Been There Done That: Art on Paper

(Stéphane Mandelbaum)

Until today, you can walk into a fancy hotel on avenue Louise, announce yourself at the reception, and for a small fee, you can enter almost every room in the building. A great deal of the chambers of the White Hotel have been converted into mini galleries on the occasion of the Brussels drawing fair Art on Paper. The rooms are jam-packed with art: there are drawings on the walls, in the shower, spread out on kingsize beds or on the bottom of a red bathtub... you’re tripping over art, so to speak. Art on Paper is a kind of “Chambres d’amis”, but Brussels-style (read: magnificently chaotic)!
For three days, The White Hotel has been offering some forty, both national and international, gallery owners with a passion for contemporary drawing art a place to spend the night. And there are some discoveries to be made: young talents such as Achraf Amiri, who found inspiration and a campy humour in the world of fashion and nightlife. Be sure to also visit the small retrospective of Stéphane Mandelbaum, the Brussels artist who was killed in 1986, on the eighth floor of the building. His disturbing work is rarely on show.
And if things get too much, or are too arty farty to your taste, you can always head off to the terrasse to enjoy the view of one of Brussels’ fanciest avenues.

4 > 7/10, White Hotel, Louizalaan 212 avenue Louise, Elsene/Ixelles, www.artonpaper.be