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Leading artists have raised their voices in protest against what they describe as an “capricious restructuring” of Belgium’s museum landscape, as the Flanders government seek to cut public spending by dismantling the operations of the nation’s oldest contemporary art gallery and relocating its complete holdings to another city.

Directors Decry ‘Blatant Violations’ in Sector Shake-up

At a Tuesday briefing in Antwerp, the directors of the city’s Museum of Contemporary Art (M HKA), established in 1985, decried what they termed the “flagrant illegalities” of the museum sector shake-up, a plan due to be debated in Belgium’s parliament this Friday.

“Antwerp represents the largest city in Flanders, with a heritage as a home of the avant-garde in Belgium,” stated Luc Tuymans, an Antwerp-based artist widely seen as Belgium’s foremost living artist.

“To degrade a cultural institution to an exhibition space is utterly irrational. You cannot simply take a collection of artworks and transplant it into another ecosystem, because such an ecosystem does not exist,” Tuymans continued.

Surprise Move Cancels €80m Project, Relocates Collection

In October, the culture minister of the Flanders region cancelled the proposed development of a new, purpose-built €80m high-rise building to house the institution, and announced plans to relocate its holdings of approximately 8,000 artworks to Ghent’s Municipal Museum of Contemporary Art (Smak). This unexpected decision will in effect deprive the Antwerp institution of its museum status.

The M HKA’s collection features pieces by globally renowned creators such as Kerry James Marshall, Anish Kapoor and Marina Abramović.

“I cannot accept that they could be removed from M HKA or potentially endangered as part of any structural reshuffling,” stated British artist Kapoor in a communication to the culture ministry.

Budget Pressures Motivate Austerity in Arts Sector

The country is confronting a budget deficit of 5.4 percent of its economic output, among the highest in the European monetary union. The cultural domain specifically is confronting significant reductions, with austerity measures also suggesting an unclear fate for the new Brussels Kanal museum.

According to the plans of Flanders’ socialist culture minister, the museum landscape would be streamlined so that art collections in the region are housed within three beacon museums for historical, modern and contemporary art.

The region boasts a plethora of modern art institutions: besides M HKA in Antwerp and Smak in Ghent, there is Musea Brugge in Bruges and Museum M in Leuven.

Auditors Questions Cost-Saving Rationale

If the proposed shake-up would actually reduce expenses has been questioned by the national audit office. In a memorandum sent to Gennez in October, it gave an unfavourable opinion on the proposals, indicating their impact on the budget would be “fragmentary”.

Although transplanting the institution’s core holdings could cut operating costs from approximately €8m to €5m, it is believed that going forward the Antwerp institution would have to spend money to loan artworks or purchase touring shows to attract visitors.

The Smak museum in Ghent, situated roughly an hour by train from the Antwerp museum, is also believed to currently not have enough space to adequately store M HKA’s collection, and would require funding to expand its storage facilities.