces of a journey, of place and memory. 
This connection with earth, matter and movement is not a choice of style, but a necessity. After years of living according to what was ‘right’, in which she sacrificed herself until nothing remained physically, everything came to a standstill. After a difficult period, she underwent a profound transformation. Walking in the forest became a daily ritual - a form of coming home, of learning to look, feel and create again.
Ancient techniques such as Sashiko, a Japanese embroidery method, guide her. They require time, precision and attention.
From there, the urge to create grew again, albeit in a different form. Not bound to one discipline or medium, but layered, organic and without a predetermined plan. Her creations arise slowly and grow with her. The tea she serves, the textiles she embroiders, the interiors she designs: they are all ways of making the same inner movement tangible. 
Hymn of Silence is therefore not a label or a collection, but an expression of an attitude to life that cannot be summed up in short terms. Instead of focusing on visibility, Toussaint seeks depth in order to attract the right energy. In an increasingly fast-moving world, she shows what it means to return to the essence - without grandiloquence, without imposed structures.
Photography by Tijs Vervecken and Maike Grimm
Text by Carolien Depamelaere