Illusion Antwerpen opened just a week ago. After seeing a report on Antwerp‘s regional television ATV, I decided to go and have a look. It helps I live really nearby.

Located in an incongruous house at Frankrijklei 18 – across Antwerp Opera House – Illusion Antwerp is a small museum playing with your eyes and other senses. 

“Illusion Antwerpen is an interactive museum of wonderment. With exhibits that will challenge your senses, bewilder your mind or just feel like pure magic, one thing is for sure: you will hardly believe your eyes when you experience them for yourself. Unlike other museums, at Illusion Antwerpen you can immerse yourself into each element through touch, testing and even taking photos and videos that defy your sense of reality, allowing you to take a piece of the experience home with you”, the website says.

“Are you looking for a new fun activity with your friends, an original idea for a date, or entertainment for your kids on weekend? Or are you discovering the city of Antwerp for the first time? It has something to offer for every visitor! Illusion Antwerpen is happy to welcome you all week and all year long!”

Underneath this marketing talk, there’s a fair assessment of the offer. 

Active

The numerous displays trick your brain into (not) believing what you see. You must actively observe or touch items. One displays needs to be done with your phone camera, so be sure to have enough life from your battery.

Also, stickers on the floor indicate the best position to take photos. 

A solo visit

I visited yesterday morning. Alone and I was the sole visitor present. That’s a bit awkward, like being the sole customer in a restaurant. But the attendant actively and kindly offered to take pictures of me. How sweet. 

Illusion Antwerpen advertises a visit advertises a visit takes about an hour, and I agree. But I recommend doing it with a friend or family. That will be much more fun.

So?

Illusion Antwerpen will not teach you anything about Antwerp. But it’s a low-brow activity which can spark conversation. And yes, I see it work as a venue for a (first) date. It gives something to do and to talk about. 

The museum offers explanations in Dutch, English and French.

Art and museums in Antwerp

• Antwerp museums and sports facilities team up with European Disability Card for accessible leisure activities.
• FOMU 2023 | Reimagined collection, strippers – Nicaragua – Kurdistan and people touching each other.
• ANTWERP 2023 | MoMu fashion museum presents IO Van Oostveldt and Man Ray exhibitions.
• ANTWERP | Rubens House closed for renovation.
• Inside the KMSKA or Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp.
• VIDEO | Inside the Royal Museum of Fine Arts of Antwerp.
• Museum Mayer van den Bergh.
• ANTWERP | ‘Stories of Refuge’ exhibition at Red Star Line Museum.
• 2023 at the museums of Antwerp.
• 2022 in the museums of Antwerp.
• ANTWERP | ‘Stories of refuge’ exhibition at Red Star Line Museum.
• ANTWERP | Inside Rubens House.
• ANTWERP | Garden of renovated Rubens House to be open air exhibition space.
• ModeMuseum MoMu – Fashion Museum Antwerp 2021.
• ModeMuseum MoMu – Fashion Museum Antwerp 2022.
• ‘Freight’ and ‘Listen’ exhibitions at MAS in Antwerp.
• ‘Masculinities: Liberation through Photography’ exhibition at FOMU, Antwerp’s photography museum.
• ANTWERP | Goshka Macuga’s ‘Figures of Absence’ honours underrepresented women in public domain art.
• Museum Plantin-Moretus in Antwerp.
• ‘Eurasia – A Landscape of Mutability’ exhibition at Antwerp’s M HKA modern arts museum.
• ANTWERP | Geert De Weyer Gallery, a space for illustrators’ and comic strip authors’ art.
• ‘Congoville’: contemporary artists walk colonial paths at Middelheim Museum in Antwerp.
• Antwerp’s Letterenhuis ft. Paul van Ostaijen exhibition.
• ModeMuseum MoMu – Fashion Museum Antwerp reopens on 4 and 5 September 2021 with ‘Fashion 2.021 Antwerp – Fashion/Conscious’.
• Museum Plantin-Moretus will exhibit long-lost illustration by Rubens: ‘Opticorum Libri Sex’.
• ‘100 X Congo’ exhibition at Museum Aan de Stroom (MAS) in Antwerp.
• ‘Cool Japan’ exhibition, Museum Aan de Stroom (MAS), Antwerp, 18 October 2019 to 19 April 2020. 
• ANTWERP | Museum Vleeshuis up for restoration.
• REVIEW | ‘Cool Japan’ exhibition at Museum Aan de Stroom (MAS) in Antwerp from 18 October 2019 to 19 April 2020. 
• BOOK | ‘Antwerp. An Archaeological View on the Origin of the City’ by Tim Bellens.
• ‘On the road’ at Museum Plantin-Moretus.
• Red Star Line Museum.
• Paleis op de Meir. 
• DIVA, Antwerp Home of Diamonds.
• ANTWERP | Red Star Line Museum of (e)migration.
• ANTWERP | Museum Mayer van den Bergh is expanding into former District Hall.
• Antwerp’s Middelheim Museum rearranges sculpture park by the end of 2023.