22 october 2024, Flor Linckens
Love, politics and textiles: Elen Braga at Wouters Gallery
Until 9 November, Wouters Gallery in Brussels is hosting a solo exhibition by Elen Braga. In 'The Love Hotel', the artist centres two spaces that evoke specific associations for many: a love hotel and a café. These so-called 'third spaces' exist between the private and public spheres, between our homes and our places of work.
Think of cafés, bookstores, libraries, or parks, but also symbolic or digital spaces such as protest movements, social media platforms, subcultures, artistic salons or diaspora communities. These dynamic spaces bring together different identities and cultures, challenging entrenched ideas and power structures while offering room for new perspectives to emerge. Over the years, the use of these spaces has changed significantly: many places where people could gather without the expectation of spending money have disappeared, and individuals increasingly find themselves in their own (online) bubbles.
For the exhibition 'The Love Hotel' at Wouters Gallery, Elen Braga created a unique universe. Her practice is deeply rooted in the context in which her work is presented, often responding to the specific locations of her installations. For Braga, both the café and the love hotel serve as metaphors for spaces where people meet, yet which belong to no one in particular. In Brussels, where she herself studied, Braga views the hotels as symbols of the transient nature of the city, where both EU parliamentarians and refugees stay only temporarily. The hotel room in her installation reflects the chaotic, absurd world of 2024, where wars and memes coexist on the same screens. Braga's love hotel, complete with a bed covered in neon-coloured sheets and a woollen shower, is a space where personal conversations and social media intersect. The intimate setting, including some lingerie on the bed, raises questions about the consumption of love in a modern, digital world.
The exhibition was inspired by Braga's personal experience: it opened shortly after her own wedding. This private aspect is subtly woven into the political charge of her work, as she explores how love relates to a world in crisis and how intimate relationships can be anchored in a broader societal context.
In the exhibition, Braga also brings a Belgian pub to life — a place where she and her partner, artist Pieter Vermeulen, engaged in long conversations about both everyday and fundamental topics. For her, the café is not just a personal space but also a political one, where conversations are often intertwined with the events unfolding beyond its walls.
At Wouters Gallery, this combination of personal and political themes is also reflected in her textile wall works. One piece features a tufted TV showing the attack on Trump, while a tufted "metal" fence next to a protest sign blurs the line between soft/warm and hard/cold materials. This contrasts with the cosy atmosphere of the café, with a "wooden" (also tufted) textile table filled with snacks and Vedett beers, next to a "window" in the form of a video installation depicting personal conversations between Braga and Vermeulen. On the blanket in the hotel room, we see a mobile text screen, with speech bubbles on either side: “What did you dream about? — War. You?”
Elen Braga was born in Maranhão in Brazil in 1984 and has lived in Belgium since 2017. In 2018, she earned her post-master at a·pass (Advanced Performance and Scenography Studies) in Brussels. She has participated in several residency programmes, including MORPHO, Central Saint Martins and Buitenplaats Brienenoord. Her work was exhibited at institutions such as WIELS and Centre Pompidou-Kanal in Brussels, and from 25 October, her first institutional solo exhibition will be on view at CC Strombeek. Additionally, her work is part of a group show at Mu.ZEE in Ostend until 5 January. In 2025, her first monograph will be published.
