The Spanish art gallery Chiquita Room opens a new space in the historic Galeries Le Bailli Louise in Brussels

The contemporary art gallery, publishing house and artist residency expands from Barcelona to Brussels, opening on 10 September with a duo exhibition by Pieter Laurens Mol and Laía Argüelles Folch.

On 10 September, Chiquita Room will open a new gallery in Brussels, establishing a second home in the Belgian capital alongside its original space in Barcelona. Founded in 2018 by Laura González Palacios, Chiquita Room combines a contemporary art gallery, publishing house and artist residency. Its committed curatorial programme centres on interdisciplinary and collaborative practices, supporting artists in the development of their work and addressing socially relevant questions through a critical, innovative and collective lens.

As it approaches its eighth anniversary, Chiquita Room is taking a further step in its international development by establishing itself in one of Europe’s capitals of contemporary art. The new Brussels space will offer the artists represented by the gallery a stronger international platform while creating a lasting connection between the art scenes of Barcelona and Belgium.

The new gallery is located in the historic Galeries Le Bailli Louise, a shopping arcade at 195 Avenue Louise that became a hub for avant-garde galleries in the 1970s such as Wide White Space, MTL, galerie d., Paul Maenz, Oppenheim, PLUS-KERN, Hervé Alexandre and Editions Delta.

Chiquita Room Brussels opens with Once We Existed, a conceptual two-person exhibition bringing together two artists represented by Chiquita Room: Laía Argüelles Folch (Spain, 1986) and Pieter Laurens Mol (the Netherlands, 1946). Separated by forty years of artistic practice, their work converges around a shared interest in the traces and passage of time. The exhibition explores how places, objects, images and language can preserve and transform traces of the past, evoking the active force that shapes us as human beings in relation to the ephemeral nature of life.

“The opening in Brussels is a natural evolution of the project and a logical step in our international expansion. Our aim is to build a genuine bridge between Barcelona and Brussels, offering the artists we work with a stronger international platform while becoming part of a city with an exceptionally rich and dynamic art scene. The history of Galeries Bailli Louise makes this new chapter particularly meaningful: we are delighted to open a contemporary space in a place that was once an important meeting point for some of the most radical artistic practices of its time. This continuity between histories, generations and geographies lies at the very heart of Chiquita Room’s identity.”
— Laura González Palacios, founder and director of Chiquita Room

The opening forms part of the official programme of RendezVous – Brussels Art Week, taking place from 10 to 13 September. On Sunday 13 September at 12 noon, Pieter Laurens Mol, Laía Argüelles Folch and Laura González Palacios will lead a guided tour of the exhibition and enter into a dialogue around time and memory.

Chiquita Room will also take part in Art on Paper, the leading international fair devoted to works on paper, which holds its tenth edition from 2 to 4 October at Tour & Taxis in Brussels. The gallery will present a solo project by Pieter Laurens Mol, bringing together a selection of early works exploring how artists’ lives and careers are shaped. Mol offers an indirect and often ironic analysis of the reputations of some of the twentieth century’s leading artists, including Piet Mondrian and Yves Klein. Rather than paying direct homage, the Dutch artist uses biographical, temporal and spatial coincidences as conceptual material. He offers an oblique perspective that subtly challenges what we think we know about these figures, while observing the lives and legacies of his predecessors with humour and genuine affection.

A hub for avant-garde art in the 1970s

Galeries Bailli Louise is a shopping arcade at 195 Avenue Louise in Brussels that housed numerous avant-garde galleries between 1972 and 1975. They included Wide White Space, MTL, galerie d., Paul Maenz, Oppenheim, PLUS-KERN, Hervé Alexandre and Editions Delta, which showed the work of some of the most prominent artists of the period, most of them associated with conceptual art—and, for the most part, men.

In March 1973, exhibitions by Marcel Broodthaers, Joseph Kosuth and On Kawara were presented there simultaneously, alongside a performance by Vito Acconci. They were followed by exhibitions by stanley brouwn, Hans-Peter Feldmann, Ger Van Elk, Dan Graham and Dennis Oppenheim.

