{"id":258432,"date":"2026-01-29T23:56:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T23:56:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/258432\/"},"modified":"2026-01-29T23:56:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T23:56:11","slug":"inside-brusselss-e230m-kanal-centre-pompidou-museum-opening-in-november-the-art-newspaper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/258432\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside Brussels’s \u20ac230m Kanal-Centre Pompidou museum\u2014opening in November – The Art Newspaper"},"content":{"rendered":"

The long-awaited Kanal-Centre Pompidou gallery of modern and contemporary art in Brussels\u2014a vast new art hub rivalling other major European art centres such as Tate Modern\u2014will open 28 November with ten shows including a 350-work exhibition drawn from the Centre Pompidou in Paris.<\/p>\n

The new culture hub is housed in a former Citro\u00ebn garage, an architectural landmark in the city built in the mid 1930s, and includes five floors of gallery spaces, incorporating dedicated areas for the Kanal Architecture programme (formerly CIVA); an indoor playground designed by the UK architecture collective Assemble; and a rooftop restaurant and bar due to open until midnight.<\/p>\n

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The workshops of the Citro\u00ebn garage Paul Smith \u00a9 CIVA Collections, Brussel<\/p>\n

The ambitious launch programme includes a new installation by the Nigerian artist Otobong Nkanga, an exhibition of performance and sound works featuring 20 local artists called No Show (28 November-18 January 2027) and a show exploring a colonial propaganda exhibition sponsored by Citro\u00ebn, which opened across Africa in 1925 (An infinite woman, Black archives in two acts, 28 November-26 April 2027).<\/p>\n

The centrepiece exhibition, A truly immense journey\u00a0(28 November-10 January 2028), will feature over 350 works from the Centre Pompidou\u2014currently closed in Paris for a five-year refurbishment\u2014by artists such as Kader Attia, Lygia Clark, Marcel Broodthaers and Sonia Delaunay. \u201cInspired by the museum\u2019s location along the Charleroi-Brussels canal\u2014a historical conduit of trade, exchange and migration\u2014[the show] unfolds in three movements,\u201d says a statement.<\/p>\n

Beginnings and budgets<\/p>\n

The Brussels-Capital Region, the executive body overseeing 19 municipalities including the capital, acquired the 40,000 sq. m Art Deco-style Citro\u00ebn building in October 2015. The former garage has since been transformed by a team comprising noAarchitecten (Brussels), EM2N (Zurich) and Sergison Bates architects (London) working under the umbrella organisation Atelier Kanal.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Collectors and curators in Brussels have been increasingly vocal in recent years about the need for a major museum of contemporary art in the capital. Their wishes were granted in 2017 when a partnership agreement was signed between the Brussel-Capital Region, the Kanal Foundation and the Centre Pompidou.<\/p>\n

Under the deal, Kanal pays the Centre Pompidou \u20ac2m annually until 2031. Yves Goldstein, the managing director of Kanal, tells The Art Newspaper: \u201cThe idea [behind the partnership] is that it would never be forever structurally. We will assess it by 2029 or 2030 and think about what we\u2019ll do afterwards.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Yves Goldstein, managing director of Kanal \u00a9 Veerle Vercauteren<\/p>\n

Asked about admission charges,\u00a0Goldstein says: \u201cThe gravity centre of the museum will be the free public spaces [including a library and reading room]. Ten shows will be ticketed across 14 spaces\u2026 we are still working on prices but there will be one ticket for everything. There will be a Brussels abonnement [subscription] for the first six months which will make it very cheap [for Brussels residents]. One of our policies is to make it accessible for young people.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the meantime, Kanal is building its own collection which according to its website is \u201crooted in Brussels\u201d. Since 2018, Brussels-Capital Region has provided \u20ac250,000 annually for its acquisition budget, enabling Kanal to acquire works by international artists such as Francis Al\u00ffs and Belgian figures including Jacqueline Mesmaeker and Walter Swennen.<\/p>\n

Political deadlock<\/p>\n

A Kanal spokesperson says that\u00a0the total construction budget is expected to amount to \u20ac230m and the development is exclusively funded by\u00a0the Brussels-Capital Region. Last year however The Guardian<\/a>\u00a0reported that Kanal was at risk of a funding cut from the Brussels-Capital Region which has been in political paralysis since elections in June 2024 when it failed to form a new government. One of the six parties involved, the centrist party Les Engag\u00e9s,\u00a0said that \u20ac1bn in savings is required across all \u201cdepartments and projects\u201d.<\/p>\n

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Drone image of Kanal Image: Atelier Kanal<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for Les Engag\u00e9s tells The Art Newspaper: \u201cBrussels is an important centre for contemporary art, and Kanal plays a key role in placing the city on the international cultural map. We are therefore rethinking the [Kanal] project to ensure it becomes a museum of international standing, even within a tighter budgetary framework.”<\/p>\n

Goldstein says: \u201cIt will be resolved. Everything is on the table. Brussels is very complex… They [Brussels-Capital Region] will decide at one minute to midnight and we will have our money to finish the building and we will have the money to finance the content.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

In a statement, he adds that the new institution is \u201ceverything and nothing at the same time\u2026 Nothing, if the public authorities do not allow the development of the creative space which should be protected against the stifling pressures of the marketplace and the breakneck tempo of the media. Everything because art is the most exceptional force of emancipation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Goldstein meanwhile has high hopes that Kanal will boost the Belgian capital, putting it on a par with other art destinations. \u201cBrussels is incredibly central\u2014only one hour and 20 minutes to Paris, 50 minutes from Rotterdam. The arts ecosystem here is huge. And Kanal is a win, win, win, win, win project,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The long-awaited Kanal-Centre Pompidou gallery of modern and contemporary art in Brussels\u2014a vast new art hub rivalling other…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":258433,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[442,498,499,500,23299,7900,501,156,148713,8793,12603,111,139,69,47902],"class_list":{"0":"post-258432","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-artsanddesign","11":"tag-artsdesign","12":"tag-belgium","13":"tag-centre-pompidou","14":"tag-design","15":"tag-entertainment","16":"tag-kanal-centre-pompidou","17":"tag-museums","18":"tag-museums-heritage","19":"tag-new-zealand","20":"tag-newzealand","21":"tag-nz","22":"tag-openings"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258432","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=258432"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258432\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/258433"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=258432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=258432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=258432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}