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Protocols for opening the museum

Film Programme

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Film crew recording an industrial building with colourful structural elements.
© Roberto Rossellini, shoot of the Centre Georges Pompidou 1977. Courtesy Fondation Genesium, Jacques Grandclaude. © d.r.
© Roberto Rossellini, shoot of the Centre Georges Pompidou 1977. Courtesy Fondation Genesium, Jacques Grandclaude. © d.r.

The opening of a new museum is a once-in-a-generation event, marked by ritual, ceremony and protocol. It celebrates what has been achieved while anticipating what lies ahead. Yet museum openings are also exercises in power, serving national pride and cultural, political and urban ambitions. What can be learned by examining them more closely? 

As part of
Protocols for opening the museum
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Type
Film
Location

Box 2

Languages
EN
Noise level
Level 2 ≤ 95 db
This programme brings together documentaries, artist films, archival footage and television reports tracing the creation and opening of large-scale institutions, including the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris in 1977, S.M.A.K. in Ghent in 1999 and Tate Modern in London in 2000. 

Across three thematic loops, the programme follows museums from conception and construction to public inauguration. Shown over the weeks surrounding Kanal's opening, the films consider how art institutions introduce themselves through narratives of change, possibility and promise – and how artists have at times responded to them. 

This programme forms part of How to open, the first year of Protocols for opening the museum, a three-year inquiry into what it means for a new museum in Brussels to be truly open, welcoming and public.

Saturday 28.11.2026, 11:00–18:00 
Sunday 29.11.2026, 11:00–18:00 
Wednesday 02.12.2026, 11:00–18:00 
Thursday 03.12.2026, 11:00–18:00 
Friday 04.12.2026, 11:00–18:00 
Wednesday 09.12.2026, 11:00–18:00  

The first loop brings together films documenting museum openings and capturing the ceremonies, rituals, and public and private events that mark these occasions. Alongside selected fragments of archival footage revealing how institutions have staged and remembered their inaugurations, the programme includes two feature-length works: Roberto Rossellini’s commissioned film on the opening of the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris in 1977, which was the director’s final film, and the BBC’s complete live broadcast of the opening of Tate Modern in London in 2000. 

List of films: 

  • Los Angeles County Museum of Art dedication / a production of the Special Events Department of KHJ-TV (fragment), United States, 1965, B&W, sound, OV EN, ST FR/NL, 3 min 55 sec 
  • Opening of the Van Abbemuseum in 1936, Netherlands, 1936, B&W, 3 min 5 sec 
  • MACBA (fragment), Spain, 1995, B&W, OV ES, 3 min 
  • Roberto Rossellini, Beaubourg, centre d'art et de culture Georges Pompidou, France, 1977, colour, 35 mm, OV FR, 57 min 
  • Ei Arakawa-Nash, Grand Openings, with Jutta Koether, Emily Sundblad, Jay Sanders and Stefan Tcherepnin, mumok, Vienna, 2008, colour, OV, DE/EN, 14 min 58 sec  
  • Los Angeles County Museum of Art dedication / a production of the Special Events Department of KHJ-TV (fragment), United States, 1965, B&W, sound, OV EN, 10 min 40 sec 
  • Lithuanian National Museum of Art (fragments), Lithuania, colour, OV LT/DE, 3 min 
  • BBC Live Broadcast of the Tate Modern Opening, United Kingdom, 2000, colour, video, sound, OV EN, 60 min

Saturday 12.12.2026, 11:00–18:00
Sunday 13.12.2026, 11:00–18:00
Wednesday 16.12.2026, 11:00–18:00
Thursday 17.12.2026, 11:00–18:00
Friday 18.12.2026, 11:00–18:00
Saturday 19.12.2026, 11:00–18:00
Sunday 20.12.2026, 11:00–18:00

"I expect you to rest here in the museum when you are tired." – Jan Hoet

The lead-up to the opening of a new cultural institution is marked by years of labour, anticipation and scrutiny. This film loop explores the many forces that come together to bring it into being, from the charismatic figure of the director to architects, funders and the entrepreneurial figures shaping a city's cultural ambitions. The selection includes Julien Vandevelde's film following Jan Hoet through the intense and unpredictable weeks before S.M.A.K. opened in Ghent in 1999. Hoet's words to the museum staff are both a caring statement and a warning. This complex mix of passion, dedication and demands recurs in behind-the-scenes films from WIELS in Brussels and the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis.

List of films:

  • Beat Kuert, Tate Modern (fragment), United Kingdom, Switzerland, 2000, colour, Beta SP, sound, OV EN, 4 min 48 sec
  • Julien Vandevelde, De Opening, Belgium, 1999, colour, video, sound, OV NL, 72 min
  • Ericka Beckman, Frame UP, United States, 2005, colour, dual-screen installation, DVD, sound, 8 min loop
  • Teri Wehn-Damisch and Yves Kovacs, Un outil pour demain: Centre Georges Pompidou, France, 1976, colour, sound, OV FR, 28 min
  • Sven Augustijnen, Une femme entreprenante, Belgium, 2004, colour, Digital Betacam, stereo sound, OV FR, ST EN, 72 min

Wednesday 23.12.2026, 11:00–18:00
Thursday 24.12.2026, 11:00–18:00
Saturday 26.12.2026, 11:00–18:00
Sunday 27.12.2026, 11:00–18:00
Wednesday 30.12.2026, 11:00–18:00
Thursday 31.12.2026, 11:00–18:00
Friday 01.01.2027, 11:00–18:00
Saturday 02.01.2027, 11:00–18:00
Sunday 03.01.2027, 11:00–18:00

The 1970s and 1980s saw a global boom in museum construction, as emerging ideas about the post-industrial city placed cultural institutions at the heart of urban transformation. Conceived as new civic landmarks, museums were no longer imagined solely as temples of culture and heritage but as spaces for public engagement, mass appeal and experience. This shift also introduced new models of museum-making and cultural work, increasingly intertwined with tourism, branding and corporate interests. 

This film loop explores the changing urban and cultural landscapes shaped by museum creation, from Nancy Kelly's deeply personal documentary Downside UP, which follows her family's experience of the development of MASS MoCA in Massachusetts, to Andrea Fraser's sardonic attempt to experience the contemporary museum entirely through its mediated offerings.

List of films:

  • Buildings and Crowd – Guggenheim Museum (New York), United States, 1959, colour, silent, 5 min
  • Jef Cornelis, Ouverture. Castello di Rivoli, 1985, Italy, Belgium, 1985, colour, 1-inch C-format video, sound, OV NL, 30 min 30 sec
  • Andrea Fraser, Little Frank and His Carp, Spain, United States, 2001, colour, single-channel video, sound, OV EN, 6 min
  • Gordon Matta-Clark, Conical Intersect, France, United States, 1975, colour, 16 mm transferred to video, silent, 18 min 40 sec
  • Nancy Kelly, Downside UP, United States, 2002, colour, video, stereo sound, OV EN, 56 min

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