Sara Deraedt's Exhibition at Établissement d'en Face: Resistance Without Mastery

Sara Deraedt's first solo exhibition in Brussels, at Établissement d'en face (8 February–7 June 2020), was closed for over two months due to government regulations. The exhibition, the first by a woman in three years at the venue, features works that block, deflect, and humble the critical reflex. A glass wall, Wall (2020), blocks the entrance, forcing visitors through the basement. Stove (2020) is a makeshift stove with mayonnaise jars and a candle, demanding silence. Drawings of the local prison façade (Avenue E. Ducpetiaux 106 – Saint Gilles, 2019) provoke projection and subjectivity. Critic Eleanor Ivory Weber contrasts Deraedt's resistance with Merlin Carpenter's refusal, arguing that Deraedt's work shows something the institution does not control, leaving the audience alone without predetermined meaning.