The new initiative, Maison Commun, launches its first range of artists’ jewellery

Maison Commun will be presenting its first selection of artists’ jewellery, including pieces designed by the likes of Martin Belou, Guillaume Bleret, Kasper Bosmans, Patrick Carpentier, Simona Denicolai, and Arnaud Eubelen.

Maison Commun was founded by the artist, curator and publisher, Patrick Carpentier, and the graphic designer, Isabel Debry. 

The company offers artists the opportunity to imagine and realise a piece of jewellery, using an everyday element, an objet mémoire, or a recurring object from their artistic practice as a starting point.

Transforming a common object into a preciously appropriated piece of jewellery is an act that is very much part of the DNA of Maison Commun. With the realisation of these jewels-sculptures-objects, the intention is also to invite people to connect with the work of artists: in the form of pendants, mini pocket-editions, and even freestanding sculptures.

What Maison Commun offers is much more than simply the chance to wear a piece of jewellery. It offers the opportunity to appropriate a particularity, a story, a unique elegance captured in form, an accessory companion. 

In 2018, with the involvement of Herman Daled – a Belgian collector of conceptual art whose collection now belongs to the aquisitions of the MoMA in New York – Patrick Carpentier created a silver edition that would become the genesis for Maison Commun.

Daled was known for not having any artworks displayed in his house. He preferred to hang the work only long enough to look at it, which meant there was usually nothing to see on the walls of his home but a multitude of nails.
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​It was Patrick Carpentier who proposed that Daled should create an edition from one of these nails. Daled was very much amused by the idea and the nail was subsequently produced and distributed.

In a tribute in the Cahiers Henry van de Velde in 2021, the fashion designer Martin Margiela recounts how the silver nail was transformed into a piece of jewellery by the simple act of pinning it into the stitches of the jumper of Marit Storset, Herman Daled’s last partner.

The decrepit wall of the dining room was strewn with small nails.
​When I asked why, Herman picked one up.
​“This one’s made of silver”, he said, as he put it in my hand.
​“But it’s like a beautiful piece of jewellery”, I replied.
​And to looks of surprise from my friends, I promptly pinned it into the stitching of Marit’s jumper. She was delighted by the gesture and said to me: “I don’t often wear jewellery, but this is something I’d really like to wear”.
​– Martin Margiela, in Cahiers Henry van de Velde, no. 17, 2021

Maison Commun will launch its first collection of jewellery аt the Saint-Martin Bookshop, the building formerly known as the Maison Martin Margiela.

maisoncommun.com – instagram.com/maison_commun

With the support of Crea.Brussels, an initiative of the Brussels-Capital Region, operated by ST'ART in collaboration with Hub.Brussels