On a Thursday in April 2025, I visited both FOMU, Antwerp‘s photography museum, and M HKA, the museum of contemporary art in Antwerp. They’re situated in the same neighbourhood, at the Zuidpark. And with my museumPASSmusée, it’s ‘free’. Or better: included.

After my visit to FOMU, I walked to the Museum voor Hedendaagse Kunst Antwerpen. M HKA. I hadn’t visited in a while. Currently, these are the exhibitions.

Bruno Zhu: ‘Out’, until 11 May 2025

Bruno Zhu’s commission for In Situ takes the form of an imposing system of revolving walls using the exhibition space’s central pillars as an axis. Operating like two engaged, interlocking gears, the artist’s site-responsive passageway disrupts the open space, forcefully creating two separate zones. 

Polarised yet permeable, the two zones are intermittently connected since the central mechanism is designed to be pushed. What initially appears to be a severe division of space is instead a rousing call to challenge it.

‘Out‘ marks a significant development in the artist’s study of the politics of display, having previously proposed an exhibition design under a licencing agreement in response to a commissioning program and styled another institution as a cladded velvet jewellery box in which artworks were placed. 

Zhu’s In Situ commission choreographs the experience of seeing art, privileging art direction as a medium over art production in a practice that already spans fashion design, publishing, and scenography. 

‘Out’’s explicit confrontational quality is deceiving in its stubborn simplicity. Rather than upholding a binary worldview, it is an invitation to push through walls to seek potential states of emergence. Movement invites negotiation, which in turn encourages exchange and transformation.

Bruno Zhu lives and works between Portugal and the Netherlands. His practice employs methods that cut, stitch, and write against normative modes of knowledge production and social reproduction. 

Recent projects include exhibitions at Chisenhale Gallery in London, Para Site in Hong Kong, Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, Veronica in Seattle, Kunsthalle Zurich in Zurich, What Pipeline in Detroit, and Haus der Kulturen der Welt in Berlin. Zhu is a member of A Maior, a curatorial program set in the eponymous home furnishings and clothing store in Viseu, Portugal.

This exhibition is part of Muhka’s In Situ program, which invests in the contemporary art scene. Artists from around the world are invited to create new works in the museum’s most unconventional space. With experimentation at its core, the program offers artists the opportunity to push the boundaries of their practice with the museum’s support. In Situ highlights the pioneering spirit of both emerging and established talents.

Panamarenko: ‘Journey to the Stars’, until 7 September 2025

“Sculptors and scholars, who knows anything about the stars? Who can commune with the universe? These words introduce Panamarenko’s very first collage from 1964, constructed using text and image fragments from scientific American journals. 

This very question will run as a common thread through the artist’s oeuvre for the next forty years. From the 1970s onward, Panamarenko developed theoretical models for ‘closed systems,’ conducted empirical research on (electro)magnetism, constructed various spacecraft, and, by the early 1990s, formulated his comprehensive space theory, ‘Toymodel of Space‘.

The intimate presentation ‘Journey to the Stars‘ delves into Panamarenko’s fascination with the cosmos and his quest to navigate the universe. For the first time, large works such as ‘Bing of the Ferro Lusto‘, ‘Flying Cigar Called Flying Tiger‘, and ‘De Grote Plumbiet‘ are displayed together, complemented by prototypes, drawings, calculations, sketches, sources of inspiration, and photographs from the archive as well as his former home and studio on Biekorfstraat. 

This exhibition reveals the artist’s thought process and boundless imagination. Blending artistic insight with technological experimentation, and humour with seriousness, Panamarenko invites us into his poetic universe.

Panamarenko: “I always enjoyed being occupied with that [ufology]. When I read those books, all the brain-sparks started firing. I began fantasising about how these flying saucers could work. Because if they didn’t exist, then they had to be invented, I thought.”

This exhibition is part of the celebratory year Panamarenko85, an initiative of the Panamarenko Foundation in collaboration with M HKA, KSMKA, S.M.A.K., Port of Antwerp-Bruges, and the Scharpoord Cultural Center in Knokke-Heist.

‘The Situation is Fluid’, until 3 January 2027

In 2017, M HKA reopened after an extensive renovation, showcasing a permanent collection presentation featuring reference artists, contemporary icons, historical pioneers, and key figures from the museum’s global collection. 

