• Opening times

  16/10/2024 - 13/04/2025: * monday, tuesday, wednesday, thursday, friday, saturday and sunday: from 11:00 to 19:00

Examples range from the overlooked productions of Maria Sèthe to the Belgian Art Nouveau to Hélène Denis-Bohy’s bold modern typography for her feminist pamphlets printed on the La Cambre printing press; from extraordinary Belle Époque ceramics by designers trained at Belgium’s first professional school for women to anonymous lacework in raffia made in Congolese missionary schools. The exhibition showcases the significant but under-valued creativity of women in diverse fields of crafts and design from an original, thematic approach. Through a focus on visibility, the show examines how women used design as a means of empowerment, signing their work, asserting their presence in exhibitions and making significant advancements in the field. Their work will be showcased as a testament to their resilience, innovation and creativity. Simultaneously, the exhibition addresses the challenges of invisibility faced by women designers. Their authorship was frequently obscured because of societal norms, social class, their behind-the-scenes work or within collaborative environments. This exploration will reveal instances where their contributions were overlooked, wrongly attributed or remained unrecognised, leading to a lack of knowledge of their work and its recognition. Moreover, this exhibition delves into the professionalisation of women designers, tracing their journey as they navigated educational institutions (as pupils and teachers), organisations and networks to establish themselves within professional circles. This journey highlights their determination and means to carve out a space for themselves in a predominantly male-dominated industry. Lastly, the realm of domesticity demonstrates how women, often from within and for the decoration of their homes, created their own visual and material culture and surroundings, which was in turn considered inferior or instrumentalised for moralistic purposes. They were driven by functional needs, tradition, so-called ‘virtue’ or a lack of suitable options in the commercial market. This exploration will underscore how women makers, whether as individuals or collectively, employed their ingenuity and resourcefulness to express their vision.

• Opening times

  16/10/2024 - 09/03/2025: * monday, tuesday, wednesday, thursday, friday, saturday and sunday: from 11:00 to 19:00

• Price

  Normal: 8,00 € - Article 27: 1,25 €

After a presentation in Weil am Rhein, Rotterdam and Vienna, the highly anticipated exhibition Here We Are! Women in Design 1900 – Today comes to Brussels. Through a rich collection of creative designs, the exhibition – curated by Susanne Graner, Viviane Stappmanns and Nina Steinmüller from the Vitra Design Museum team – traces the work and working conditions of women in design – from the beginnings of modernism to the present day. A journey through 120 years of design history that tells a multifaceted story of design in light of the struggle for equal rights and appreciation. Women have made crucial contributions to the development of modern design, both creatively and commercially, and yet they are often overlooked. The exhibition puts the spotlight on 80 women designers who have helped shape the design industry, including pioneers Charlotte Perriand, Eileen Gray, Lilly Reich and Clara Porset or entrepreneurs Florence Knoll and Armi Ratia, as well as discoveries such as the socially-minded Jane Addams. The exhibition – structured chronologically in four sections – offers a fresh perspective on modern and contemporary design.

Katarina Serulus is an independent researcher and curator. In 2016 she defended at the University of Antwerp her PhD thesis entitled Design & Politics: The Public Promotion of Industrial Design in Postwar Belgium (1950-1986) (Leuven University Press, 2018). In 2020, as project manager at the Flanders Architecture Institute (VAI) in Antwerp, she initiated the Wiki Women Design project, which has brought many of history’s overlooked women architects and designers to light. She has also curated several exhibitions on design and architecture: Panorama. A History of Modern Design in Belgium (Design Museum Brussels, 2017), Designing the Night. Graphic Design and Belgian Club Culture 1970-2000 (Design Museum Brussels, 2019), Léon Stynen, architect (VAI, 2018), Night Fever : Designing Club Culture 1960-Today.

Javier Gimeno-Martínez is an associate professor of design history and theory at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. His research interest encompasses issues of national identity and displacement as related to design. His articles have been published in academic journals such as Journal of Design History, Design Issues, Design and Culture, The Burlington Magazine and Urban Studies. He is the author of the books Design and National Identity (Bloomsbury Academic, 2016) and Design History and Culture. Methods and Approaches (Routledge, 2025). He is a member of the International Committee for Design History and Design Studies (ICDHS).