The Bench is a minimalist bench created by Brussels-based studio COSEINCORSO as part of their first collection, Les Âmes Simples. Rendered in the stark silhouette of hand-cut steel, the piece stands not merely as functional furniture but as a material meditation on feminism, spirituality, and collective independence. This work captures the essence of Belgium's beguinage heritage, those remarkable architectural compounds where lay nuns crafted autonomous communities outside traditional religious structures while maintaining their spiritual practice.

The raw materiality of hand-cut steel evokes both strength and vulnerability, mirroring the complex position beguines occupied in medieval society, women who were simultaneously powerful in their independence yet marginalized as potential heretics or witches. "We want everyone to feel both textures, materials and the work of the hand but also the magic, the poetry and the uncanny that the story behind each collection reveals," explain Marzia Cerio and Marwann Frikach, COSEINCORSO's founders. This duality permeates their practice, where contemporary minimalist aesthetics merge with traditional craftsmanship to reintroduce poetic narratives into the production process.