main partner
23—26.04.26 Brussels Expo
main partner
22,48 m² / AFIKARIS / ATM / BRITTA RETTBERG / DMW Gallery / EDJI Gallery / Emergent / Encounter / FABIENNE LEVY / FRED&FERRY / Galerie Anne Barrault / Galerie Dix9 / Galerie Fontana / Galerie Russi Klenner / Gallery Falko Alexander / House of Chappaz / Josilda da Conceição / Matèria / MONITOR / NADAN / Night Café / No Man’s Art Gallery / OFFICE IMPART / Ora / Pizza Gallery / RAVNIKAR / RESERVOIR / ROBERT GRUNENBERG / Simbart Projects / SITUATIONS / SMAC Gallery / SUPPAN / The Drawing Room / The Tiger Room / Tom Reichstein contemporary / Working Title / ZALUCKY
In this section of the fair, discover galleries that actively support emerging international artists hosting booths with a single artist presentation or an interesting dialogue between two artists who are not yet known in the European context, and whose practices constitute a real ‘discovery’ for collectors.
Formerly the Discovery Prize, this award now focuses on supporting museum collections. Instead of rewarding the winning gallery for the best booth presentation in the Discovery section, the prize will now take the form of an increased acquisition budget—up to €10.000 —for purchasing an artwork for a museum collection.
For the upcoming 42nd edition of the fair, the jury will select a work to be donated to the collection of the Museum of Ixelles. The work will be part of the museum’s inaugural exhibition in early 2027, when it reopens after more than eight years of renovation. This prize fulfils the dream of an artist and a gallery while providing meaningful support to a museum.
The Discovery Prize is supported by Moleskine.
Doctor of Art History (ULB) and a specialist in Belgian art, Claire Leblanc has pursued a museum career for nearly three decades.
After holding a position as a researcher at the Museum voor Schone Kunsten in Ghent (1997–1999), followed by a role as a scientific collaborator at the Royal Museums of Art and History (1999–2006), she has served as Director of the Ixelles Museum since 2006.
Since 2018, she and her team have been leading an extensive project involving the renovation and expansion of the museum, as well as a comprehensive institutional and curatorial redevelopment.
She has curated numerous exhibitions and is the author of essays and books devoted to Belgian art, its history, and its contemporary developments.
© Julie Delvaux
Horya Makhlouf is an Artistic Coordinator and Curator for Special Projects at the Palais de Tokyo since 2024. She is also an art historian, author, and independent art critic. She writes for artists, journals, and art institutions, and has contributed to the podcasts L’esprit critique (Mediapart), PQSD (Jeunes Critiques d’Art), and Verni•es (Projets Media).
Recent curatorial projects include “Octogone. Chalisée Naamani” (Palais de Tokyo, Paris, 12.06–07.09.2025), “Une Affaire de famille” (CAC Passerelle, Brest, 24.10.2024 —25.01.2025), the Nuit Blanche program at Césure (Paris, 2023), and the co-curation of “Crush” (ENSBA, 06.03 – 16.03.2025); “Banlieues Chéries” (MNHI – Palais de la Porte dorée, Paris, 09.04 – 07.08.2025); “LA ELLE” by Renée Levi (Palais de Tokyo, 2024); and A Chamber of Echoes – Homage to Akira Toriyama (Palais de Tokyo, April 2024).
© Antoine Aphesbero
Gregory Thirion was co-founder and director of the internationally renowned D+T Project gallery (2010-2016) and is currently head and programmer of the exhibition department at the Cultural Centre of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation – Le Botanique. He has collaborated with various Belgian organisations, including the MAC’s at Grand-Hornu, the Ottignies-Louvain-La-Neuve Triennial, the Brussels Architecture Film Festival, the Parcours d’artistes de Saint-Gilles and the Halles de Schaerbeek. He has been an active member (2021-2025) and vice-president (2024-2025) of the FWB’s Consultative Commission for the Visual Arts.
In 2021, he became a member of the purchasing commission of the Ixelles Museum.
Since 2024, he has been an administrator of the Brussels Museum and the newly formed federation asap, the assembly of visual arts structures, the first federation of operators in the sector in French-speaking Belgium.
Grégory Thirion collaborates with other Belgian and international institutions. In particular, he co-curated the Tipping Point exhibition at La Friche la Belle de Mai in Marseille in the summer of 2025 with Adrien Grimmeau, director of ISELP (Brussels).
2024 — Lutniţa gallery with Diana Cepleanu (RO) and Mihail Șarpe (MD)
2023 — Capsule Shanghai with Curtis Talwst Santiago
2022 — House of Chappaz (ES) & Joey Ramone (NL) with Momu & No Es
2019 — NOME (DE) with Goldin+Senneby & tegenboschvanvreden (NL) with Sander Breure & Witte van Hulzen
2018 — SMAC Gallery (SA) with Georgina Gratrix
2017 — Harlan Levey Projects (BE)
2016 — BWA Warszawa (PL)
2015 — La Veronica (IT) & Maskara (IN)
2014 — Jousse Entreprise (FR)
2013 — D+T Project (BE)
The Discovery Acquisition Prize 2025 is awarded to Thomas Verstraeten for his video work URBI ET ORBI (2024) and the accompanying scale model.
Verstraeten is a significant figure in the Belgian arts. His work stands out for its integration of visual and performing arts, as well as its ability to evoke the surreal within everyday contexts. URBI ET ORBI is notable for its ambition: it restages a street scene from his hometown of Antwerp inside a theatre, accompanied by a commissioned musical score and live performance, and is transformed into a video artwork through deliberate cinematic techniques.
The jury values the work’s ambition on multiple levels. It engages directly with current social realities and local communities while avoiding sentimentality. The piece rethinks the notion of performance — not merely documenting an event, but reworking a found situation into a new artistic form.
URBI ET ORBI also raises questions about access to art, merging references to both high art and urban life. It blurs the boundaries between the street and the stage, aligning with the museum’s mission to reflect on its role as a public institution — both as a civic actor and a constructed space within the city and society.
The jury also acknowledges the commitment of the gallery, FRED&FERRY (Antwerp), which has taken a risk in presenting a complex, performance-based work within the commercial context of an art fair. The presentation functions as an exhibition format rather than solely a sales platform.