KANAL-Centre Pompidou!
“KANAL-Centre Pompidou was born out of the conviction that art and culture are fundamental to make people come together in a society which is more and more divided. It is the willingness to create a place where everyone will feel at home.” Yves Goldstein
A future cultural hub
The ambition of KANAL-Centre Pompidou is to offer a centre of culture and exchange open to all, to put the creative scene of Brussels in the limelight, and to contribute to the capital’s cultural appeal.
Driven by the Brussels-Capital Region, this ambitious project seeks to provide Brussels with a cultural hub favourable to the aura of the capital of Europe. In the context of a ten-year partnership with the Centre Pompidou, the future KANAL-Centre Pompidou will not only house a museum of modern and contemporary art, but also the rich collections of architecture and urbanism of the CIVA Foundation. It will also accommodate many public spaces with a range of functions, including several stages for the performing arts.
September 2020 - APRIL 2021
After KANAL Brut (2018-2019), "It never ends" will take up residency in the Showroom of the former Citroën Garage from September 24th 2020 to April 25th 2021, while we will continue the renovations in the rest of the building.
"It never ends" is an invitation, a carte blanche and a challenge to John Armleder, one of the most outstanding European artists of his generation. He will invest the 6 levels of the KANAL Showroom for 7 months.
With John Armleder, KANAL-Centre Pompidou will create a public space open on the first two floors of the Showroom with, among other things, a public and free library, a bar-lounge, a co-working space, workshop spaces for the neighbourhood, schools, associations... and spaces dedicated to music and performance.
John Armleder will invest the next four levels of the Showroom in a multidisciplinary and "multi-artistic" dynamic that undermines his own creations and his mission as a "passeur" through the presentation of works and performances by other contemporary artists, which will also take place in installations created by John Armleder.
John Armleder's choice is fundamental for KANAL-Centre Pompidou, which, beyond the classical vision of the museum of the 19th and 20th centuries, strives to propose a new vision which focuses on the role of a museum as a creative platform. During "It never ends" and in total complicity with John Armleder, KANAL-Centre Pompidou will continue its co-construction work with the Brussels cultural scene, with initiatives from those who make Brussels one of the most dynamic European cities on the level of culture and art.
More specifically, KANAL-Centre Pompidou will further deepen the road created during KANAL Brut by developing a musical and performance programme focused on the discovery of young Brussels talent.
With "It never ends", KANAL-Centre Pompidou wishes to experiment this new form of "collaborative" museum whose identity is built by those who create, play, perform and live it to put forward new artistic forms of expression. We want to continue this tireless work of building a museum for all, a house open to multiple and diverse type of art forms and artistic formats.
BUILDING UP A COLLECTION OF CONTEMPORARY ART
Brussels is without a doubt a creative centre for many artists: the KANAL Foundation, with an eye on the establishment of its museum of modern and contemporary art, intends to pay particular attention to this artistic scene.
In order to popularize the various forms of artistic creation that are being developed in the city, the KANAL Foundation has made it a point of honour to support Brussels-based artists. As a result, this year already, it has invited a dozen artists, selected by a jury, to present new work. This policy of commissions marks the start of the future museum’s collection. These works will be exhibited alongside those stemming from the collections of the Centre Pompidou. Each year, new pieces will be added to a collection that is specific to the institution.