Belgian duo Muller Van Severen is celebrating its 15th anniversary with a special exhibition during Salone del Mobile in Milan

Apartamento presents Silhouettes: Celebrating 15 years, ​
​an exhibition by Muller Van Severen. ​
​Courtesy of Tim Van Laere Gallery, Antwerp-Rome.

To mark fifteen years of practice, Muller Van Severen teams up with Apartamento for a special exhibition titled Silhouettes: Celebrating 15 Years during Salone del Mobile in Milan. The exhibition is presented in partnership with Tim Van Laere Gallery (Antwerp–Rome).

The exhibition presents fifteen unique, life-size aluminium candle holders. Each form is an abstract reinterpretation of recurring motifs from Muller Van Severen’s oeuvre, alongside forms that already emerged in the earlier individual practices of Fien Muller and Hannes Van Severen: chairs, cabinets, lamps, vases and sculptural structures. Through rotation, inversion or closure, these archetypes are reduced to their contours — to silhouettes that abandon their original function and emerge as autonomous signs in space.

The use of a single, uniform colour and material —aluminium— for each object reinforces their formal clarity, emphasising rhythm, proportion and composition. The installation unfolds as a coherent ensemble of distinct elements: each work retains its independence while simultaneously entering into dialogue with the surrounding forms. A large coloured candle crowns the top of each structure, introducing a temporal dimension. As the candle burns, the object undergoes a slow and irreversible transformation. What initially appears static becomes subject to change.

Time thus operates as a sculptural, spatially designed material. Silhouettes explores the subtle boundary between recognition and abstraction. Those familiar with the earlier work of Muller Van Severen may discern fragments of known forms; those encountering it without prior reference will experience autonomous, abstract presences. It demonstrates how the familiar can shift without losing its essence — and how a form, once freed from function, can assume a new presence.

This exhibition does not mark a conclusion, but rather a celebration with an act of a pause within an ongoing exploration of reduction, balance and tension.

Practical information

Silhouettes: Celebrating 15 years
​An exhibition by Muller Van Severen, presented by Apartamento in collaboration with Tim Van Laere Gallery
​19-26 April 2026 / 10 AM - 8 PM

Address
​Ordet ​
​Via Filippino Lippi 4
​20131 Milan

Images (download here)

About Muller Van Severen
​
​Founded in 2011 by Belgian artists Fien Muller and Hannes Van Severen, Muller Van Severen emerged from years of individual practices as visual artists and a shared desire to rethink the everyday. Their collaboration began with the design of functional objects and evolved into a distinct language shaped by sculpture, architecture and use — independent of trends or external expectations.

Their furniture exists as drawings in space: fine lines, transparency and openness allow both the surrounding architecture and the objects within to remain visible. Rather than occupying or enclosing, each piece frames and activates its environment. Their work moves between opposites — presence and absence, strength and fragility, control and spontaneity. Reduced to its essentials yet never neutral, each design carries a quiet tension, balancing sharp and soft gestures. Instead of imposing itself, it enters into dialogue with its context while maintaining a clear and recognisable identity.

Function is fundamental to their practice, and every formal decision serves use. Solid, timeless materials are applied in their purest form and combined in unexpected ways. Colour plays a central role, treated as material rather than ornament, shaping rhythm, contrast and spatial perception.

Through an intuitive and ongoing dialogue, Muller Van Severen has established a singular and internationally recognised voice within contemporary design.