Antwerp's museums in 2024
The city of Antwerp's museums are preparing to welcome visitors once more in 2024, with numerous new exhibitions and projects. The Middelheim Museum, along with De Singel, is organising 'Come Closer': an exciting exchange between sculpture and performance. The Rubens House is opening the new reception building in the summer, and the autumn will be themed around Ensor, with exhibitions at not less than four locations in the city. The Red Star Line Museum will be getting a visit from Albert Einstein, and the MAS will be heading to Antarctica in the summer. The message remains: book tickets in good time for all that great stuff!
Come Closer
Middelheim Museum and De Singel
07/06/24 – 29/09/24
With COME CLOSER, Middelheim Museum and art centre De Singel are together exploring the space between sculpture and performance art. This collaboration brings together multiform works by some 25 artists from home and abroad: sculptures, interactive installations and performances. What they have in common is that they all alter the traditional relationship between the artist, the artwork and the public. In COME CLOSER, the distance between the three is replaced by an exciting exchange.
Thus, this project says something not only about art today, but also about our everyday life. Because in the countless interactions we engage in, every day, we take on different roles each time. We are always ourselves but, at the same time, we are also always a little bit someone else: online or not, among colleagues, with our parents, with friends. It is 'performing' in constant exchange with our environment, and subject to all kinds of factors.
Opening of reception building & Rubens House garden
Summer 2024
In the summer of 2024, the Rubens House will be opening the brand-new reception building. The building was designed by Robbrecht en Daem architecten and forms the entrance to the Rubens universe.
The façade is a twirling spectacle of hundreds of little pillars. The building is brimming full of references to Rubens' art, such as the spiral staircases moving upwards, and is construed as two giant bookcases opposite one another. You can visit the immersive experience there, where you will be standing eye-to-eye with Rubens. Towards the rear, you will enter the new Rubens House garden. This Baroque garden shows colour for 365 days a year and is resplendent in any season. With more than 17.000 plants, this makes it a museum hall without a ceiling. Rubens' gardeners, Willem and Jasper, explain everything that happened here in smells and colours.
Would you like to dive further into the 17th century? Then you will be welcome to rummage through the books and manuscripts in the library. Moreover, you will have a wonderful view of Rubens' house and garden there.
The reception building and the garden will be opened with festivities in the summer of 2024. The house where Rubens lived and worked remains closed for renovation.
https://rubenshuis.be/en/content/startpagina
Ensor year
Four museums in Antwerp
From 28/09/2024
In 2024, it will be 75 years since artist James Ensor passed away in Ostend, the city where he lived and worked for practically his whole life. We know James Ensor as a pioneer of modern art. A complex personality. And still a source of inspiration today. Along with his birth city of Ostend, Antwerp too – the home base for the largest Ensor collection in the world – remembers this versatile artist.
From December 2023 to August 2024, Ostend will be putting on a museum programme that sheds light upon some highly diverse aspects of Ensor. Antwerp will be taking the baton from September 2024 with four wide-ranging exhibitions of international allure, spread throughout the city. These will shed light upon his groundbreaking oeuvre in the international context of Ensor's time. And how Ensor, with his language of imagery, remains a source of inspiration for photography, fashion and make-up.
States of Imagination. Ensor and the graphical experiment.
Museum Plantin-Moretus, Antwerp From 28/09/24 to 05/01/25
In the autumn of 2024, the Museum Plantin-Moretus will present 'States of Imagination' on Ensor's remarkable graphical adventure. The young Ensor experimented exuberantly with etching techniques for several years. He said himself of this: “I am no master of the etcher's craft. I draw and engrave neatly, but I leave all the rest to chance. I do not know all the knacks and tricks of etching, meaning I have damaged a great many sheets and needlessly spoilt my eyes.”
Ensor was not a born print-maker, but he soon developed a unique approach to the medium. With predecessors like Rembrandt in the back of his mind, Ensor made his very own way. His studio became a testing lab for experiments where chance sometimes played a role too.
