Pélagie Gbaguidi has transformed a café in a village outside Brussels into her studio, where she creates pieces whose incandescence reaches its full intensity in the light of La Verrière. Working across multiple formats and mediums – ranging from bags of flour and bedsheets to pages from books and journals – she develops motifs marked by a singular frontality, even as they are paradoxically infused with what Joël Riff describes as “a wordless serenity”. 

A feeling of deep humanity indeed prevails over the painful contexts that Pélagie Gbaguidi evokes through acrylic, wax crayon, charcoal, pastels and pigment. The power of her work unfolds across the walls of La Verrière, transforming matter and memory alike. She explains that she “is never inspired, only called upon,” while Joël Riff notes that “she makes herself available to the contexts she moves through, giving form to the social forces that move her in a dynamic that blends celebration and joy.”

At La Verrière, Gbaguidi’s works are surrounded by furniture conceived by the Brussels-based Aygo collective – made up of four young graduates from the Design Academy Eindhoven. Their constantly evolving and collaborative creation forms another kind of den. Major works by Marianne Berenhaut (BE, b.1934) and by Hessie (JA, 1933-2017) add further depth to the ensemble.

Born in Dakar, Senegal, in 1965, Pélagie Gbaguidi has lived and worked in Brussels since 2000. “Antre” marks her first solo exhibition in the Belgian capital. Her work is held in major public collections in Belgium, France, Switzerland and the United States.