Brussels has become one of Europe’s contemporary art hubs over the past ten years due to its openness, relative affordability, and central geographic location. To familiarize residents and visitors with the city’s diverse art landscape (and with so many galleries, it’s easy to get lost), the gallery festival RendezVous takes place in Brussels from September 4 to 7, 2025. The festival features 64 galleries and 5 gallery tours, such as the “Sablon Galleries” and the “Châtelain District,” available by reservation on the website www.rendezvousbxl.com. Some lectures and events are paid, but a 25-euro ticket purchased on the website grants full access to all activities without exception.
Like at any festival, there is a preview, a slightly earlier showing for professionals—and we were lucky to discover the new location of LMNO gallery, founded in 2016 by Natacha Mottart, Christophe Veys, and Olivier Legrain. You may have noticed the two elegant pavilions at the main entrance of Bois de la Cambre park, designed by Henri Van Lovenfort (1860–1880). In 2025, the gallery moved into these buildings, recognized as historic architectural heritage in Belgium since 1998, making them accessible to the general public. The interiors are delicately white, and since each pavilion has a different address (you need to cross the street to move from one to the other), they symbolize a bridge between different disciplines of art and science, a vision shaped by LMNO’s curators.
The pavilion at 544 Avenue Louise hosts the solo exhibition “Two Voices” by the Brazilian duo Detanico/Lain, who live in Paris. Pavilion 589 features works from the non-profit art platform Ecologisons-Nous!
Yesterday, we ran between the two pavilions like rabbits in Bois de la Cambre park. We were captivated by the frozen flowers in vases from Detanico/Lain’s Vanitas series. The freezing effect creates a striking contrast between the life of the flower and its stillness—it does not move a single leaf. Another highlight was the Pilha composition (Portuguese for “stack”), symbolizing the structuring of knowledge, time, and cultural elements, like a miniature architectural or natural landscape. The gray, volumetric discs are made from Tournaisian Belgian granite.
Since the female half of the Brazilian duo, Angela Detanico, studied semiotics and linguistics, exploring the connections between language and visual forms, we witnessed a vocal performance. Two opera singers, residents of the Chapelle Musicale Reine Élisabeth, melodically recited poems by various European poets in different languages. Voices and silence alternated, creating a sense of rhythm and time, echoing the cosmic and natural motifs of the exhibition.
Through their interaction, the artists explored the relationships between language, sound, and space, emphasizing the multilayered nature of human perception. The dialogue with the audience unfolded as we, positioned in different parts of the dimly lit room, punctuated with flashes of cosmic light, each experienced the voices differently as they reflected off the walls. When one of the performers, Monsieur Volkov, spoke lines by Vladimir Mayakovsky in pure Russian from If the stars are lit, it means someone needs it, I was unexpectedly immersed in a trance.