Museums City of Antwerp 2020
The Antwerp Museums are looking forward to 2020. The Plantin-Moretus Museum will celebrate the 500th birthday of Christophe Plantin and Panamarenko will be commemorated with a tribute. The MAS and the Middelheim Museum are reflecting on the significance of Congolese art and the Mayer van den Bergh Museum pays tribute to Henriëtte. The Red Star Line Museum highlights stories of love and migration, the Hendrik Conscience Heritage Library presents stories of knights and the Letterenhuis (House of Literature) exhibits special cycling posters from the belle époque. In addition, numerous masterpieces will be on display in our museums again.
Overview in chronological order
Around the World in 80 years
Pop-up exhibition at Panamarenko
Campo & Campo
24 January until 22 March 2020
In 2020, Panamarenko would have celebrated his 80th birthday. His wife and some close friends are preparing a tribute in two parts. The first part, a unique pop-up exhibition at Campo & Campo, opens on 24 January. The public will be introduced to the wonderful world of Panamarenko, Belgium's most renowned and eccentric artist ever. His most beloved works have been brought together, supplemented by scale models, rarely seen drawings, historical films and other objects of his fanciful works.
The second part of the tribute will follow from May to August. For instance, the city walk 'Het Pana Parcours' will pause at places where the master has left his mark. Fans can also visit the M HKA for a Virtual Reality exhibition and an overview of Panamarenko's life. His house in Antwerp's Biekorfstraat will be restored to its former glory and opened to the public.
Discover the world of Plantin in 2020
Plantin-Moretus Museum
Festive year
In 2020, the Plantin-Moretus Museum will celebrate the 500th birthday of Christophe Plantin with a generous and varied programme that offers a surprising view of a versatile man: Christophe Plantin as an inspiration, traveller, letter writer and citizen of the turbulent 16th century.
The festive year starts on the European Day of Printing Museums. From 15 March, the inspiring collection of wooden blocks will be made available online on a new platform called 'Impressed by Plantin'. From 25 April to 30 August, visitors will accompany Plantin on a business trip to Leiden, Paris and Frankfurt. From 9 October, the museum will exhibit inventions and discoveries from the 16th century. At the same time, through Plantin's letters, visitors can catch a glimpse of how he was in real life. Finally, in November the museum will welcome two internationally renowned graphic artists for a lecture and a series of workshops.
www.museumplantinmoretus.be/de-wereld-van-plantin
New loans
The Rubens House
Until 1 March 2020, the Rubens House collection will be on display in the Palazzo Ducale in Venice as part of the exhibition 'From Titian to Rubens', curated by director Ben van Ben Beneden. When it returns in spring, the Rubens House will once again be presenting a number of new loans. The works bring more Rubens and more Italian flair to the artist's house on the Wapper. In addition, a new discovery will shed fresh light on young Rubens' ambition. The work will be presented for the first time in the Rubens House. Behind the scenes, the Rubens House and Rubenianium continue to work meticulously on the planned extension to Hopland.
Tribute to Henriëtte van den Bergh
Mayer van den Bergh Museum
From 27.03.2020
Master collectors Florent van Ertborn and Fritz Mayer van den Bergh will be telling a story of passion, dedication and beauty in the Mayer van den Bergh Museum until 31 December. The exhibition 'Madonna meets Mad Meg. Collectors caught in masterpieces' shows gems that these visionary collectors could often buy for a steal. Highlights include the mysterious Madonna by Jean Fouquet and Mad Meg by Pieter Bruegel the Elder. In Wildevrouw - the new novel by writer in residence Jeroen Olyslaegers – Mad Meg is one of the protagonists. The book will be launched at the museum in autumn.
From 27 March, the Mayer van den Bergh Museum will also pay homage to Henriëtte, the mother of Fritz Mayer van den Bergh. After his sudden death in 1901, Henriëtte was left with her son's unfulfilled wish: the establishment of a museum to exhibit his breathtaking collection. Henriëtte fulfilled this wish in 1904. The Mayer van den Bergh Museum thrusts this special lady into the limelight: meet Henriëtte, the founder of the museum and the driving force behind Fritz.
www.museummayervandenbergh.be/en
Everyday Fear
V-rockets in Antwerp, 1944-1945
MAS Pavilion
27.03.2020-31.05.2020
From 27 March 2020, the MAS will exhibit a V-rocket or 'flying bomb' in the MAS pavilion. This bomb was donated to the city by General Clare H. Armstrong who, with his unit Antwerp X, defended the city against the V-rocket attacks. After the people of Antwerp celebrated their liberation in September 1944, the city again became the target of German rocket attacks for months, resulting in thousands of casualties.
Photographs, testimonies and maps show where the rockets fell and what scars they left behind, because back then not a single Antwerp district was spared. In May, the MAS (in the MAS Pavilion) will also launch a year of collecting pertaining to the Second World War. The museum is scouring all Antwerp districts for stories and objects about the Second World War.
Velodroom. Cycling in the belle époque
Letterenhuis
28.03.2020 – 30.08.2020
The Letterenhuis is the literary archive of Flanders, the region's literary memory. It holds more than two million letters and manuscripts of Flemish writers and poets from the past two centuries, the documents of dozens of publishers and literary magazines.
Less well known is the large collection of cultural posters. From 28 March, the Letterenhuis will be exhibiting a selection of cycling posters from the belle époque. At the end of the 19th century, the bicycle became a veritable sensation. In order to promote the two-wheeler, bicycle makers used poster billboards. In addition to creations by great artists such as Henri de Toulouse Lautrec & Alphonse Mucha, they are also documentary time capsules. They illustrate the technological developments and social changes of the time and hold a mirror up to us.
