‘Utterly Irrational’: Artists Decry Dismantling of Antwerp City’s Most Historic Contemporary Art Museum.
Eminent artists have voiced strong opposition against what they label as an “arbitrary reshaping” of Belgium’s museum landscape, as regional authorities aim to cut public spending by dismantling the country’s most historic contemporary art gallery and transplanting its entire collection to a different urban center.
Directors Decry ‘Blatant Violations’ in Museum Overhaul
At a Tuesday briefing in Antwerp, the directors of the city’s Museum of Contemporary Art (M HKA), founded in 1985, decried what they termed the “flagrant illegalities” of the cultural institution reorganization, a move scheduled for discussed in Belgium’s parliament this Friday.
“Antwerp is Flanders’ biggest city, with a legacy as a home of the cutting-edge in Belgium,” stated Luc Tuymans, an Antwerp resident painter broadly regarded as Belgium’s most influential contemporary creator.
“To degrade a cultural institution to an exhibition space is utterly irrational. You cannot simply move a collection of pieces and transfer it into a different environment, because that specific context does not exist,” he added.
Surprise Move Cancels New Building, Relocates Holdings
In last autumn, the culture minister of the Flanders region cancelled the proposed development of a specially designed €80m tower to accommodate the institution, and revealed intentions to relocate its collection of approximately 8,000 artworks to Ghent’s Municipal Museum of Contemporary Art (Smak). This unexpected decision will effectively deprive the Antwerp museum of its museum status.
The M HKA’s holdings also includes works by international artists such as Kerry James Marshall, Anish Kapoor and Marina Abramović.
“I cannot accept that they could be removed from M HKA or potentially endangered as part of any structural reshuffling,” stated British artist Kapoor in a message to the culture ministry.
Budget Pressures Drive Austerity in Arts Sector
Belgium faces a budget deficit of 5.4% of GDP, among the highest in the eurozone. The arts sector in particular is facing significant reductions, with budget-tightening policies also suggesting an unclear fate for Brussels’ new Kanal museum.
Under the proposals of Flanders’ socialist culture minister, the museum sector would be consolidated so that art collections in the region are housed within three beacon museums for historical, modern and contemporary art.
The region boasts a plethora of modern art institutions: besides M HKA in Antwerp and Smak in Ghent, there is the Bruges museums in Bruges and Museum M in Leuven.
Financial Inspectorate Questions Savings Logic
Whether the proposed shake-up would actually reduce expenses has been challenged by Belgium’s financial inspectorate. In a memorandum sent to the minister in October, it issued a negative assessment on the proposals, suggesting their effect on the budget would be “fragmentary”.
While transplanting the institution’s core holdings could cut operating costs from approximately €8m to €5m, it is believed that going forward the Antwerp museum would have to spend money to borrow works or purchase touring shows to draw audiences.
The Smak museum in Ghent, located about an hour by train from the M HKA, is also thought to presently lack enough space to adequately store M HKA’s collection, and would need investment to expand its storage capacity.