The collection is ever-evolving, reflecting the dynamic times we live in. In 2025, M HKA presents a renewed, focused collection showcasing approximately 30 key works by Flemish artists. 

Among them are figures who have lived and worked in the region—such as Marcel Broodthaers, Panamarenko, Luc Tuymans, Anne-Mie Van Kerckhoven, Otobong Nkanga, and Laure Prouvost—alongside artists with ties to Flanders, including Marlene Dumas, Jimmie Durham, Gordon Matta-Clark, and Nicola L. They are presented in dialogue with international artists from the Collection of the Flemish Community, including Cady Noland, Barbara Kruger, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Taus Makhacheva, and Hüseyin Bahri Alptekin. 

The collection presentation takes the postwar avant-garde in Antwerp as its starting point, using the past as a platform to explore the multipolar realities of both today and the future, structured around the three key angles of the collection: image, action, and society.

The permanent collection presentation features work by Marina Abramović, Chantal Akerman, Hüseyin Bahri Alptekin, Marcel Broodthaers, David Claerbout, Lili Dujourie, Marlene Dumas, Jimmie Durham, Andrea Fraser, Anna-Bella Geiger, Craigie Horsfield, Ilya & Emilia Kabakov, Nikita Kadan, Barbara Kruger, Nicola L., Taus Makhacheva, Gordon Matta-Clark, Cady Noland, Otobong Nkanga, Panamarenko, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Laure Prouvost, Ayman Ramadam, Chris Reinecke, Oksana Shachko, Nancy Spero, Walter Swennen, Luc Tuymans and Anne-Mie Van Kerckhoven.

Freely accessible collection wing

The permanent collection presentation is housed in the museum’s collection wing, which is freely accessible. To stay attuned to developments in contemporary art, respond to current events, and showcase recent acquisitions, an accompanying programme of rotating collection presentations is hosted in two adjacent galleries alongside the permanent collection. 

Additionally, the collection extends into the reading room, which is also freely accessible. Here, visitors can discover works by Koen van den Broek, Marlow Moss, Luc Deleu, Els Dietvorst, and Jacqueline Mesmaeker, among others. Finally, some artworks are inseparably connected to the museum building itself, including pieces by Robert Filliou, Hugo Duchateau, Keith Haring, James Turrell, Christophe Terlinden, Enrico David, and, of course, the Panamarenko House in Seefhoek.

About the M HKA collection

The M HKA collection comprises approximately 8,000 works. Its core is formed by acquisitions made by the museum itself, and works purchased by the Flemish Community and the city of Antwerp. 

Supplementing this are donations and additional public collections that the M HKA manages, such as the collection of De Vleeshal in Middelburg. The collection narrative begins with the postwar avant-garde in Antwerp and Flanders, and uses this past as a foundation to explore the multipolar realities of both today and the future. The M HKA collection evolves around three key perspectives on art: image, action, and society.

While no work fits exclusively within any of these categories, they provide valuable perspectives for exploring the uniqueness and interconnectedness of our collection. Image, action, and society serve as three axes that collectively define the space of a work: every performative artwork possesses an image quality, viewing is itself an action, and every artwork engages with society. As such, this division is primarily intended to encourage the audience to engage with the works and discover new connections.

‘Today’s Place’, until 11 May 2025

In 1977, young artists Jan Janssen and Rudolf Verbesselt squatted in an empty building on Coppenolstraat in Antwerp to use it as a studio and living space. At the initiative of Tordoir, they founded Today’s Place, and the building quickly evolved into an experimental space for exhibitions, a nightclub, and various artistic events. In addition, Today’s Place served as a base for actions both in Antwerp and beyond.

‘Today’s Place‘ forges connections with still-legendary collectives such as Reindeer Werk (Thom Puckey and Dirk Larsen), Coum Transmissions (Cosey Fanni Tutti and Genesis P-Orridge) from London, and CEAC from Toronto. It also organises performances by Ken McMullen and Bruna Hautman, among others, as well as concerts by The Kids and Stalag 6.

Both Today’s Place‘s audience and approach are radically multidisciplinary: punk, art, fashion, performance, and music converge in a shared escape from institutional frameworks. 