'States of Imagination' brings together the most remarkable results of these experiments together for the first time: preparatory drawings, copper plates and various states of prints. We show some unique prints on old paper, parchment and coloured silk. Ensor transforms incomplete prints into unique artworks by colouring them in with a pencil, gouache or aquarelle by hand. Some unexpected details turn up that way, depth is added to large masses of people and new figures take shape.
https://museumplantinmoretus.be/nl/activiteit/staten-van-verbeelding
Masquerade, make-up & Ensor
Momu – Fashion Museum
28/09/24 – 19/01/25
In MoMu, Ensor's ideas around masquerade, (false) coquetry, the playful, grotesque and transient are extended to today.
Throughout history, make-up has often been compared, with some suspicion, to wearing a mask: a mask behind which women in particular could hide. Make-up today has become a multi-billion dollar industry that confronts man with his physical impermanence, imagined imperfections and existential fears. But make-up is also a means of personal expression, artistic experimentation and freedom.
The exhibition presents work by artists and make-up artists that delve deeper into themes such as the representation of women, physical and digital facial filters, distorted body images and the ritual of makeup.
Cindy Sherman – Anti-fashion
FOMU
28/09/24 – 02/02/25
FOMU aligns with ENSOR 2024 by translating issues from James Ensor's oeuvre into a contemporary artistic context. American artist Cindy Sherman (US, 1954), like Ensor, is known for her critical and ironic commentary on social conventions through masquerades. In her work, she asks critical questions about gender, stereotypes and age. Sherman's broad spectrum of characters reveals the artificial and changeable nature of identity, which has increasingly become a matter of choice, (self-)constructed and fluid. www.fomu.be
Ensor's wildest dreams. Beyond impressionism.
KMSKA
28/09/24 – 19/01/25
James Ensor manages to connect the palette of the impressionists to savage symbolic visions, expressionism and the world of satire and jesting. With this major overview exhibition, the KMSKA shows how a Belgian avant-gardist found his own ever-experimental path via impressionism. In an illuminating contextual framework, the museum tests Ensor's work against that of important sources of inspiration such as Raphaelli and Monet, and that of well-known and surprising predecessors, contemporaries and adepts such as Edvar Munch, Ernst Josephson and Emil Nolde.
More information about the Ensor year can be found at www.ensor2024.be
Other exhibitions in 2024, in chronological order
Six centuries of Vleeshuis: a musical journey
Museum Vleeshuis
From 28/02
The Vleeshuis' impressive history goes back to 1504. And music could be heard there through all those centuries. In the streets around the Vleeshuis, choirs sang the praises of Rubens' Raising of the Cross installation, opera was heard in Antwerp for the first time, and the city trumpeters celebrated the arrival of Napoleon. Dance organs could be heard from the cafés and the carillon pealed out over the roofs. Since 1967, Flemish and international talent has queued up to be allowed to play the historic pianos from the museum collection. The focus exhibition 'Six centuries of Vleeshuis: a musical journey' is about the rich (musical) history of the building and the plans for the future. In the run-up to the restoration, the Woensdagklanken ('Wednesday Sounds') concert series and a new 'behind-the-scenes' tour are also paying homage to six centuries of music in and around the Vleeshuis.
Dirk Braeckman – Echtzeit
FOMU
29/03/24 – 02/02/25
Dirk Braeckman (BE, born in 1958) has been examining the medium of photography with his subtle, dark images for more than forty years. For this exhibition, he is entering into dialogue with the FOMU collection. Braeckman selected some work from the museum collection and allowed these to inspire him to make some new work.
Braeckman is interested in photos with imperfections, empty interiors, banal objects, suggestive places or objects that leave much to the imagination. From the FOMU collection, he chose some functional photos, which were taken without any artistic ambition, but in which he does see some visual qualities. These are atypical images and topics in which he recognises himself and are close to his own work.
