Between 2022 and 2024, the BMA Label supported 9 unsolicited proposals emerging from civil society, research and professional practice. Thanks to funding, guidance and visibility new ideas for Brussels could take shape.

Today, BMA invites you to the exhibition of Trans-Faire, a research project supported through BMA Label #3 and carried out by L’Equipe between 2024 and 2026, which explores the possible interactions between the craft of coachbuilding, architecture, and design. It focuses on the techniques, tools, and gestures specific to coachbuilding, as well as its forms and aesthetic codes. The research seeks to shed new light on this Brussels-based craft and to explore how the expertise of coachbuilding can inform and enrich other creative disciplines.

The results of this research were brought together in a publication which will be presented to the public within the framework of this exhibition.

The publication is structured around three complementary components. First a series of conversations with craftspeople and artists who explore, drawing on their experiences and practices, the connections between coachbuilding and other creative disciplines, including shared techniques, mutual influences, similarities in working methods, and the possibilities for transferring knowledge and skills.

The second component takes the form of a visual atlas, connecting images from the world of coachbuilding with images from other artistic and cultural fields. Through sometimes unexpected associations, the atlas invites readers to look differently at the forms, materials, gestures, and aesthetics of this craft, and to discover correspondences that transcend disciplinary boundaries.

Finally a critical reflection on the aesthetic codes of coachbuilding through an essay by Vivien Philizot entitled Kitsch, Bad Taste, Scheiße. Taking tuning as its starting point, the author examines the notions of kitsch and “bad taste,” as well as the ways in which these aesthetics, often associated with specific social and cultural milieus, can be appropriated and reinterpreted within other artistic fields.

Through these three approaches – testimonies, visual exploration, and theoretical reflection – the publication offers a multifaceted perspective on coachbuilding at the intersection of craftsmanship, architecture, and design.