Inside ENERGIA: art, creation and collecting
Inside ENERGIA: art, creation and collecting
Art

Thu. February 26, 6:30PM

Inside ENERGIA: art, creation and collecting

A conversation with Paloma Bosquê and Alain servais on art as a meeting place for creation and cultural exchange. 

If art is an exchange of energy, what does it mean to create art — or to collect it? How does art shape personal life, society, and our understanding of the world at large? This conversation brings together artist Paloma Bosquê and collector Alain Servais, moderated by Benedicte Goesaert, co-curator of the exhibition Energia: artistic presence in the Belgian–Brazilian landscape. Energia is TheMerode’s House of Exhibition, co-curated by Benedicte Goesaert and Kathleen Weyts in collaboration with GLEAN Magazine.


Bosquê will speak about her artistic practice, the works she presents in Energia, and her experience living and working between Brazil and Brussels, reflecting on how place, distance and cultural context shape her artistic language. Alain Servais, who has lent three works to the exhibition, will share the stories behind these acquisitions, his motivations as a collector, and his engagement with Brazilian contemporary art.


©Paloma Bosquê

Plate/Placa, 2025 (detail)

speaker

Paloma Bosquê

Paloma Bosquê lives and works between Brazil and Europe.  Her research unfolds through an investigation of the materiality of bodies in constant transformation. Through a daily practice grounded in contact and intimacy with the materials that compose her sculptural vocabulary, Bosquê sees materiality as the result of the interaction between the many visible and invisible elements that consitute our surroundings. Recent solo exhibitions have been held at Karin Guenther, Hamburg (2025); Mendes Wood DM, São Paulo (2024); Mendes Wood DM, Brussels (2022); Mendes Wood DM, São Paulo (2020); Blum & Poe, Tokyo (2020); Mendes Wood DM, New York (2019); Mendes Wood DM, Brussels (2018); Museu da Cidade, Lisbon (2017); Mendes Wood DM, São Paulo (2016); Pivô, São Paulo (2015).

speaker

Alain Servais

Alain Servais is an art collector with a long-standing engagement in contemporary practices. A frequent traveller, he has focused on works that explore challenging themes such as the body, materiality, violence, racism, and mortality, with particular attention to video and new media. Since 2000, the Servais Collection has been housed in an 1,800 m² industrial space known as The Loft, where a new exhibition is presented each year under a guest curator. The collection also supports an artist residency and lends works to institutions around the world.

moderator

Benedicte Goesaert

Benedicte Goesaert is an independent art curator and art advisor based in Belgium. She maintains close conversations with artists and follows what is happening in the international contemporary art market. In 2016 she travelled for the first time to Brazil during her years as director at Zeno X Gallery. Last November she made her fourth journey to Brazil, spending a month travelling from São Paulo, Belo Horizonte, Rio de Janeiro, Salvador Bahia up to Fortaleza. Benedicte Goesaert is also active as artistic manager at the Philippe Van Snick Estate and a guest-editor and writer for GLEAN.
Start
Thu. February 26, 6:30PM
End
Thu. February 26, 9:00PM
Format
TheMerode Talks
Language
English (US)
Guest allowed?
Yes, 1 per member

Address

Event
Place Poelaert, 6
1000 Brussels
Belgium
Parking
Parking Poelaert, Place Poelaert 1000 Brussels

Detailed programme

Welcome
Thu. February 26, 6:30PM
Conversation and Q&A
Thu. February 26, 7:00PM
Networking
Thu. February 26, 8:00PM
End
Thu. February 26, 9:00PM