Braeckman has taken over these collection pieces to make some new work: you can experience them through his camera, eyes and hands. Deliberately altering existing objects to create new artworks is called appropriation art. Braeckman plays with concepts like originality and authorship and challenges you to take a new look
RE/SISTERS – A Lens on Gender and Ecology
FOMU
29/03/24 – 18/08/24
FOMU presents RE/SISTERS: A Lens on Gender and Ecology. This major group exhibition explores the relationship between gender and ecology, and focuses on the systemic ties between the suppression of women and the degradation of the planet.
RE/SISTERS reflects upon a whole range of topics, from companies extracting raw materials from the soil to the politics of care, and examines environmental and gender justice as indivisible elements of a global battle. The exhibition aims to raise how existing power structures are threatening our ecosystem, which is becoming ever more fragile.
https://fomu.be/expos/re-sisters-a-lens-on-gender-and-ecology
'A desired refugee. Einstein and the Red Star Line’.
Red Star Line Museum
18/04/24 – 08/09/2024
From 18 April, in the Depot of the Red Star Line Museum, the free exhibition will be running called ‘A desired refugee. Einstein and the Red Star Line’ (working title). This presentation zooms in on the most famous person who ever travelled with the shipping company: Albert Einstein.
As a world-famous scientist, Einstein travelled in first class on the Red Star Line ships several times. The most radical journey was most likely on the steam ship Belgenland in 1933, from New York back to Antwerp. He was still living in Germany then, where the Nazis had come to power. On the boat, he decided no longer to travel on to Germany when he heard that the militia had raided one of his residences. After staying in Belgium for a few months and then in the United Kingdom, he left with another Red Star Line ship, the Westernland, for America for good.
This presentation shows the major interweaving between Albert Einstein and Antwerp, Belgium and the Red Star Line. On which Red Star Line ships did he travel and what did his cabin look like? At which of Antwerp's hotels did he stay and how was he portrayed in Antwerp's press? The exhibition also addresses his stay at the Cantecroy Castle in Mortsel and his attitude towards the United States. www.redstarline.be
Willy Vanderperre – Prints, films, a rave and more ...
MoMu – Antwerp Fashion Museum
From 27/04
MoMu explores the oeuvre of the Belgian photographer Willy Vanderperre. His editorial work appears in magazines such as AnOther Magazine, Dust, i-D, Perfect, Vogue and W Magazine. In addition, he photographs campaigns for fashion houses like Dior and Prada, among others.
The exhibition sheds a light on how Vanderperre's fascination with youth drove him forward for almost three decades. In dialogue with his photos, he selected several artworks that inspire him in the continual development of his universe. Alongside the evolution in the language of imagery, the overview of his photographic work also considers the many years of collaboration with Olivier Rizzo and Raf Simons.
To Antarctica The pole pioneers of the Belgica
MAS 21/06/24 – 25/11/24
Next summer, the MAS will be telling the unbelievable story of the ‘Belgica’. The three-master left from Antwerp on an expedition to the South Pole 125 years ago. Captain Adrien de Gerlache and his crew did not yet know then that they would be the first to have to spend a year's winter in the polar ice, thus going down in history as pioneers.
The MAS is showing some unique heritage pieces from the collection, such as the ship's helm and the round-top, sleighs and clothing, the ice-saws with which the ship was freed from the ice and the beautiful barrel organ on which the crew played the ‘Brabançonne’ for hours during the dark days in the cabin. Along with the many beautiful photos and the crew's journals, the exhibition brings the adventurous journey back to life 125 years later in the city from which the voyage departed at the time.
At the same time, visitors to this exhibition can also take the time to consider that beautiful area of Antarctica, where global warming is highly noticeable today. By zooming in on scientific research, global warming, territorial and economic claims and international collaborations, the MAS is looking back on the heritage of the polar exhibitions.
