Artists protest Flanders plan to dismantle Antwerp’s M HKA and move collection

Prominent artists and the directors of Antwerp’s Museum of Contemporary Art (M HKA) have criticised a Flanders regional plan to dismantle the country’s oldest contemporary art museum and transfer its collection to Ghent’s Municipal Museum of Contemporary Art (Smak). At a press conference in Antwerp the M HKA directors, which was founded in 1985, described the shake-up as involving “flagrant illegalities”.

In October Flanders’ culture minister cancelled a planned €80m high‑rise for the museum and announced the move of 8,000 artworks to Smak, a decision artists said will “in effect strip the Antwerp institution of its museum status.” Luc Tuymans said: “To degrade a museum to an arts centre is simply insane.” The M HKA collection includes works by Kerry James Marshall, Anish Kapoor and Marina Abramović, and Kapoor told the culture ministry in an email seen by the Guardian that he “cannot accept that they might be removed from M HKA or otherwise put at risk as part of any institutional reorganisation.” The move forms part of wider austerity measures as Belgium faces a budget deficit of 5.4% of GDP and the arts sector confronts cuts.

Under proposals from Flanders’ socialist culture minister Caroline Gennez, regional art collections would be concentrated at three beacon museums for historical, modern and contemporary art.

Key Topics

Culture, M Hka, Antwerp, Smak, Flanders, Caroline Gennez