Kruithof Collection
MAS Visible storage
from 3.04.2020
Which objects are worth saving and which are not? The Belgian philosopher Jaap Kruithof (1929-2009) has thought a great deal about this. He was horrified by our disposable culture and collected cheap, discarded items. After his death, his collection of 10,000 objects found its way to the MAS.
Together with numerous partners and the Kruithof family, in 2018, the MAS devised a plan for this collection: half became a philosophical museum collection, the other half of the collection was to play an active role in society.
Artists Guy Rombouts and Benjamin Verdonck are now working on this museum collection and employing the objects to create a new visual work. This creation 'stimulates thoughts and emotions around the value of things'. With the other half of the collection, the MAS started an Upcycling project, in which interested parties can breathe new life into pieces from the Kruithof collection. And that is leading to surprising results.
https://www.mas.be/nl/kruithof
Fleet
MAS Boulevard
From May 2020
In 2020, the Antwerp shipping company CMB (Compagnie Maritime Belge) will celebrate its 125th anniversary. This is an ideal occasion to reflect on Antwerp as a maritime city. How did the various shipping companies and countries develop? From May 2020, visitors to the boulevard will walk along the city's maritime history using photographic material, paintings, ship models and crew portraits.
Photographs by the German photographer Dirk Brommel adorn the large light box walls. His ship's portraits, which consist of stylised aerial views of cargo ships, provide a colourful series of impressive photographs.
Destination Sweetheart
Red Star Line Museum
14.05.2020 - 14.02.2021
The exhibition 'Destination Sweetheart' is all about the relationship between love and migration from the Red Star Line period to the present day. Letters, personal objects and testimonies are an ode to love and the people who migrated for it. These are often heartwarming and inspiring stories. However, the more difficult aspects are also addressed in this layered, intimate exhibition. An installation by the artist duo Kim Snauwaert and Anyuta Wiazemsky, about the police investigation that was conducted into them following a complaint about a marriage of convenience, will be a prominent focus.
The Red Star Line Museum also calls on the public to leave their own love and/or migration story behind in the museum. All activities during the exhibition period will be devoted to love in all its shades.
www.redstarline.be/destination-sweetheart
CONGOVILLE (werktitel)
Middelheim Museum
13.06.2020 – 18.10.2020
Both the Middelheim Museum and the University of Antwerp are located on the spot where the colonial college was founded in 1920. One hundred years later, this is the reason for the Middelheim Museum to investigate the traces of the (post)colonial history of the site and to make them tangible. It will do this by combining new historical research with a contemporary artistic view.
Guest curator Sandrine Colard has put together the Congoville exhibition. In this exhibition, 13 artists of African origin with an international practice will take visitors on a journey with them. Their practices, design language and backgrounds differ greatly, but they share a broad interest in the representation of history from multiple perspectives. These artists share their observations on the role of the black flaneur, but above all they focus on the future.
100xCongo
A century of Congolese art in Antwerp
MAS
19.06.2020-8.11.2020
In 2020, it will be exactly one hundred years since Antwerp, still in colonial times, acquired its Congolese museum collection. What are the stories behind the Congolese objects? And how did they end up in the port city? The exhibition focuses on one hundred unique Congolese works and examines their significance to various Congolese peoples. The impact of Christian missions on Congolese culture and the Congolese' view of the 'whites' (mundele) are also discussed.
The MAS invites the public to contemplate the perception of Africans through time. The exhibition is also an opportunity to reflect on the significance of Congolese art, past and present, and the way in which the Congolese museum collection came to exist in Antwerp. As part of the exhibition, the MAS is collaborating with Belgian and Congolese artists and researchers and is entering into dialogue with Antwerp residents, both of Belgian and African origin.
https://www.mas.be/nl/content/100-x-congo
Contrast
Exhibition of black and white photos of musicians by the Antwerp photographer Frank Lambrechts
Museum Vleeshuis
From June to November 2020
Lambrechts visited dozens of Flemish musicians and took their portraits, often in an unusual environment. Museum Vleeshuis is exhibiting a selection in the beautiful hall on the first floor.
www.museumvleeshuis.be/contrast
Heroes in armour
16th-century Dutch-language knight novels
Hendrik Conscience Heritage Library
4.12.2020 – 21.02.2021
Everyone knows knights in armour stories about Charlemagne and King Arthur. But why do these stories still tickle our imagination today? Why is a story like Karel ende Elegast still known today, while others have disappeared?
In recent years, the Hendrik Conscience Heritage Library has acquired five unique 16th-century Dutch-language knight novels: Galien Rethore, Olivier van Castillen, Jason and Hercules, Ponthus and Sydonie and the Roncevale. These pieces are central to this exhibition.
www.consciencebibliotheek.be/helden-in-harnas
The Phoebus Foundation is a guest at the MAS
MAS
12.12.2020 – 15.03.2021
The Phoebus Foundation and Walter Van Beirendonck are guests at the MAS and will join forces. The result will be a unique rollercoaster ride through three centuries of art and cultural history. Breathtaking masterpieces by Hans Memling, Quentin Matsys, Peter Paul Rubens and Antoon Van Dyck take the visitor through a world full of folly and sin, fascination and ambition. They talk about rich citizens and poor saints, about art rooms such as wine cellars and about Antwerp as Hollywood on the Scheldt.
The exhibition is a compelling story about the image and its meaning, and about the link between culture and society. Above all, it is about us, and who we are today – as human beings.
With the support of The Phoebus Foundation, Katoen Natie and Indaver.
More information about this press release can be found via the websites of the museums.