The_Art_Newspaper_-_November_2016

20 THE ART NEWSPAPER Number 284, November 2016

Museums Europe

TURRELL: MORTEN FAUERBY/MONTGOMERY APS. KNAUSGÅRD: SOPPAKANUUNA. POMPIDOU: EMMANUEL DUNAND/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

James Turrell

to transform

Danish

museum

The ARoS Aarhus Art Mu-

seum in eastern Denmark,

home to Olafur Eliasson’s

rainbow rooftop walkway,

is embarking on a dra-

matic $34m underground

expansion. James Turrell

is creating an immersive

light installation called

the Sphere that visitors

will pass through on their

way to a new gallery. A

second space dedicated to

performance art will be

topped by the US artist’s

Pantheon-inspired Dome,

which ofers a view of the

sky through a circular hole

in the ceiling. The 1,

sq. m expansion is funded

in part by the Dansk super-

market’s Salling Fondene

charity, which donated

$14.9m. G.H.

Pompidou Brussels

gets lacklustre

greeting from locals

Some question the need for French franchise deal

Norwegian novelist

Karl-Ove Knausgård

OPENINGS

Brussels. Local art professionals have
mixed feelings about the Centre Pom-
pidou’s plans to open a Modern and
contemporary art centre in the Belgian
capital. Advocates say that the new
facility will be Belgium’s answer to the
Museum of Modern Art in New York and
the Tate Modern in London. But some
wonder why the city—which has become
an increasingly important art destination
in recent years—feels that it must import
works from Paris when it is already home
to many strong collections of its own.
The still-unnamed institution is
expected to open in 2020 inside a con-
verted garage formerly owned by the car
maker Citroën. The Centre Pompidou
plans to loan an unspecified number of
works from its 120,000-strong collection
to the new museum.
Serge Lasvignes, the president of
the Centre Pompidou, said at a press
conference in late September that the

French institution would advise on “the

acquisition strategy for permanent col-

lections and the development of the

future museum”, as well as program-

ming. We understand that the Pompi-

dou will receive a fee for its franchise

in Belgium; under Lasvignes, the gallery

is pursuing a strategy of establishing

branded pop-ups worldwide, including

a temporary space in Seoul next year.

The government of the Brussels-

Capital region first announced plans to

convert the garage into an art institution

in 2014 but the project stalled because

the regional and federal governments

had very different visions. The federal

government plans to renovate exist-

ing state institutions, such as the Royal

Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, while

the regional government has been keen

to refurbish the Citroën building in a

more underserved area northwest of

the city centre. The Pompidou’s pro-

posal revived the regional government’s

scheme, which has been in limbo for

several years.

Amid the bureaucratic wrangling,

Brussels’s powerful community of col-

lectors has become impatient. Many say

that a major Modern art museum is long

overdue. “I will support any initiative that

will further Belgian culture, especially in

Modern and contemporary art,” says the

collector Ronald Rozenbaum.

But some say that the country should

have been able to establish a museum

on its own. “We can easily fill three

Citroën garages with Modern and con-

temporary art drawn from public and

private collections,” says the collector

Walter Vanhaerents.

Katerina Gregos, the former artistic

director of the Art Brussels fair, is scep-

tical that an international franchise is

the best solution for the city’s art scene.

“The idea to partner with Pompidou is

more about tourism, creation of jobs,

branding and city marketing rather than

stemming from a concrete artistic vision

that would make sense for the city, the

region and the country,” she says.

Others fear that the franchise could

cannibalise resources from existing

institutions. They “should not be penal-

ised by this decision”, says the collector

Benedikt Van der Vorst, who adds that

he still backs the project. A spokesman

for the Pompidou says that the €140m

Citroën scheme will be funded entirely

by the Brussels-Capital region.

Even critics of the project acknowl-

edge that it has the potential to boost

the local economy. Gregos says: “This

is not the best solution but perhaps it

could be a stepping stone to something

better for Brussels, Belgium and the

wider European context.”

Gareth Harris

OSLO

‘My Struggle’ author’s next

epic: a Munch show

Q The Norwegian

novelist Karl-Ove

Knausgård, whose

autobiographical

series “My Struggle”

became an international

sensation, is due to

organise an exhibition of

works by Edvard Munch

at the Munch Museum

in Oslo next year (May-

October 2017). The

author will select around 100 paintings, works

on paper and sculptures from the museum’s

collection, and also plans to publish a book on

Munch tied to the show. “Knausgård has studied

art history and there are several parallels

between him and Munch,” says the museum’s

curator Kari Brandtzæg. “Both use their own life

a lot in their art.” In an unconventional move,

the author has chosen mostly lesser-known

works and plans to avoid labels and wall text;

instead, the museum will hand out pamphlets

directly to visitors. The institution approached

Knausgård to organise the show after he gave a

speech on Munch in 2013. C.Bf.

Region president Rudi Vervoordt (left) and Serge Lasvignes launch Pompidou Brussels

POMPIDOU LOOKS BEYOND

THE WEST FOR NEW BIENNIAL

A branch in Brussels is not the only

new project the Centre Pompidou

has in the works. Curators at the Paris

museum will look beyond established

art centres and focus on emerging hubs

in a new biennial called Cosmopolis.

The chosen artists will create new

works in their home countries or in

Paris, which will go on show in a special

exhibition at the Beaubourg gallery by

early 2018. “Artists from Pakistan, India

and Colombia are participating,” says a

museum spokeswoman.

Brussels’s powerful

community of

collectors has become

impatient