If you are visiting the Mix Hotel this weekend, an afternoon nap in one of its guest rooms will be out of the question.
Until Sunday, the hotel, which sits on the edge of the picturesque Sonian Forest, is playing host to an international art and antiques fair.
Rather than staging the fair in a conference room or exhibition centre, the organisers have made ingenious use of hotel guest rooms to display works of art.
Thirty-six of the hotel’s rooms have been taken over by art dealers and gallery owners hoping to catch the eye of collectors. Visitors can stroll from room to room, admiring a vast range of art that caters to all tastes.
There aren't any generic landscape prints on these hotel walls. In one room you might see antique bone daggers and tribal shields. In another, you’ll find cutting edge contemporary ceramics artfully displayed on a king-sized bed.
The free-to-enter art fair, which is known as The Rooms, is the brainchild of Sablon-based art dealers Patrick Mestdagh and his long-time friend, Sébastien Janssen.
Organisers Patrick Mestdagh and Sébastien Janssen. Credit: Alice Ros, That's Nice
Speaking to The Brussels Times, Mestdagh said: “The idea behind it is to create an atmosphere of conviviality. It’s a playful idea – people will come here in a different spirit to how they might approach an ordinary art exhibition. They will be more relaxed.
"The main point here is that you have to respect the space and the hotel room. The hotel room is the booth where you exhibit. You can’t change that. You have to figure out a way to be creative and present your pieces.
“We don’t have a lot of exhibitors, so we really wanted to focus on people coming with quality artwork. Some of the pieces on display are really quite astonishing.”
‘I want this room for my home’
Many of the artists and art dealers we spoke to at the fair on Friday said they jumped at the chance to participate in the event.
Speaking from his hotel room-come-gallery on the hotel’s fifth floor, Paris-based gallery owner Anthony JP Meyer said: “The fact that Patrick Mestdagh came to me and told me that he was doing a very hush-hush secret project made me want to do it. And the idea of doing this in Brussels - I thought it was a great idea.”
Meyer, who specialises in the sale of Oceanic and Arctic art, added: “If you look at all these big fairs – they’re one after the other – the same galleries, the same merchandise. Here we can do whatever we want. We can take a very personalised, inventive approach.
“Every one of us has approached the room in a different manner. I’ve tried to create a kind of living area. It’s how I optimally might want to live...I want this room for my home.”
Gallery owner Anthony JP Meyer. Credit: Alice Ros, That's Nice
‘We wanted to bring young international artists to Brussels’
Down on the third floor, we spoke to Chatelain-based gallery owner Edward van Houtte. Van Houtte, 33, specialises in buying and selling work by young contemporary artists.
Van Houtte said: “When Sebastien came up with the idea we were fully in, straightaway. Brussels is a city that’s moving very quickly. A lot is happening in Brussels – a lot of new hotels, new construction. I felt like it made sense to have a fair like this.
“I’ve been running my gallery for two years. We’re a fairly new gallery in Brussels. We lived in London and Paris for a while and decided to open this gallery in Brussels because we wanted to bring young international artists to Brussels, which feels like a very international city. We felt it was missing this kind of young, international aspect in the gallery scene.”
Artwork on display at the fair. Credit: Alice Ros, That's Nice
Van Houtte’s room contains work from five contemporary artists, each working in different mediums. Artwork created by Belgian artist Philippine d’Otreppe is displayed on a bed.
D’Otreppe, 31, lives and works in Brussels and finds inspiration from the urban landscape – notably the Place du Jeu de Balle in the Marolles area.
Even if art and antiques aren’t your thing, it is worth heading to the Mix to see the remarkable transformation of this iconic Brussels building, which was renovated in 2023.
The building first opened in 1970 as the headquarters of insurance giant Royale Belge, before being bought by the United States government with the intention of converting it into the country’s embassy.
The hotel’s striking functionalist architecture makes it the perfect setting for an art fair quite unlike any other in Brussels.
The Rooms will be running at the Mix until Sunday, May 25th. Entry is free, but tickets are mandatory. For further information click here.