Prestigious Nottebohm Room to open during the summer
Hendrik Conscience Heritage Library
Summer 2024
The Nottebohm Room is the hidden gem of the Hendrik Conscience Heritage Library. As soon as they step into the hall, visitors smell the scent of the 120,000 old books and hear the sounds of the city hushed. Strolling across the creaky parquet, they discover Blaeu's iconic globes and all the other masterpieces kept there. During the summer, the curious among us can explore the Nottebohm Room on their own.
The historic library space of Antwerp's Hendrik Conscience Heritage Library will open its doors for a new series of Nottebohm lectures and to individual visitors this autumn.
https://consciencebibliotheek.be/
Sailor waiting for a ship. On labour migration of Greek sailors after WW II
Red Star Line Museum
From early October ‘24 to February ‘25
Antwerp's museums in 2024
The city of Antwerp's museums are preparing to welcome visitors once more in 2024, with numerous new exhibitions and projects. The Middelheim Museum, along with De Singel, is organising 'Come Closer': an exciting exchange between sculpture and performance. The Rubens House is opening the new reception building in the summer, and the autumn will be themed around Ensor, with exhibitions at not less than four locations in the city. The Red Star Line Museum will be getting a visit from Albert Einstein, and the MAS will be heading to Antarctica in the summer. The message remains: book tickets in good time for all that great stuff!
Come Closer
Middelheim Museum and De Singel
07/06/24 – 29/09/24
With COME CLOSER, Middelheim Museum and art centre De Singel are together exploring the space between sculpture and performance art. This collaboration brings together multiform works by some 25 artists from home and abroad: sculptures, interactive installations and performances. What they have in common is that they all alter the traditional relationship between the artist, the artwork and the public. In COME CLOSER, the distance between the three is replaced by an exciting exchange.
Thus, this project says something not only about art today, but also about our everyday life. Because in the countless interactions we engage in, every day, we take on different roles each time. We are always ourselves but, at the same time, we are also always a little bit someone else: online or not, among colleagues, with our parents, with friends. It is 'performing' in constant exchange with our environment, and subject to all kinds of factors.
Opening of reception building & Rubens House garden
Summer 2024
In the summer of 2024, the Rubens House will be opening the brand-new reception building. The building was designed by Robbrecht en Daem architecten and forms the entrance to the Rubens universe.
The façade is a twirling spectacle of hundreds of little pillars. The building is brimming full of references to Rubens' art, such as the spiral staircases moving upwards, and is construed as two giant bookcases opposite one another. You can visit the immersive experience there, where you will be standing eye-to-eye with Rubens. Towards the rear, you will enter the new Rubens House garden. This Baroque garden shows colour for 365 days a year and is resplendent in any season. With more than 17.000 plants, this makes it a museum hall without a ceiling. Rubens' gardeners, Willem and Jasper, explain everything that happened here in smells and colours.
Would you like to dive further into the 17th century? Then you will be welcome to rummage through the books and manuscripts in the library. Moreover, you will have a wonderful view of Rubens' house and garden there.
The reception building and the garden will be opened with festivities in the summer of 2024. The house where Rubens lived and worked remains closed for renovation.
https://rubenshuis.be/en/content/startpagina
Ensor year
Four museums in Antwerp
From 28/09/2024
In 2024, it will be 75 years since artist James Ensor passed away in Ostend, the city where he lived and worked for practically his whole life. We know James Ensor as a pioneer of modern art. A complex personality. And still a source of inspiration today. Along with his birth city of Ostend, Antwerp too – the home base for the largest Ensor collection in the world – remembers this versatile artist.
From December 2023 to August 2024, Ostend will be putting on a museum programme that sheds light upon some highly diverse aspects of Ensor. Antwerp will be taking the baton from September 2024 with four wide-ranging exhibitions of international allure, spread throughout the city. These will shed light upon his groundbreaking oeuvre in the international context of Ensor's time. And how Ensor, with his language of imagery, remains a source of inspiration for photography, fashion and make-up.
States of Imagination. Ensor and the graphical experiment.
