THE FANTASIES OF DESIGNER CHARLES KAISIN - HIS TABLE AND HIS GUESTS

published in:

by:

Fri, 2012-05-25 10:02

CharlesKaisin,Architect,Designer,TreeTable,InstitutSaint-Luc,Brussels

He is an Architect - Designer, living in Brussels. Holding an extraordinary cv, Charles Kaiser, studied Architecture with urban design option in the Institut Superieur d' Architecture Saint-Luc in 1996 and after a material research in Kyoto University of Art he graduated with a Master of Art Industrial Design RCA, Royal College of Art and for two years he participated in Ron Arad's workshop. His latest project The Fantasies of Charles, his table and his guests, presented couple of days ago in Brussels was simply amazing! Guests had the chance to live in a fantasy land hosted by Alice in Wonderland!

Imagine a table from the other side of Lewis Carroll's Wonderland mirror, to which Alice invites us from her marvellous land. A table made of trees that support the tabletop, seeming to make it come alive. Giving the impression that time stopped between Magritte and Dada, while being very useful, it adapts in to your interior in both length and width, because it is made to measure!

Elegant but robust, it matches every interior depending on the choice of wood species. It also evolves with the season, as you decorate it with candles or garlands. Here is a monumental version in oak and beech 10 metres long. In teak for the exterior. But the key point is that a DINNER LIKE NO OTHER was about to begin...

Table Tree by Charles Kaisin

For more than 6 months, designer Charles Kaisin laboured to produce a dinner...from a surrealist dream. And on a lovely evening the dream became reality. Each guest wore the surrealist garb of his or her choice. Surprises! Oh, what stunning and outrageous outfits: a bald sorprano, a man-in-the-moon with a balloon halo, a Gay Pride pope (!), a bird-woman, a man wearing Magritte's bowler hat, red evening gloves painted on skin, a mysterious figure wrapped from head to toe in a black jumpsuit, a man whose headwear was a cage complete with singing canary...

Arrival of Pascale Mussard-great-great-great-granddaughter of Thierry Hermès, the living conscience of Maison Hermès

Amazing artist Marie-Jo Lafontaine

Guests Nathalie Fournier, Xavier Guerrand-Hermès and Fadila Laanan-Minister of Culture

A white veil parted to give a glimpse of a long forest-table enchanted by numerous birds flying from branch to branch. Seated at the table, the guests received a bundle made with a Hermes silk scarf, containing a hollowed-out bread. The bread contained strange dishes: a green brioche with basil to accompany a tartare of bergamot-flavoured salmon and foie gras, covered by a napkin tied with a ribbon in the colours of the Belgian flag.

Stelios Hourmouziadis-Secretary of Embassy at Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Then came a wobbling plate, designed by Charles, with an artichoke at its centre. As the guests finished, an opera singer in feathers and hat, straight out of Moulin Rouge, placed é vial in front of each guest, while singing the Poison Aria from Gounod's Roméo nad Juliette. These pharmacy flasks contained fresh pomegranate juice, famous for its antioxidant properties. And eyes continued to pop as the guests peered into a cardboard polyhedron containing a live chick in a straw nest, accompanied by three eggs! Each egg was filled with a different gazpacho: one leek-vanilla bourbon; another, zucchini-coconut; and the third, peas and curry! All nestled in the straw!

And then, unexpectedly, Stephen Salters, winner of the Queen Elizabet Competition, stood up on the table to sing a Negro spiritual, "Let It Shine!". With his fascinating voice, he charmed the guests.

The party continued: after the terrestrial foods came the spiritual foods. Each guest received a vacuum-packed food whose half-open pages formed a letter in their folds. Placed side by side, all thirty-five books together revealed a quotation by André Gide: "Everything belongs to those who know how to enjoy it!". Now all guests were dumbfounded: each book contained a small red ginseng pill. But there was no time to swallow the pill; the next dish arrived...