The Design Museum Brussels has teamed up with Bruxelles Nous Appartient – Brussel Behoort Ons Toe (BNA-BBOT) to launch a podcast series dedicated to the figures and voices that have shaped Belgian design. This collaboration places the designers’ own words at the heart of the project and offers a sensitive approach to the history of design: a living history, told by those who shaped it. Through these conversations, the museum extends its mission to preserve and communicate the history of design in Belgium by sharing the journeys, practices and contexts that have shaped creativity in the country.

Bruxelles Nous Appartient – Brussel Behoort Ons Toe (BNA-BBOT) is contributing to this series through its work in collecting and archiving sound recordings. For over 20 years, the association has been gathering testimonies, conversations, songs, monologues and soundscapes to build a public, polyphonic and multilingual archive of Brussels, which now comprises nearly 25.000 recordings.

The first episode is dedicated to the illustrator and textile designer Marie Wabbes (born Marie-Louise Paquay). In an interview with design historian Katarina Serulus, the designer looks back on her career and her work in illustration and design. Marie Wabbes, who was already featured in the exhibition Untold Stories – Women Designers in Belgium 1880–1980, is also present in Designing Childhood, where her work reflects the richness and diversity of objects and images designed for children.

This podcast thus enriches the exhibition by shedding further light on the designers who have helped shape the visual and physical world of children. It also helps to situate these practices within the broader history of design in Belgium.

The episode will be available from 31 March via this link.