Cookie Consent by Free Privacy Policy website The M HKA possible to reopen on Tuesday 19 May
may 04, 2020 - M HKA Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp

The M HKA possible to reopen on Tuesday 19 May

The M HKA possible to reopen on Tuesday 19 May

 

The M HKA is thankful to the National Security Council for the horizon it gives museums to reopen provided the right approach from Monday 18 May onward. After all, our social health is not just a matter of physical health. The museums now serve as a test case for the broader cultural sector, which in turn reflects the importance of a mentally healthy society.

Bart De Baere, director of the M HKA: "Museums are like parks; spaces in which the individual experience can intertwine with the public space of being together. In the coming months, as a society, we face the challenge to find a new, positive balance between personal freedom and care for our relationship with others. We, at the M HKA, are ready to serve as a test room for that post-lock down experience."

Museums, by their very nature, are safe public places in these remarkable times. With their installations, they literally provide a wholesome environment, they care for and regulate public flows, and are able to provide the necessary space in which social distancing can be perfectly combined with experience, physical sensation, reflection, significance, consolation and relaxation. We are also convinced that public cultural institutions worldwide sustain an important social good; that of the power vested in heritage, art and artists to rethink the world, and to create mental and emotional spaces to realize 'the impossible'. In the context of the current crisis, art can be a haven, not only because it identifies creative possibilities, but also because it helps people deal with complexity, uncertainty and doubt.

The M HKA is delighted to be able to make use of this opportunity to reopen on 19 May. We have decided to extend the current programming until August, not least because we consider it to be particularly urgent in the current circumstances. As an institution, we have been preparing measures for weeks to make the museum as safe and pleasant as possible, both for visitors and staff. The reopening was meticulously prepared by in-house work groups, in accordance with government guidelines. The measures will be continuously monitored, and adjusted where necessary or possible.

When the museum reopens on 19 May, we will be presenting (now more than ever) the socially urgent work of Els Dietvorst, which is not only stunningly beautiful, but also evinces the artist's concern for cooperation, solidarity and community building. Allan Sekula's well-founded criticism of globalisation is also particularly pertinent; the artist already long ago pointed out the importance of deflagging and cheap transport as instrumental factors in the relocation of production. The accuracy of these statements highlights the many questions we now, as a society, have to ask ourselves. Lastly, in the IN SITU space, Tramaine de Senna displays the symbolic material excess of today's consumer society. The M HKA is temporarily keeping the Panamarenko House closed since it is impossible to respect social distancing in a space of that scale.

For De Cinema, the M HKA and its partners at De Studio obviously await further statements from the National Security Council on film screenings, just as it is aligning the reopening of the M HKAFE and the bookshop with the regulations for the catering and retail sectors, respectively.

Together with our fellow museums in #antwerp and Flanders, we hope that, as a test case, we will be able to provide experiences that will allow other cultural sub-sectors to reopen. Also, the M HKA would like to make a case for reopening, in the wake of the museums, art spaces such as WIELS and Z33, and large art galleries such as Zeno X Gallery or Tim Van Laere Gallery in #antwerp, as well as, hopefully soon, emerging galleries such as Gallery Sofie Van de Velde or PLUS-ONE Gallery, which are so thoughtful in the way they deal with their audiences. They are, just like the M HKA, free and open spaces for their visitors. The M HKA also wishes to draw attention to the much-needed reopening of other providers of art and culture, such as opera, ballet, theatre, concert halls, which can all bring depth to our thinking in these special times, will be reopened as soon as possible.

Finally, the M HKA also continues - as it did during the period of forced closure - to address the situation of many of the people with whom it collaborates and who do not have a fall-back base. These are valuable collaborations that we cherish and want to continue to develop in a future that may look quite different. We want to consciously carry the calls for solidarity, care and solidarity that are perceived as urgent in a period of crisis such as this further into the future, so that it may become more than just business as usual.

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