Artlyst gets a tour of the facilities at the Kanal-Centre Pompidou Brussels
The French Minister of Culture Françoise Nyssen inaugurated a temporary exhibition launching the Kanal-Centre Pompidou, Brussels’ museum of contemporary art. Housed in the former Citroën Yser garage in Brussels. This massive space used for the servicing of the well-known French automobile makes it a perfect match between the two countries. The space will become a ‘Cultural city’ in the making, comprising among others the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art that is in development.
Yves Goldstein Chief of mission reported KANAL Centre Pompidou welcomed 21.716 visitors during its opening weekend.
The project has big plans. During the 13 months preceding the start of the work, the public will be able to discover this iconic Art Deco building in its raw state through several art and architecture exhibitions, large installations and ten brand-new creations by Brussels-based artists. There will also be shows produced in collaboration with cultural organisations from Brussels. The bigger picture is to have the Pompidou for a ten year period to boost the project with the cache value of the French Museum’s collection and expertise and then all will be handed over to the Brussels team of organisers for future programming.
KANAL – Centre Pompidou, an ambitious project driven by the Brussels-Capital Region. It will will provide Brussels with a multidisciplinary cultural hub worthy of the capital of Europe. In the context of a ten-year partnership with the Centre Pompidou, the site measuring 35,000m will not only be home to a Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art but also to the vast collections of the CIVA Foundation relating to architecture and urban planning. The remaining space will accommodate many public areas devoted to the arts – both formal and informal, including stages for the performing arts.
During the 13 prefigurative months, and on the basis of a radically experimental approach that will transform the former Citroën Yser garage into a platform open to reflection on the stakes for the museum of the future, a multidisciplinary programme will fill the vast spaces that were recently stripped of their functions and left in their current state.
The many proposals will set out to echo the identity of the space – its unique aesthetic qualities, typical of 1930s industrial architecture, but also its human and social history, palpable in the various workshops and offices. Carried out with an eye to integrating the urban fabric and engaging in dialogue with the Brussels partners, this prefigurative year has been conceived under the supervision of Bernard Blistène, the director of the Centre Pompidou’s Musée national d’art moderne. It will enable a broad public to discover, in the same space, a wide-ranging and brand new cultural offer.
KANAL – Centre Pompidou will also propose a performing-arts programme that will follow the Brussels cultural calendar, in partnership with Kunstenfestivaldesarts, BOZAR, Performatik festival and the Beursschouwburg, Flagey, Botanique, Kaaitheater, La Raffinerie (Charleroi dance) and Ancienne Belgique, among many more.
Prefigurative year: 5 May 2018 > June 2019
Start of the work: autumn 2019
End of the work and opening of KANAL – Centre Pompidou: late 2022
Top Photo: Kanal-Centre Pompidou Brussels Yves Goldstein and Pompidou Centre Director Bernard Blistène, P C Robinson © Artlyst 2018