The combination of youthful energy and resistance results in powerful and engaging projects, involving designers such as Walter Van Beirendonck. However, the explosive energy also creates tensions with the neighbourhood, and in 1978, Today’s Place is closed down following a police raid.

The archive presentation at M HKA offers, for the first time, an overview of Today’s Place‘s most significant projects—videos of performances and photos of exhibitions—complemented by historical printed matter, magazines, and posters.

This project was created in close collaboration with the artist Narcisse Tordoir.

Hugo Roelandt: ‘The End is a New Beginning’, until 1 June 2025

Hugo Roelandt (Aalst 1950 – Antwerp 2015) was a versatile artist, at various times a performer, installation artist and photographer, who from the mid-1970s was a significant figure of the post-war avant-garde in Antwerp. Roelandt did not confine himself to a single artistic genre or style. His performances, photographic series and interventions in public space were characterised by their diverse and sometimes contradictory nature.

Throughout his career, Roelandt sought to deconstruct traditional notions of art. He believed that art should reflect the complexities of contemporary life and societal issues rather than adhere to aesthetic orthodoxy. Key themes in his practice included body image and gender norms, automation, and the bourgeois nature of the artistic field.

‘The End is a New Beginning‘ is Hugo Roelandt’s first museum overview exhibition, and will mark ten years since his passing. M HKA and CKV (Flanders Art Archive Centre) received the complete archive of Hugo Roelandt, which includes key artworks, and an array of material including documentation, notes, sketches, information on unrealised projects, as well as his personal library that served as an educational resource.

The exhibition is organised by M HKA in collaboration with Marc Holthof and Lydia Van Loock.

More Roelandt

For those of you who would like to delve deeper, you can visit the online platform hugoroelandt.be where you will find a wealth of information about Hugo Roelandt, his work and the archive in M ​​HKA.

Hugo Roelandt’s work ‘The Shape of Water‘ will also be presented at the Fundació Joan Miró in June 2025, where it was originally installed by the artist in 1986. This collaboration between M HKA and Fundació Joan Miró as part of the 50th anniversary programme of the Fundació Joan Miró.

Additionally, M HKA will host a presentation by the recipient of the Hugo Roelandt Prize 2024, Sean Peleman, as part of the INBOX programme in May 2025.

A visit

I think I missed out on ‘Out’. I only saw an almost empty room, and a guard. Maybe I must return to try and understand it. 

I was very happy with the Hugo Roelandt exhibition as it showed male nudity. Still something comparatively rare in art. Female nudity is much more common.

Art and museums in Antwerp

• ANTWERP | ‘Panamarenko. Infinite Imagination’ exhibition until 4 May 2025 at KMSKA.
• ANTWERP | ‘Compassion’ in the MAS: the many faces of compassion.
• 2025 at the museums of Antwerp.
• 2025 at Royal Museum of Fine Arts of Antwerp (KMSKA): René Magritte, Marthe Donas, Panamarenko, Hans Op de Beeck.
• ANTWERP | Graphics Museum De Reede ft. Francisco Goya, Edvard Munch, Félicien Rops and Albrecht Dürer.
• ANTWERP | Rubens Experience and Rubens Garden at Rubenshuis.
• Antwerp will have a new Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp M HKA.
• ANTWERP | Innovations in the Middelheim Museum provide a completely new visitor experience.
• A visit of the Flemish Tram and Bus Museum – Vlaams Tram- en Autobusmuseum (VlaTAM) in Antwerp.
• ANTWERP | Discovering queer(ed) art with the Queer Tour at the KMSKA fine arts museum.
• REVIEW | Illusion Antwerpen, an active and photogenic museum.
• Antwerp museums and sports facilities team up with European Disability Card for accessible leisure activities.
• Museum Mayer van den Bergh.
• ANTWERP | Inside Rubens House.
• Museum Plantin-Moretus in Antwerp.
• ANTWERP | Museum Vleeshuis up for restoration.
• BOOK | ‘Antwerp. An Archaeological View on the Origin of the City’ by Tim Bellens.
• Red Star Line Museum.
• Paleis op de Meir. 
• DIVA, Antwerp Home of Diamonds.
• ANTWERP | Red Star Line Museum of (e)migration.