Wire netting, 1991 - Raf Simons
Corpo, Raf Simons’s graduation project, created in 1991 at SHIVKV in Genk, Belgium, consists of seven cabinets, each given a name, much like the individual pieces in a fashion collection. Five of these original pieces are presented by Pulp Galerie.
Although this piece may appear relatively minimalist at first glance, its inspiration is nonetheless compelling. It references X-rays, which make it possible to observe the inside of the human body. Raf Simons transposes this principle to furniture, imagining a structure that reveals its contents rather than concealing them.
The cabinet is wrapped in metal wire netting, whose regular mesh forms a lightweight covering around the structure. Inside, the glass shelves remain visible through the mesh, while the metal uprights support the entire construction. The cabinet thus reveals its own construction: nothing is truly hidden, and every element remains perceptible through this openwork membrane.
This transparency directly evokes medical imaging. Just as X-rays reveal what lies beneath the surface of the body, the wire mesh allows us to see through the cabinet’s outer layer and observe its internal organisation. Raf Simons thus plays with the notions of surface and depth, challenging the traditional idea of furniture as an enclosed volume designed to conceal its contents.
This reference to the human body also opens up a reflection on protection and vulnerability. The wire mesh forms a kind of second skin, a covering that defines and protects without obscuring what lies within. It suggests a paradoxical form of protection: the contents are preserved, yet remain exposed to view. The glass shelves further develop this idea of fragility. Both functional and almost imperceptible, they appear to float within the structure, as though the cabinet were seeking to reconcile support with lightness.
The overall design also conveys a distinctly futuristic aesthetic, almost as if drawn from science fiction. The regularity of the metal mesh contrasts with the delicacy of the glass shelves, while the vertical lines elongate the cabinet’s silhouette. The openwork covering seems to float around the structure, creating a sense of lightness and suspension. The furniture appears less as a solid mass than as an assembly of lines, transparent surfaces and voids.
With Wire netting, Raf Simons explores the boundaries between visibility and opacity, protection and exposure, solidity and fragility. The cabinet is no longer merely a storage unit: it becomes an object of study, almost anatomical in nature, with its structure laid bare. This approach reflects his desire to subvert the traditional codes of furniture design, transforming it into a field for formal and conceptual experimentation.
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