The Belgian museum presents not one, but two exhibitions paying tribute to women designers, who are all too often forgotten or even erased from the history of the discipline.

In his statement of intent, Arnaud Bozzini, Director of the Design Museum Brussels, declares: "A museum cannot be neutral or indifferent to the questioning of our societies, and the Design Museum Brussels wants to be no exception". This questioning has led to the creation of a program dedicated to "the visibility of women designers and their impact on the history of design".

This initiative is supported by two exhibitions, one of which was conceived and produced by the Vitra Design Museum. Called "Here We Are!
Women in Design 1900 - Today", this exhibition looks back at the daily lives and working conditions of women in the design industry over more than a century, highlighting their contribution to the development of modern design, in both the creative and marketing fields. Nearly 80 women designers are featured, including such famous names as Charlotte Perriand, Eileen Gray, Clara Porset and Lilly Reich, as well as entrepreneurs Florence Knoll and Armi Ratia. More confidential figures are also included, having worked for the place of women in society. Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence, editor-in-chief of the Votes for Women newspaper, designed the color palette for the suffragette flags and badges in 1908, creating a beneficial visual identity. From another era, in the 1980s, London's Matrix collective tackled a subject little-or never-addressed: the relationship between gender and the built environment, helping to rethink and feminize urbanism.

After this international section, visitors can prolong the pleasure by immersing themselves in "Untold Stories - Designers femmes en Belgique 1880-1980", which tackles a similar theme, but through the prism of Belgium. The exhibition features the work of over 50 women designers and creators active between 1880 and 1980, most of whom are previously unseen pieces that have never been exhibited before. Profiles include designer Maria Sèthe, whose work was often overlooked in favor of her partner, and Hélène Denis-Bohy, whose bold, modern typography for feminist pamphlets was printed at La Cambre.

The exhibition also highlights how some women were able to generate visibility around their creations, either by signing their works in full, or by taking part in mixed or exclusively female exhibitions - numerous events at the time of the Belle Époque, aimed in particular at highlighting their alleged virtue or charity. The presentation also shows how the work of some, indeed many, female creators was clearly invisible, due to errors of attribution or the anonymization of working-class women, particularly in the world of lace and earthenware. This was also the case in artist or designer couples, where the woman's contribution remained in the shadow of that of her male counterpart...
Two rich and instructive exhibitions that complement each other, while taking stock of the road travelled by women designers from the 19th century to the present day.

" HERE WE ARE! WOMEN IN DESIGN 1900 - TODAY" UNTIL MARCH 9, 2025
"UNTOLD STORIES - DESIGNERS FEMMES EN BELGIQUE 1880-1980" UNTIL APRIL 13, 2025
DESIGN MUSEUM BRUSSELS - PLACE DE BELGIQUE 1, BRUXELLES (BELGIUM)
DESIGNMUSEUM.BRUSSELS