Museum Plantin-Moretus, Antwerp From 28/09/24 to 05/01/25
In the autumn of 2024, the Museum Plantin-Moretus will present 'States of Imagination' on Ensor's remarkable graphical adventure. The young Ensor experimented exuberantly with etching techniques for several years. He said himself of this: “I am no master of the etcher's craft. I draw and engrave neatly, but I leave all the rest to chance. I do not know all the knacks and tricks of etching, meaning I have damaged a great many sheets and needlessly spoilt my eyes.”
Ensor was not a born print-maker, but he soon developed a unique approach to the medium. With predecessors like Rembrandt in the back of his mind, Ensor made his very own way. His studio became a testing lab for experiments where chance sometimes played a role too.
'States of Imagination' brings together the most remarkable results of these experiments together for the first time: preparatory drawings, copper plates and various states of prints. We show some unique prints on old paper, parchment and coloured silk. Ensor transforms incomplete prints into unique artworks by colouring them in with a pencil, gouache or aquarelle by hand. Some unexpected details turn up that way, depth is added to large masses of people and new figures take shape.
https://museumplantinmoretus.be/nl/activiteit/staten-van-verbeelding
Masquerade, make-up & Ensor
Momu – Fashion Museum
28/09/24 – 19/01/25
In MoMu, Ensor's ideas around masquerade, (false) coquetry, the playful, grotesque and transient are extended to today.
Throughout history, make-up has often been compared, with some suspicion, to wearing a mask: a mask behind which women in particular could hide. Make-up today has become a multi-billion dollar industry that confronts man with his physical impermanence, imagined imperfections and existential fears. But make-up is also a means of personal expression, artistic experimentation and freedom.
The exhibition presents work by artists and make-up artists that delve deeper into themes such as the representation of women, physical and digital facial filters, distorted body images and the ritual of makeup.
Cindy Sherman – Anti-fashion
FOMU
28/09/24 – 02/02/25
FOMU aligns with ENSOR 2024 by translating issues from James Ensor's oeuvre into a contemporary artistic context. American artist Cindy Sherman (US, 1954), like Ensor, is known for her critical and ironic commentary on social conventions through masquerades. In her work, she asks critical questions about gender, stereotypes and age. Sherman's broad spectrum of characters reveals the artificial and changeable nature of identity, which has increasingly become a matter of choice, (self-)constructed and fluid. www.fomu.be
Ensor's wildest dreams. Beyond impressionism.
KMSKA
28/09/24 – 19/01/25
James Ensor manages to connect the palette of the impressionists to savage symbolic visions, expressionism and the world of satire and jesting. With this major overview exhibition, the KMSKA shows how a Belgian avant-gardist found his own ever-experimental path via impressionism. In an illuminating contextual framework, the museum tests Ensor's work against that of important sources of inspiration such as Raphaelli and Monet, and that of well-known and surprising predecessors, contemporaries and adepts such as Edvar Munch, Ernst Josephson and Emil Nolde.
More information about the Ensor year can be found at www.ensor2024.be
Other exhibitions in 2024, in chronological order
Six centuries of Vleeshuis: a musical journey
Museum Vleeshuis
From 28/02
The Vleeshuis' impressive history goes back to 1504. And music could be heard there through all those centuries. In the streets around the Vleeshuis, choirs sang the praises of Rubens' Raising of the Cross installation, opera was heard in Antwerp for the first time, and the city trumpeters celebrated the arrival of Napoleon. Dance organs could be heard from the cafés and the carillon pealed out over the roofs. Since 1967, Flemish and international talent has queued up to be allowed to play the historic pianos from the museum collection. The focus exhibition 'Six centuries of Vleeshuis: a musical journey' is about the rich (musical) history of the building and the plans for the future. In the run-up to the restoration, the Woensdagklanken ('Wednesday Sounds') concert series and a new 'behind-the-scenes' tour are also paying homage to six centuries of music in and around the Vleeshuis.
