Axel Vervoordt and the extraordinary treasures of Castle 's-Gravenwezel

It's very difficult for me to put a name on my work.

I'm a little bit an architect, I'm a absolutely collector.

I'm a art dealer.

You know, some people call me a decorator, which I hate.

I think there's no rule and there's no dogma,

and it's a lot about intuition.

[majestic Asian-inspired music]

After we bought the castle in '84,

I scraped all the walls to see what the first cover

and tried to restore everything as genuine as it was.

But then I said there was one room I would like

to make my own style.

And then we bought this fantastic painting of Tàpies.

These walls are painted with just earth and lime

because I wanted that in the castle.

The central room here on the first floor

was very connected to earth.

So all the art we have here is about emptiness,

it's about meditation,

but it's definitely not about showing themselves

and being selfish.

Here we come in a different world.

It's a room by Japanese principles of tokunoma.

Toku means platform,

and ma is like, framed emptiness.

So you can give--in Japan they have

many names for emptiness.

The idea is to bring the Japanese spirits

into more universal way, more timeless way.

Again, the walls are painted with earth,

all local earth from here.

Even this floor is earth and oil.

I like flowers that are humble and that are--

in this room, you cannot have flowers

that grow like that.

Yes, that's by Suchi Mora.

They make things and then they collapse

and becomes something else.

And I think after that you can take a lesson.

It's not a room where you just come

with a few friends to talk about anything.

I think here he wants to talk seriously

or don't talk, with silence.

I don't like when things get too formal and too stiff

and too polished and too varnished.

From the beginning, I love things that aged.

They add more positive energy.

I remember when we bought the castle in '84,

I took a chair and I went through every room and I said,

Where do I want to sit to work?

And I put my chair there, and I said,

I want to sit here. This is the best place to work.

[contemplative piano and guitar music]

This we call the Music Room,

before there was all these harpsichords

and we gave concerts here.

Most of the time I work at this place,

especially on this orange chair, it's a bit worn.

The textile I think it needs--

but I don't want to reupholster it

because it's a chair we brought it

to the Dalai Lama when he came to Belgium.

So the Dalai Lama, for five days did sit

in this chair, and I like his energy.

All these frieze was also in our house in Antwerp.

It's painted by Rubens and his pupils in 1609,

it's signed there.

One of my favorite arts in contemporary arts is Shiraga.

He is like a brush of cosmic energy.

When we bought the castle, it was like,

very kind of a boring dining room in fake Louis XVI style.

So we ripped it all out, and my dream

was to find kind of library.

I think there's two major pieces in this room,

the head of the Japanese monk from the 12th century,

around 1160.

I treat him with like, my master.

When I agitate, I look at him,

and he puts me on the right path.

This is a tsun, and the Chinese had it,

but sometimes they're small like that.

It's to concentrate that we have to be like a mini cosmos.

It's like the earth is always being presented by one by one

by one, like a cube.

Like, is the first manifestation

of a spiritual idea on earth.

And inside is the cosmic power,

it's a channel of cosmic power.

So we have to be like, that is openness to accept

all this cosmic power that goes through us.

In the Fontana, it's like going closer

to this total emptiness.

And this is a very rare blue jade pi,

it's in blue jade, it's a Western [indistinct]

it's about 1050 BC, and it's symbolizing heaven.

I think it's going earth with cosmic power,

in that learning process, to achieve a cosmic feeling.

[deep sweeping contemplative music]

Before I was not such a collector of blue and white china.

In Amsterdam, they sell a wonderful collection

of Ming china that just been discovered.

It's been under the water over 300 years.

And when I saw the collection, I loved it.

And we had a beautiful piece of furniture

made by Daniel Nago.

There's so many pieces and there's not one piece the same.

I like monochrome.

I like things that are very quiet, peaceful.

Life is more like yin-yang, it's like a dialogue,

harmony between contrasts.

I think sometimes in life that you have to feel

your intuition should work.

Even I think this castle choose me,

I didn't choose it.

It was like a second that it was done.

And I think in my life, all important decisions--

I didn't think about it.

I just felt they were right.