KTCA2

In Amsterdam’s Royal Theatre Carré, old wallpaper patterns were discovered behind a wall. The building dates to the 19th century, and the wallpaper is probably the original. Carré wanted to showcase these historical floral patterns and asked visual artist Bas van Beek to recreate them as textile wall coverings. He studied the patterns and determined what the original colours were and how they were composed. He used this information to develop three textile designs: two closely resemble the original floral patterns, while the third is his own interpretation and combines elements from the other two patterns. Initially, the idea was to present the patterns together in one room. But material tests showed that the designs work best when the patterns are displayed separately. Van Beek’s mixed pattern was chosen for the Mirror Room. The  remaining two designs will be used later in other spaces. During development, a lot of attention was paid to creating a compact and finely woven fabric. The fabric has a hundred weft threads per centimeter, which was a challenge in combination with the highly detailed pattern.