Dirk Braeckman – Echtzeit
FOMU
29/03/24 – 02/02/25
Dirk Braeckman (BE, born in 1958) has been examining the medium of photography with his subtle, dark images for more than forty years. For this exhibition, he is entering into dialogue with the FOMU collection. Braeckman selected some work from the museum collection and allowed these to inspire him to make some new work.
Braeckman is interested in photos with imperfections, empty interiors, banal objects, suggestive places or objects that leave much to the imagination. From the FOMU collection, he chose some functional photos, which were taken without any artistic ambition, but in which he does see some visual qualities. These are atypical images and topics in which he recognises himself and are close to his own work.
Braeckman has taken over these collection pieces to make some new work: you can experience them through his camera, eyes and hands. Deliberately altering existing objects to create new artworks is called appropriation art. Braeckman plays with concepts like originality and authorship and challenges you to take a new look
RE/SISTERS – A Lens on Gender and Ecology
FOMU
29/03/24 – 18/08/24
FOMU presents RE/SISTERS: A Lens on Gender and Ecology. This major group exhibition explores the relationship between gender and ecology, and focuses on the systemic ties between the suppression of women and the degradation of the planet.
RE/SISTERS reflects upon a whole range of topics, from companies extracting raw materials from the soil to the politics of care, and examines environmental and gender justice as indivisible elements of a global battle. The exhibition aims to raise how existing power structures are threatening our ecosystem, which is becoming ever more fragile.
https://fomu.be/expos/re-sisters-a-lens-on-gender-and-ecology
'A desired refugee. Einstein and the Red Star Line’.
Red Star Line Museum
18/04/24 – 08/09/2024
From 18 April, in the Depot of the Red Star Line Museum, the free exhibition will be running called ‘A desired refugee. Einstein and the Red Star Line’ (working title). This presentation zooms in on the most famous person who ever travelled with the shipping company: Albert Einstein.
As a world-famous scientist, Einstein travelled in first class on the Red Star Line ships several times. The most radical journey was most likely on the steam ship Belgenland in 1933, from New York back to Antwerp. He was still living in Germany then, where the Nazis had come to power. On the boat, he decided no longer to travel on to Germany when he heard that the militia had raided one of his residences. After staying in Belgium for a few months and then in the United Kingdom, he left with another Red Star Line ship, the Westernland, for America for good.
This presentation shows the major interweaving between Albert Einstein and Antwerp, Belgium and the Red Star Line. On which Red Star Line ships did he travel and what did his cabin look like? At which of Antwerp's hotels did he stay and how was he portrayed in Antwerp's press? The exhibition also addresses his stay at the Cantecroy Castle in Mortsel and his attitude towards the United States. www.redstarline.be
Willy Vanderperre – Prints, films, a rave and more ...
MoMu – Antwerp Fashion Museum
From 27/04
MoMu explores the oeuvre of the Belgian photographer Willy Vanderperre. His editorial work appears in magazines such as AnOther Magazine, Dust, i-D, Perfect, Vogue and W Magazine. In addition, he photographs campaigns for fashion houses like Dior and Prada, among others.
The exhibition sheds a light on how Vanderperre's fascination with youth drove him forward for almost three decades. In dialogue with his photos, he selected several artworks that inspire him in the continual development of his universe. Alongside the evolution in the language of imagery, the overview of his photographic work also considers the many years of collaboration with Olivier Rizzo and Raf Simons.
To Antarctica The pole pioneers of the Belgica
MAS 21/06/24 – 25/11/24
Next summer, the MAS will be telling the unbelievable story of the ‘Belgica’. The three-master left from Antwerp on an expedition to the South Pole 125 years ago. Captain Adrien de Gerlache and his crew did not yet know then that they would be the first to have to spend a year's winter in the polar ice, thus going down in history as pioneers.
