Latest news

• Letter to Minister of Culture Caroline Gennez

  29 October 2025 - 5:15 pm – Mission

  On October 27, 2025, we sent a letter as Save the Museum | Museum at Risk to Caroline Gennez, Flemish Minister of Culture. Today, we are publishing the letter publicly.

  In it, we express our deep concern about the plans to strip the M HKA of its museum status, as proposed in the concept note on the reform of museum institutions. We emphasize our four core principles and urgently call for the suspension of point 5.2.4 in the concept note. After all, knowledge is not found only among top experts, but also among practitioners in the field.

  We call for dialogue in line with the 25-year tradition of constructive cooperation between the arts sector and government, and propose to work with the minister to establish a transition project. Given the urgency, we request a meeting at the earliest opportunity.

  Read the full mission here

• Support M HKA: What's the relation between a collection and a museum?

  29 October 2025 – Statement of Support

  Source: CIMAM Museum Watch

  CIMAM is launching a global advocacy campaign in support of the Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp (M HKA), addressing the critical political decisions that threaten to remove its collection and downgrade the institution to a Kunsthalle.

  CIMAM calls on its Members to raise their voices in defense of museum collections and share their views by responding to two key questions.

  1. Why are collections integral to a museum’s identity, integrity, and public mission, and how do they anchor its relationship with communities and place?
  2. What are the ethical and governance risks when political authorities seek to reallocate or remove a museum’s collection?
  Read the full statement of support here

• Co-curators of Laboratorium (Antwerp, 1999) react with shock to Bruno Verbergt (Mu.ZEE) supporting M HKA’s dismantling

  27 October 2025 – Open letter

  Today, we publish an open letter from Hans Ulrich Obrist (Artistic Director, Serpentine Galleries, London) and Barbara Vanderlinden to Bruno Verbergt (Director of Mu.ZEE, Permekemuseum, and Pierremuzee), with a copy to Minister Caroline Gennez.

  Obrist and Vanderlinden, who co-organized the groundbreaking project Laboratorium (1999) in Antwerp alongside Verbergt, express their deep concern over his support for plans to dismantle the M HKA and relocate its collection to SMAK (Ghent). In their letter, they also highlight the fate of the Laboratorium archive, currently preserved at ZKM Karlsruhe, which was always intended to find its future home at the M HKA. The museum’s dismantling would make this promise to the city impossible to fulfill.

  The curators urgently call on Verbergt to reconsider his support for the reform and to defend the M HKA as an essential institution for contemporary art and cultural memory.

  Read the full open letter here

• Artist Emilia Kabakov Opposes Dismantling of M HKA

  26 October 2025 - 7:20 am – Open letter

  Today, we publish an open letter from renowned artist Emilia Kabakov, addressed to Caroline Gennez, Flemish Minister of Culture. In the letter, Kabakov objects to the plans to strip M HKA of its museum status and transfer its collection to SMAK in Ghent.

  In the letter, Kabakov states that she does not consent to the transfer of her works—including the installation "August 20th, 1968"—from M HKA to SMAK. She bases this decision on previous experiences with SMAK, where two of her installations ("The Toilet" and "Too Much Art") disappeared without explanation. Kabakov has already requested SMAK to remove all references to "The Toilet" from their website, as the work is no longer part of their collection. Should the dismantling of M HKA proceed as announced, she kindly but urgently requests the minister to return "August 20th, 1968" to her, so she can donate the work to another institution.

  Read the full open letter here

• Artists speak out

  24 October 2025 – Press release

  During the weekend of October 25 and 26, 2025, a 24-hour manifestation will take place in the entrance hall of M HKA, featuring more than 120 performances, lectures, concerts, and other contributions from people across the cultural field. With this action, we aim to bring together the art community from all over the country and make our voices heard.

  Read the full press release here