For this year’s edition of the art fair Poppositions, five major Brussels collectors, who share the fair’s values of accessibility, will showcase a curated exhibition of affordable works from their collections.

The independent art fair Poppositions encourages the acquisition of art based on compulsive taste and instinct, as opposed to speculation for the purpose of financial gain.

800 works from the collections of Galila Hollander, Frédéric de Goldschmidt, Collection Benoît du Roy, Cédric and Cookie Liénart van Lidth de Jeude, and Alain Servais

For the self-funded show, Jacques and Galila Hollander, Frédéric de Goldschmidt, Collection Benoît du Roy, Cédric and Cookie Liénart van Lidth de Jeude, and Alain Servais have entrusted three emerging curators with approximately 800 works from their collections, acquired in the last 10 years for €8,000 or less each.

“It will not be a question of showing how successful the collectors have been in their choices,” Servais explained in an email announcing the show. Rather the show, which will occupy an entire floor within the fair, seeks to answer the question: “Is it possible to set up a quality exhibition with works acquired at reasonable prices?”

Alain Servais Calls for a Better Structured Art Market

Servais has previously written about his concerns over the “industrialization” of art. He fears that the “drive for money rather than art […] is polluting, if not endangering, the whole ecosystem that supports the creation and distribution of art.”

The fair Poppositions seeks to redress the balance in favor of buying art for the love of art, rather than as an investment. In this context, the emphasis of the fair is placed firmly on experimental rather than commercial value.

Unlike most art fairs, Poppositions charges exhibitors a modest fee of €200. The entry fee for visitors is just €5, and the entire event is run completely by volunteers, although the fair charges 15% commission on each sale.

Poppositions takes place at Canal Wharf, Brussels from 24-27 April.