Brussels Gallery Weekend 2021 Sees 20% Growth in Galleries

The 14th Brussels Gallery Weekend took place September 9–12, 2021, organized by Brussels Art Days. Despite the pandemic, the event expanded with 46 participating galleries—a 20% increase from 2020. Newcomers included Ballroom Project, Nino Mier, Jaqueline Martins, Nosbaum Reding, and Tim Van Laere, while Harlan Levey Projects, Spazio Nobile, and Sorry We Are Closed doubled their spaces. A revamped website featured "showcase exhibitions." Italian artist Piero Gilardi, associated with Arte Povera, had his first solo show in Brussels in 35 years at Galerie Michel Rein, presenting recent and historical works alongside political drawings. At La Loge, a posthumous exhibition of Chiara Fumai titled "Poems I Will Never Release, 2007–2017" was curated by Francesco Urbano Ragazzi, Milovan Farronato, and Mara Montanaro, inspired by an unfinished self-portrait puppet. Emanuele Marcuccio's show at Damien & The Love Guru combined sculpture and photography to evoke airport transit spaces, featuring Marc Asekhame's series "Portrait of a young man in Brussels." The fourth edition of Generation Brussels, curated by Dagmar Dirkx and Zeynep Kubat, highlighted emerging local talents not yet represented by galleries, focusing on identity, gender, and spatial relations. Visitors could access podcasts via QR codes at gallery entrances, and art historians led guided tours across city districts.