The wraps have come off an exciting new art exhibition with a difference in Brussels. It features work by the French-born artist Blaise Patrix and was partly inspired by staff at one of the city’s leading hotels.

It was a meeting with some of the employees at Hilton Brussels Grand Place that helped inspire the renowned artist to create his latest work.

And where better to display the works of art than at the hotel itself?

So, his latest exhibition covers the walls of the hotel and even features on the menu of its restaurant.

Patrix says the meetings with staff initiated a “rich and inspiring dialogue” and helped provide a catalyst for the expo which will last for the rest of the year.

The artist, who prides himself on telling stories through his art, has even created a portrait of Vincent Masson, the chef of Sentro, the hotel’s restaurant and the restaurant menu features his portrait of Masson.

This, says Patrix, is the result of a face-to-face encounter he had with the chef as are the various works on display which were inspired by meeting the hotel’s employees.

This is the second chapter of a collaborative project between the hotel and artists based in Brussels.

Patrix himself has an impressive CV which has led to exhibitions on the international level in Africa, USA, Europe and China.

Patrix is known for offering a humanistic approach in art and has developed numerous “Socia(B)le Art” projects in collaboration with the local population, as well as with vulnerable individuals and communities to whom he says he has “given a voice through art.”

A great traveller with a particular passion for Africa, where he lived and worked for 20 years, the artist says he “likes to invite himself where he is not expected.”

“For me, creation is an engine of exchange,” Patrix notes.

For his new exhibition he has chosen, in collaboration with Ellen Deboeck, General Manager of the hotel, some 30 paintings of different styles and periods. It is, he says, a sort of retrospective of a hybrid work that began many years ago.

“Art,” he says, “is like life – the possibilities are endless.My work explores all kinds of expressions such as figuration, tje material, the abstract and the symbolic”

During his career, Patrix has created monumental frescoes in a “participatory approach” to art.

But he says the collaboration with Hilton Brussels Grand Place, which is located at Carrefour de l’Europe in the city centre, has allowed him to extend this approach by meeting the hotel’s employees and “initiating a rich and inspiring dialogue with them.”

Vincent Masson says that, in turn, his meetings with the artist have inspired some of the dishes that are currently on the menu.

Ellen Deboeck says she is just pleased that this large-scale exhibition project, which was actually first initiated just before the health pandemic, has now been launched.

There is free access to the expo although some some spaces may be subject to availability.

For more information about the artworks, contact: +32 478 56 31 33 or: [email protected]