Wünderkammer I: Axel Vervoordt

DIVA will be inviting renowned designers and curators for a contemporary interpretation of the Wunderkammer, a chamber exhibiting a collection of art and curiosities, objects from every corner of the globe. The Wunderkammer stems from Antwerp’s illustrious past, for until the middle of the seventeenth century the city led the way in the production and distribution of art and luxury goods. Silverware, jewellery, precious stones and exotic curiosities like coconuts, shells and coral were highly sought-after. Axel Vervoordt, after his famous series of biennial exhibitions at the Palazzo Fortuny in Venice, will take the lead. The catalogue published on the occasion of the exhibition ‘Axel Vervoordt, Wonderkamer 1’ at the new Diamond Museum Antwerp is the 2nd issue of an affordable series of DIVA ‘magazines’, opening and sharing the reclused world of luxury arts and crafts. Axel Vervoordt (°1947, Antwerp, Belgium) has earned renown as a collector, antiquarian, interior designer and, most recently, curator. Counting among his clientele royalty, rock stars, financiers, tech tycoons and artists, he is one of the world’s foremost tastemakers. Inquiries into the nature of being and concepts of time and space are what most compel him; he conveys his views through his inspired arrangements of objects and interiors. To some, expressing the lofty in the material might seem contradictory, but Vervoordt believes that, as in a Zen koan, truth can be contained in paradox and ambiguity.