Art Nouveau in the Spotlight of the 68th BRAFA Art Fair

BRAFA, one of the world’s oldest and most prestigious art fairs, opens its doors between 29th January to 5th February at Brussels Expo. Given that 2023 is the Year of Art Nouveau in Brussels, the fair focuses on this style.

Brafa Art Fair is renowned for the range of specialities it presents to collectors and art lovers from all over Europe and beyond. For this 68th edition it promises more than 10,000 artworks dating from Antiquity to the present day. Each of the 130 participating galleries will be displaying their finest objects, skilfully laid out on stands which compete for originality and elegance. A real journey of discovery! 

In 2023 the theme of Brafa is Art Nouveau – a great synergy created in light of the Year of Art Nouveau. The decor will be filled with the signs of Art Nouveau. Several exhibitors specialised in this style are putting on display the finest works of art while other galleries also join with exceptional pieces to mark this unique, truly modern European movement, the cradle of which was Brussels. Two of the Brafa Art Talks will also be devoted to this theme.

A highlight of the Fair is the 10.000sqm carpet created by Volume Architecture for this special event in close collaboration with the Horta Muesum. The size of the carpet describes in one number the volume of the fair. The carpet was inspired by drawings, sketches and blueprints of the Master, Victor Horta. As Benjamin Zurstrassen, Curator of the Horta Museum describes: “this project bears witness to Victor Horta’s enduring relevance and pays tribute, in its own way, to the architect’s inventiveness. Some of the drawings suddenly completely change scale, invading the floor of the Fair and even spilling over onto the cover of the catalogue, the invitations, the graphic design; in the very image of Art Nouveau, a movement whose blossoming encompassed the whole Europe.”

Throughout the year 2023, with the coordination of Visit Brussels and Urban Brussels, a multidisciplinary programme will pay tribute to Art Nouveau in Brussels Capital Region. In 1893, exactly 130 years ago, Victor Horta finished the Tassel House, the founding work of the Art Nouveau movement in Brussels. “Architects’ archives and museum collections are not simply objects of study or contemplation. They can spur our creativity, enrich our imagination and, especially in Horta’s case, repeatedly astonish us. It is therefore hardly surprising that to this day, artists, collectors and amateurs continue to develop close personal ties with Horta’s work. His inventiveness and the sudden, unexpected and almost inexplicable emergence of his architecture – exactly 130 years ago – contribute to this dazzling impression.” (Benjamin Zurstrassen)

My visit to the fair was absolutely fabulous and I sincerely recommend you to visit before 5th of February. If this non-exhaustive selection of the finest Art Nouveau pieces on display in this photo story was not enough to convince you, do check my Instagram channels for more daily inspirations. Enjoy!