The MAS is showing some unique heritage pieces from the collection, such as the ship's helm and the round-top, sleighs and clothing, the ice-saws with which the ship was freed from the ice and the beautiful barrel organ on which the crew played the ‘Brabançonne’ for hours during the dark days in the cabin. Along with the many beautiful photos and the crew's journals, the exhibition brings the adventurous journey back to life 125 years later in the city from which the voyage departed at the time.
At the same time, visitors to this exhibition can also take the time to consider that beautiful area of Antarctica, where global warming is highly noticeable today. By zooming in on scientific research, global warming, territorial and economic claims and international collaborations, the MAS is looking back on the heritage of the polar exhibitions.
Prestigious Nottebohm Room to open during the summer
Hendrik Conscience Heritage Library
Summer 2024
The Nottebohm Room is the hidden gem of the Hendrik Conscience Heritage Library. As soon as they step into the hall, visitors smell the scent of the 120,000 old books and hear the sounds of the city hushed. Strolling across the creaky parquet, they discover Blaeu's iconic globes and all the other masterpieces kept there. During the summer, the curious among us can explore the Nottebohm Room on their own.
The historic library space of Antwerp's Hendrik Conscience Heritage Library will open its doors for a new series of Nottebohm lectures and to individual visitors this autumn.
https://consciencebibliotheek.be/
Discover the collection of Fritz Mayer van den Bergh
Museum Mayer van den Bergh – 2nd half of 2024
Until 3 March 2024, the museum will be running the temporary exhibition ‘Conversations. Contemporary and historical masters in dialogue’. After that, the 13 masterpieces that the museum had temporarily loaned to the MAS for the exhibition 'Rare and indispensable' will be returning to the museum and the collection can be admired in all its glory for another few months. In early 2025, the museum will close for renovation and restoration works: the Hof van Arenberg (the former district house) will be added to the current museum. This makes the last few months of 2024 another unique opportunity to admire the fantastically diverse collection of the 19th-century art collector Fritz Mayer van den Bergh – who discovered Pieter Bruegel the Elder's Mad Meg – in its current setting.
www.museummayervandenbergh.be
Exhibitions in 2023 - 2024
https://cultuur-stad-antwerpen.prezly.com/lopende-expos-2023-24
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Nadia De Vree
Perscommunicatie Cultuur, stad Antwerpen
- [email protected]
- +32 475 36 71 96
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Nadia De Vree
In the exhibition ‘Sailor waiting for a ship’, the Red Star Line Museum considers labour migration and the changes this brings with it. The majority of the Red Star Line passengers were following the American dream to find work. Throughout history to today, labour has been the most prominent reason to leave one's homeland. The Red Star Line Museum shows the relationship between labour and migration in a series of exhibitions, lectures and events.
The first section sheds light on labour migration by Greek sailors to Antwerp after WW II. From the 1960s, a true Greek district arose in which cafés, restaurants and dancing establishments with Greek musical entertainment sprang up like mushrooms. This micro-cosmos saw its golden years in the 60s and 70s of the last century. Guest curators Poli Roumeliotis and Kris Kaerts will bring that period back to life in full with a mix of poetry, music, film, stories and imagery.
Discover the collection of Fritz Mayer van den Bergh
Museum Mayer van den Bergh – 2nd half of 2024
Until 3 March 2024, the museum will be running the temporary exhibition ‘Conversations. Contemporary and historical masters in dialogue’. After that, the 13 masterpieces that the museum had temporarily loaned to the MAS for the exhibition 'Rare and indispensable' will be returning to the museum and the collection can be admired in all its glory for another few months. In early 2025, the museum will close for renovation and restoration works: the Hof van Arenberg (the former district house) will be added to the current museum. This makes the last few months of 2024 another unique opportunity to admire the fantastically diverse collection of the 19th-century art collector Fritz Mayer van den Bergh – who discovered Pieter Bruegel the Elder's Mad Meg – in its current setting.
Exhibitions in 2023 - 2024
https://cultuur-stad-antwerpen.prezly.com/lopende-expos-2023-24
Nadia De Vree