Other artists who exhibited at Bailli Louise included Sol LeWitt, Dan Flavin, Piero Manzoni, Daniel Buren, Lawrence Weiner, Joseph Beuys, Carl Andre, David Lamelas, Donald Judd, Panamarenko and Philippe Van Snick.

In May 2026, Belgian collector Frederick Gordts and curators Nicole O’Rourke, Giulia Blasig and Charlotte Norwood presented the exhibition What Did You Pass On To Me — “retour au Bailli” at Chiquita Room’s new space in Brussels, revisiting the legacy of the location. The artistic strategies that shaped the activities at Le Bailli in the 1970s served as a starting point for engaging with that history from a contemporary perspective—critically rather than reverentially.

An intergenerational dialogue: Pieter Laurens Mol and Laía Argüelles Folch

Pieter Laurens Mol (1946) and Laía Argüelles Folch (1986) are artists from two different generations who share a conceptual starting point and an aesthetic restraint—principles that embody the values and refined visual language of Chiquita Room.

An artist with a long and distinguished international career, Pieter Laurens Mol (Breda, the Netherlands, 1946) belongs to a generation of contemporary Dutch artists whose work combines conceptual complexity with multiple layers of perception, interpretation and meaning.

His extensive body of work encompasses sculpture, photography, painting, drawing, installation and film. Several themes recur throughout his practice: a fascination with the relativity of time, the possibilities of manipulating space and scale, a keen interest in the past, a sensitivity to the role of chance and accident in the creative process, and an inventiveness within visual parameters. In all its complexity, Mol’s work demands total immersion—intellectual, emotional and visual—to decipher and appreciate the subtleties of his intentions. Close to surrealism and visual poetry, his works combine words, forms and images to explore the impossibility of representing reality.

Mol began his career as a visual artist in 1967, at the age of twenty-one. He has held solo exhibitions at internationally renowned institutions including MoMA in New York, the Van Gogh Museum and the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, among many others.

Laía Argüelles Folch (Zaragoza, Spain, 1986) is a visual artist and writer. Her practice explores the potential of images and language and centres on the search for found materials and photographs, which she subsequently brings to life through intervention and montage. Her books, objects and series investigate the possibilities of connection and the construction of meaning between bodies and images.

She has published Breve ensayo sobre la carta (Temporal, 2021), Ciprés (Chiquita Ediciones, 2022), Cuaderno azul (Temporal, 2023) and Todavía siempre (MARCO, 2024), the catalogue accompanying the retrospective of the same name held at MARCO in Vigo in 2024 and curated by Laura González Palacios, director of Chiquita Room, and María Seoane.

A keen flea-market hunter, she now lives in Zaragoza after residing in several Spanish cities as well as in the United Kingdom, Germany and Iceland. She holds degrees in Translation and Interpreting and Fine Arts, as well as a master’s degree in Philosophy Research. She is currently a PhD candidate in Philosophy, specialising in the aesthetics of contemporary art.

Chiquita Room: more than an art gallery

Chiquita Room is a contemporary art gallery, publisher and artist residency with spaces in Barcelona and Brussels. Guided by a commited curatorial approach, its programme focuses on interdisciplinary and collaborative work, with the aim of supporting local and international talent and fostering connections between them.

The purpose is to accompany artists in the development of their projects, addressing relevant issues through a critical, innovative and collective lens. Ultimately, its vocation is to engage audiences in the experience of art as a source of knowledge and beauty, broadening their interpretations of reality through reflection and debate. This is made possible by a capable, dedicated and deeply committed team that takes care of both the processes and the details.

Since 2018, Chiquita Room has maintained a continuous programme of activities and presented more than fifty exhibitions, including solo shows and group projects. It has also published over thirty titles. In 2025, it received the award for best annual programme from the Catalan gallery associations. It was nominated for the Catalan Association of Art Critics’ award in 2020 and 2024 and received Time Out magazine’s Best Gallery in Barcelona award in 2021.

Practical information

Once We Existed
10 September - 7 November 2026
Chiquita Room Brussels

Galeries Le Bailli
Avenue Louise 195,
1050 Brussels

Open from Thursday until saturday, 12.00-18.00
https://chiquitaroom.com/