First Date

Lodovico Corsini is pleased to announce the inauguration of a new, permanent location in Brussels. Ahead of significant renovation works to come, the gallery presents First Date, an introductory exhibition that unfolds within the building as is: a former paint factory, later a hybrid office-cum-skatepark, now the gallery's fixed address. Gathering works by represented artists alongside those of longstanding collaborators, affinities, and admired peers, the exhibition is animated by the excitement of a beginning. Like a first encounter, it is driven by curiosity, generosity, risk, and the possibility of unexpected connections.

Ideas of layering, sedimentation, and transformation weave throughout the exhibition, from which a strong sense of place emerges. Traces of successive lives and uses remain visible: fragments of previous occupiers coexist with more recent interventions, while stripped-back walls reveal earlier layers of construction, the building’s bare bones. The same logic of partial disclosure continues through a peephole in a door, offering visitors a glimpse behind the scenes of the ongoing renovation. First Date thus operates as both a preview of the gallery’s future and a peek through the strata of the past. The building's initial life was as the home of Maison Linckx, founded in 1934. Known for its casein-based powdered paints, prized for their chalk-like finish and rich pigments, the factory was closely tied to Brussels’ artistic landscape, supplying materials to both artists and artisans. The gallery's implantation marks a new phase in the life of the building, yet one that remains attuned to its genius loci: a place shaped by the making, circulation, and encounter of artistic ideas and materials.

With works by Clementine Adou, Emmanuel Beguinot, Meriem Bennani, Camille Blatrix, Matt Copson, Alassan Diawara, Antoine Espinasseau, Francesca Facciola, René Heyvaert, Oscar Kargruber, Maggie Lee, Calvin Marcus, Julien Meert, Chadwick Rantanen, Lili Reynaud-Dewar, Leqi Shi, Karl Wirsum, and Bruno Zhu.