Evelien De Winter
In the collaboration between Ann Bonneux, product developer
and Evelien De Winter, visual artist,
innovative answers to give grief and farewell a home are being developed.
The urns are wall-mounted sculptures that, in the security of your own home
create an openness to share memories.
The shapes are not immediately recognisable as urns.
Serene yet powerful, they attract and invite interaction.
'The house on Rock' is made of porcelain. This white fragile material creates a serene
atmosphere. Each object is handmade, touched and so breathes a personal warmth.
By using noble materials, it becomes a gem, a place for worshipping the life that was.
The 'whispering shell' captures the sounds of the room and brings the message of life moving on to its content. The round shape is concave, creating its own intimate sound space for those standing in front of it.
The whispering of your loss and storytelling is given a physical anchor point.
At a time of increasing focus on well-being, there is a need
for a new way of handling our end of life.
Saying goodbye to a loved one is increasingly drawn into our own sphere of life.
Away from prescribed rituals and loaded settings, we look for answers.
Silencing and concealment gives way to celebration and the development of new rituals.
Lightness and a heightened focus on emotional connection fill the lacunae that exist.
The forms shown here want to be strong and earthy.
Death is heavy and leaves a great void that cannot be resolved
with any object or ritual but it also offers an opening to connection.
A chance to contemplate what is universal in every life.
The unity of this life and how we connect to each other
is expressed here in a material that connects us all: made from the soil we live on.
The finest, whitest, noblest kind of it: porcelain, is crafted with attention and skill.
Apart from the creation process, it takes Ann and Evelien a month to realise one shape.
The time invested as a worship of creation adds to the intensity of the experience.
The brass house and suspension fixtures are also manufactured by Belgian craftsmen.
Every step, every choice was made in function of enhancing the feeling of warm security.
Like, for example, the layer of soft blue velvet under the house, which provides a
pleasant sound when put down and a warm bed for storing a small personal item.
The urns are only available through Zirkoon itself.
The personal contact is a conscious choice.