During the Cultuurmarkt (Culture Market), the M HKA is taking over the Blue Salon of the Palace on the Meir.  This marks the start of an ongoing collaborative effort between Antwerp's Museum of Contemporary Art (the M HKA) and Herita, the Flemish heritage organization in charge of the Palace on the Meir.  The M HKA will show its new acquisitions in the Blue Salon, and so provides a contemporary slant to the venue's original function: to highlight work from (then) contemporary artists.  Work on view now is from artists Vaast Colson & Dennis Tyfus, Daniel Dewaele, Rodney Graham, Michelangelo Pistoletto, C.K. Rajan and Luc Tuymans.

In this way, the M HKA also revisits its past. The Palace on the Meir housed the former Internationaal Cultureel Centrum (ICC), established in 1970 on the initiative of the Ministry of Dutch Culture.  The ICC was the first public institution in Flanders devoted to contemporary art and, under the leadership of future MUHKA director Flor Bex, it developed into a dynamic meeting-place for art/artists and public.  The ICC was thus the immediate forerunner of the M HKA.  With the museum's founding in 1982 it also became the official inheritor of the ICC, with the documentation center, library and video archive coming under the M HKA's auspices.  Moreover, the ICC-period also comprised the basis for the MUHKA's permanent collection.     

With M HKA in the Palace on the Meir, the museum wishes to re-establish connections with its historical roots.  Or as Herita puts it: “If we wish to maintain traces of the past, we have to let it speak to today's life."

Practical Information

M HKA in the Palace on the Meir is free during the Cultuurmarkt on Sunday, August 31st, and then open only on succeeding Sundays between 10am and 5pm, or on reservation (entry-fee applies).

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Palace on the Meir

Meir 50

2000 Antwerp

T 03 206 21 21

E info@paleisopdemeir.be

www.paleisopdemeir.be

 

M HKA, Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp

Leuvenstraat 32

2000 Antwerp

T 03 260 99 99

E info@muhka.be

www.muhka.be – www.ensembles.org