Two leading museum organizations have sharply criticized the Flemish government’s recent decision to transfer the collection and mission of Antwerp’s M HKA to a newly formed museum in Ghent by 2028.
In a “Statement of Support of M HKA,” dated October 10, members of the Museum Watch Committee, an initiative of CIMAM (International Committee for Museums and Collections of Modern Art), said they were “profoundly concerned by the recent news” and that “[t]his government plan is based upon a false administrative logic that sees collections as merely an assorted accumulation of items.”
The letter adds, “That this is happening in Belgium, and especially Antwerp, is unexpected. Over the past 40 years, M HKA has accrued a well-deserved reputation as a European museum of international standing focusing on contemporary art, building on a predecessor founded in 1970. It is known for helping to foster artists’ careers with its first-time-survey exhibitions before these artists become more established and for an extremely multipolar and diverse approach.”
In their letter, the Museum Watch Committee members—which includes Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art director Zeina Arida, Reina Sofia artistic deputy director Amanda de la Garza, and Yu Jin Seng, the National Gallery Singapore’s director for curatorial, research, and exhibitions—called on “the Flemish minister of culture to find an alternative way to take political responsibility for M HKA, to find a new vision that sees and responds to the value in the museum and its location, a vision in which it is not emptied out and turned into a shell merely for the dynamics of the moment. Museum Watch hopes that this exceptional and devastating decision will be undone.”
Similarly, L’internationale, a confederation of European museums and art organizations founded in 2009 and of which M HKA is one of 13 members, also published a statement in support of the Antwerp-based museum. It also called for a reversal of the Flemish government’s decision, writing that its membership is “appalled by the Flemish government’s recent announcement,” which was made “with no consultation with M HKA’s leadership or its stakeholders.”
L’internationale also added that it “further object[s] to the lack of transparency and detail so far. How, and on what basis was such a radical redrawing of the Flemish cultural map based – in consultation with whom – and when will this be made known? This plan and the manner of its announcement demonstrate neither openness and accountability, nor the commitment to good governance recently emphasised as central to Flemish cultural policy.”
In addition to the transfer of its permanent collection, which is focused on the avant-garde scene of Antwerp and how it connects to the international art world, the building the currently houses M HKA will undergo renovation before becoming an arts center with exhibitions and programming, essentially being transformed into a Kunsthalle. (Last week, the Flemish government also canceled plans for a new building for M HKA that was estimated to cost $151 million.) The CIMAM letter called this change a regression, adding that its concern extends to the fact that “is being separated from its site-specific collection.”
The CIMAM letter continues, “[M HKA] has a major collection anchored in the localized internationality of the post Second World War avant-garde, of which the harbor city of Antwerp was a hotbed of artist activity, and sees this as a strong foundation from which to approach today’s world. Ahead of its time, M HKA was looking towards Eurasia twenty years ago.”
That collection includes works by artists who have lived and worked in and around Antwerp, such as Marcel Broodthaers, Luc Tuymans, Otobong Nkanga, and Laure Prouvost, as well as artists who came to the city to make important work, like Marlene Dumas, Jimmie Durham, Nicola L., and Gordon Matta-Clark, whose Office Baroque (1977) was realized in a five-story building there.
According to L’internationale, M HKA’s collection is uniquely contextualized by “the city’s rich artistic lineage within multiple historical, cultural and geopolitical contexts.” The decision to move it out of Antwerp as a way to centralize collections into one institution “is diametrically opposed to L’Internationale’s insistence on fostering plural histories and viewpoints through collections and archives. We fundamentally disagree with the proposition of a single, unified national collection.”
In its letter, L’internationale also expressed concern over “the job security of the institution’s 80 staff” and asked that the “Flemish government to clarify how their new plans are commensurate with maintaining the museum’s current work force.”
The CIMAM letter noted that the M HKA is “one of the two Flemish museums in a federalized country that has been declared a ‘Cultural Heritage Institution’ by its government in recognition of its mission to work at the level of international excellence.” In taking this decision, the Museum Watch Committee believes that this “potentially disastrous decision … will have an unprecedented impact on Antwerp by negating the essential cultural, social, and economic contribution of M HKA to the well-being of the city.”
Additionally, the Museum Watch Committee also pointed to the bona fides of M HKA’s director, Bart De Baere, who is currently the secretary-general of CIMAM and served as chair of the Museum Watch Committee from 2016 to 2024.
In a statement included in the CIMAM letter, De Baere said, “I’m at a loss. We are living in a democracy here, in which we nominate people to take decisions for us. It’s important to take that seriously. I am actively committed to several countries in which people are dying for this very reason. At the same time, I am beyond flabbergasted by both the decision and its hollowness, so I am trying to understand how to navigate between that and democratic logic. At this moment, my colleagues and the artists we serve are my primary concern.”
In its announcement of the decision, the Flemish government said that its new museological strategy, which would see the creation of three museum “clusters” each led by a “beacon” institution, would allow for them to grow “together into museums as described in the new international definition of ICOM.”
The CIMAM letter pointedly refuted this, saying, “This decision also violates the ICOM Museum Definition and its Code of Ethics, to which CIMAM responds and adheres.” That definition, last updated in 2022, defines a museum as “a not-for-profit, permanent institution in the service of society that researches, collects, conserves, interprets and exhibits tangible and intangible heritage.”
The planned closure of the M HKA and the transfer of its collection has already stirred controversy in the Belgian art scene. After the decision, M HKA’s board chairman Herman De Bode resigned, reportedly saying, “the decision taken by the Flemish government to behead the M HKA, at the suggestion of the Minister of Culture, is too crazy for words. This happened without any participation from anyone on our side. I think that’s criminal. I have no other words for it.”
Similarly, Luc Tuymans reportedly said, “I am angry. We must not forget that the M HKA was the very first museum of contemporary art in Belgium. The whole neighborhood was also built around it. This is a real loss of face for an important city like Antwerp.”
