TheMerode hosts a solo exhibition by Brazilian artist Paulo Nimer Pjota, winner of the 2024 Art Brussels Solo Prize — an award supported by TheMerode that recognises an outstanding solo presentation at the fair.

Represented by Mendes Wood DM, Paulo Nimer Pjota builds his work around the nature of collectively originated phenomena. He draws on iconographies from both popular culture and art history, which he combines with elements of urban culture that shaped his artistic awakening.

His dreamlike compositions conjure mythological atmospheres and ritualistic landscapes united by a cyclical weaving together of plural, rapturous dialogues. The artist’s nearly insomniac practice is determined to unearth what – at the other end of the flux of artistic production – remains embedded in memory while at the margins of official history.

The artist’s nearly insomniac practice is determined to unearth what – at the other end of the flux of artistic production – remains embedded in memory while at the margins of official history.

By juxtaposing everyday objects with references from the past, he critiques the inefficiency of hierarchical knowledge systems that separate elite and popular culture. Pjota’s compositions reveal a production of images and symbols, produced, remixed, and circulated, often exposing social inequalities in the process.

Paulo Nimer Pjota (b. 1988, São José do Rio Preto, Brazil) lives and works in São Paulo. The artist’s recent solo exhibitions include Na Boca do Sol, Mendes Wood DM, New York (2024); Do cômico e dotrágico, Mendes Wood DM, São Paulo (2023); Every Empire Breaks Like a Vase, The Power Station, Dallas (2021); Cenas de Casa, Caixa de Pandora, Ivani and Jorge Yunes Collection, São Paulo (2019); Medley, Mendes Wood DM, São Paulo (2018); The history in repeat mode – image, Mendes Wood DM, Brussels (2017); The history in repeat mode – symbol, Maureen Paley and Morena di Luna, Hove (2017).

TheMerode presents Energia, an exhibition dedicated to the artistic dialogue between Belgium and Brazil. Organised in collaboration with the art magazine GLEAN and curated by Benedicte Goesaert and Kathleen Weyts, the show brings together works by around thirty Belgian and Brazilian artists.

Energia offers a glimpse into the artistic presence in the Belgian-Brazilian landscape, exploring the various forms of energy that emerge through stories, experiences, knowledge, encounters, exchanges and, of course, artworks. This landscape encompasses more than just the geography of the countries defined as Belgium and Brazil. It consists of different layers and dynamics, both visible and invisible. It brings together various forms of expression, initiating an open dialogue between artists of different generations and backgrounds.