Bela Silva’s Sunday Studio Brunch

Currently living between Lisbon and Brussels, visual artist Bela Silva is best known for her drawings, sculptures and everything that lies in between and beyond those definitions – including several public art pieces, such as tile panels for the Alvalade subway station in Lisbon; panels for the Sakai Cultural Center’s gardens in Japan as well as for the João de Deus School in the Azores Islands. She also recently collaborated on a scarf with Hermes, for which her illustrations were used. “Seeing my illustrations being printed on silk for Hermes like that – and seeing how that was done – was an incredible experience. I can’t even imagine doing that myself, and I love that through collaborations like these, with people that know better than me, I can continue to experiment with different materials and my craft.”

With seemingly no limit to her curiosity for the places, people and things surrounding her, with inspirations and process running deep through her subconscious and everyday life. “I sketch and draw all the time, even the ideas that I get from dreams and that I jot down in the notebook next to my bed. It’s fascinating to look back into my old notebooks and see that the fascinations that I had when I was a student are still around now…”. As for her work being situated in between both fine and craft-based art, Bela notes that she’s not very interested in that distinction, and never was. “My father was a metalworker and my mom created textile patterns, so I’ve always been fascinated and been aware of the craft that goes into the objects surrounding us. I get tired of thinking between terms such as “fine art” or “craft” – who cares?! I don’t create something thinking that it’s going to be fine art or applied arts — or look at the work of others and think in what box it should be placed. I make stuff because I wanted to make it, because it’s a joy to be able to create.”

Her space, a studio situated in Zaventem Ateliers (a project initiated by Lionel Jadot), is an individual space but is still surrounded by other artists. “What’s great about this building, this collective community, is that we can interact with one another when we’re walking to our own studio’s. Say hello, catch up, talk to each other about our ideas and what’s going on in our hands. Being an artist sometimes means that we get stuck in our heads, and that can get lonely – but here that’s not the case.”

The brunch, taking place in the framework ofBrussels Design September, is a unique setting in which everyone is invited to come and share this otherwise solitary working space. “In a way, I see it as an opportunity for people to see Zaventem Ateliers, talk to artists, my gallerists and/or to me in a different, more relaxed setting – surrounded by food, drinks and my works.”

Discover Bela Silva’s ceramic workshop at Zaventem Ateliers, on Sunday 15 September, from 12 until 4 pm, organized by Spazio Nobile in the framework of Brussels Design September

Address:Fabriekstraat, 15/19, 1930 Zaventem – 2nd Floor

RSVP before 14 September to[email protected]