After the cancellation of the new building project last Friday, the Muhka-team has been dealt a second heavy setback.
The Flemish Government has decided that Muhka will lose its status as a museum and be transformed into an international art centre by 2028. The museum function for contemporary art in Flanders will be transferred to S.M.A.K. in Ghent.
Muhka deeply regrets this decision, which affects not only the institution’s operations but also the wider cultural ecosystem in Antwerp and across Flanders. For years, the museum has been developing a collection vision that is both locally rooted and internationally connected. Since its foundation, Muhka has played a pioneering role in contemporary art in Flanders and has been a vibrant place where art, artists, and audiences meet.
On Tuesday, Herman De Bode, the chairman of the board of directors of the M HKA in Antwerp, resigned. Herman De Bode motivates his resignation to De Standaard (newspaper) :"The decision taken by the Flemish government to behead the M HKA, at the suggestion of the Minister of Culture, is too crazy for words. This happened without any participation from anyone on our side. I think that's criminal. I have no other words for it.”
According to Herman de Bode, the decision is "stripped of some insight how a museum of contemporary art works. You can’t just move the museum’s collection."
"Our collection does not have a clear owner, but legally has several owners," said De Bode. "And the uniqueness of the M HKA in Antwerp is of course tied to our history. You can relocate some works of art, but you don’t really move anything with that. You cannot export the avant-garde to Ghent. It's Antwerp."
De Bode: “The museum has been around for 40 years. I think there is no example in Europe where a museum is suddenly reduced to an "art hall". I don't work with fools and incompetent people. This is such an insult to everyone who has been involved with the M HKA in the last 40 years. I do not understand that this was ever approved within the Flemish government."
International renowned artist Luc Tuymans reacted in the Belgian press: "I am angry. We must not forget that the M HKA was the very first museum of contemporary art in Belgium. The whole neighborhood was also built around it. This is a real loss of face for an important city like Antwerp."
The artist also questions what will happen to the collection. "Why does the collection have to get out of there? I suspect that my work and that of, for example, Panamarenko will go to the KMSKA, the rest probably to the S.M.A.K. A restructuring is not necessarily bad, but with so little prior knowledge and so drastic, that is irresponsible."
The M HKA has been important to Tuymans. "At the opening of the museum, I had an exhibition running around the corner. All the people who visited the M HKA passed by to see my works afterwards"
THE PETITION: