Leading creators have voiced strong opposition against what they describe as an “capricious restructuring” of Belgium’s cultural scene, as the Flanders government seek to cut public spending by dismantling the country’s oldest modern art institution and transplanting its entire collection to a different urban center.
Directors Decry ‘Flagrant Illegalities’ in Sector Shake-up
At a Tuesday briefing in Antwerp, the directors of the city’s Museum of Contemporary Art (M HKA), established in 1985, decried what they termed the “flagrant illegalities” of the museum sector shake-up, a move scheduled for debated in Belgium’s parliament this Friday.
“Antwerp represents the largest city in Flanders, with a legacy as a home of the avant-garde in Belgium,” stated renowned painter Luc Tuymans, an Antwerp-based artist widely seen as Belgium’s most influential contemporary creator.
“To degrade a cultural institution to an arts centre is utterly irrational. You cannot just take a collection of pieces and transfer it into a different environment, because such an ecosystem does not exist,” he added.
Unexpected Decision Scraps €80m Project, Relocates Holdings
In October, the cultural affairs minister of the Flanders region cancelled the planned construction of a specially designed €80m high-rise building to accommodate the museum, and revealed intentions to move its collection of approximately 8,000 pieces to Ghent’s Municipal Museum of Contemporary Art (Smak). This surprise move will effectively strip the Antwerp institution of its official museum designation.
The M HKA’s collection features pieces by international artists such as Kerry James Marshall, Anish Kapoor and Marina Abramović.
“I do not accept that my works might be removed from M HKA or otherwise put at risk as part of any structural reshuffling,” said artist Anish Kapoor in a message to the culture ministry.
Financial Constraints Motivate Cost-Cutting in Cultural Field
Belgium faces a budget deficit of 5.4 percent of its economic output, one of the largest in the European monetary union. The cultural domain specifically is facing significant reductions, with austerity measures also suggesting an uncertain future for the new Brussels Kanal museum.
According to the plans of Minister Caroline Gennez, the museum landscape would be streamlined so that cultural holdings in the region are housed within three beacon museums for historical, modern and contemporary art.
Flanders has a multitude of modern art institutions: besides M HKA in Antwerp and Smak in Ghent, there is Musea Brugge in Bruges and Museum M in Leuven.
Financial Inspectorate Questions Cost-Saving Rationale
If the proposed shake-up would truly reduce expenses has been challenged by the national audit office. In a memorandum addressed to Gennez in October, it gave an unfavourable opinion on the plans, suggesting their impact on the budget would be “fragmentary”.
Although moving the museum’s permanent collection could cut operating costs from approximately €8m to €5m, it is believed that going forward the Antwerp institution would have to allocate funds to loan artworks or buy in exhibitions to draw audiences.
The Smak museum in Ghent, situated roughly an hour by train from the Antwerp museum, is also believed to currently not have sufficient room to adequately store M HKA’s collection, and would require funding to expand its storage capacity.
