Recommended : Five Alternative Art Spaces in Brussels

One of my favourite thing about the Tel Aviv art scene, was the impressive amount of alternative art spaces coexisting alongside more traditional contemporary art galleries. It was refreshing and exciting to discover emerging artists, to leave the oh so common white cube for others forms of exhibitions, to witness unconventional art projects, and to see how this creative energy was gathering art aficionados together to create new initiatives and ways of approaching art.

What about Brussels? The city is without a doubt an arty hotspot counting numerous museums and well established galleries, but what about an alternative/less mainstream art scene?

I was wondering around my neighbourhood (St Gilles) , and I realised that the area was housing few non-profit art spaces all carrying a different project but somehow a same spirit. I decided to have a closer look, and to select for you few of theses atypical and unique art platforms (note that much more of them exist).

1. Rectangle

The most uncommon exhibition space I ever seen, but surely a very interesting one as it offers a dialogue between art and its surroundings.  It is a real reflection about gallery and public space,about displaying artworks, society, media, and perspective that the creators of “Rectangle” are sharing with us.

What is it exactly? : ” Rectangle is an artist run public space project that re-uses the strategies of advertising campaigns in the realm of an urban surrounding. Rectangle is a home made billboard standing on the roof top of a former label printing workshop now used as a collective artist studio, in Saint Gilles, Brussels.Every two months a new artist work is displayed and remains visible from the street, 24/7″*.

Address : 189, Rue Emile Féron, 1060 Brussels

2. Etablissement d’en Face

Previously based in the hip Dansaert area, “Etablissement d’en Face” is now stationed rue Ravenstein. This very open minded collective (all coming from different art backgrounds, but all active in the plastic art field) featured emerging talents as much as established artists.

Address : 32, Rue Ravenstein, 1000 Brussels

3. La Loge

Probably one of the most well-known non-profit art space in Brussels. “La Loge” offers a platform to contemporary artists to work on various projects and to explore different artistic disciplines, but also a place to share ideas and to initiate experimentation. Through conferences, seminars and exhibitions they tempt to create a dialogue between the artists and the public. Most of the artworks showed were created especially for “La Loge” : “Drawing its identity from the specificity of the historic building that houses it, as well as from the commitment and concerns of its founders, La Loge invites contemporary artists to develop projects engaged with questions of space, habitat and use“**.

Address: 86, Rue de l’Ermitage, 1050 Brussels

4. De La Charge

“De La charge” gather 19 artists, who established in a big house their working space/studios, and also an exhibition area. They are not tagging themselves as a collective, as they all work on their personal projects, but share a willingness to expose young emerging talents from different artistic disciplines.

Address : 152, Rue Théodore Verhaegen, 1060 Bruxelles

5. Komplot

A major alternative art space in Brussels, “Komplot” : “is a curatorial collective of variable composition and condition concerned with nomadic creative practices and trends of specialisation“***. Located few steps away from the Wiels (contemporary art center), Komplot focuses on emerging artists, offering them studios, residence and of course exhibition space (which really looks like a traditional contemporary art gallery).

Address : 295, Avenue Van Volxem,1190 Brussels

Other alternative spaces to visit in Brussels:

Middlemarch  &  Sic

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