Kanal-Centre Pompidou will open its doors in Brussels on Saturday 28 November 2026, launching its new museum with a free, 36-hour inaugural weekend and ten exhibitions spanning modern and contemporary art, architecture, collections and site-specific installations.
The museum will open at 10:00 on 28 November and remain open continuously until 22:00 on Sunday 29 November. While visitors will need to reserve a time slot to see the ten opening exhibitions, the rest of the building will be freely accessible without tickets or reservations. The programme will include live performances, opening ceremonies, concerts, DJ sets, films, installations and workshops for children and families.
A new museum for Brussels
The opening marks a significant new chapter for Brussels, which has long had a vibrant contemporary art scene but lacked a dedicated museum of modern and contemporary art. Kanal has been conceived not simply as a conventional museum, but as an institution combining exhibitions and collections with live artistic practices, participatory projects, new artistic production and a broader societal mission.
A partnership with Centre Pompidou
Central to the programme is Kanal’s partnership with the Centre Pompidou in Paris, giving the Brussels institution sustained access to one of the world’s major collections of modern and contemporary art. The first major exhibition resulting from the partnership is ‘A truly immense journey’, which occupies more than 2,000 m² across three floors and brings numerous works from the Paris collection to Brussels for the first time.
The collaboration will continue over the coming five years with exhibitions devoted to photography, including Robert Frank and Brassaï, as well as major modernist figures such as Robert and Sonia Delaunay, Braque, and Picasso, and Matisse.
Architecture and the right to the city
Kanal Architecture, formerly CIVA, will inaugurate its programme with ‘Right to the City – Right to the Future‘, examining the transformation of Brussels’ Quartier Nord through the institution’s historical collections.
Art throughout the building
The opening programme also extends beyond the ticketed exhibition spaces. Antwerp-based artist Otobong Nkanga will present an installation featuring looms designed to encourage encounters and co-creation. In the museum’s showroom, Banu Cennetoğlu will present ‘right?‘, a monumental work bringing together the articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as bunches of gold-coloured letter balloons.
‘An infinite woman‘ explores the history of the image of a Mangbetu woman that became a viral colonial symbol, and how artists of African descent have reappropriated and challenged that imagery.
Belgian and Brussels-based artists
Belgian artists and artists working in Brussels feature prominently throughout the programme. Joëlle Tuerlinckx will present an immersive sound composition in the Lower Room, while Manon de Boer invites visitors into ‘Blindsight‘, a sensory work combining music, dance and film.
Multimedia artist Joshua Serafin will present the film installation ‘Whispering pleas of the eternal echoes‘, accompanied by performances and centred on choreography and themes of queerness.
The exhibition ‘NO SHOW‘ brings together Deborah Bowmann, Maoupa Mazzocchetti and 20 Brussels-based artists in an irreverent exploration of whether a museum can still entertain. Meanwhile, curator Clémentine Deliss will present ‘Département des Pièges‘, drawing on rarely exhibited objects and paintings from 11 Brussels museums, all conceived as traps or ‘pièges’.
5,000 children get an early look
The opening will also begin before the general public arrives. On Wednesday 25 November, nearly 5,000 children from 27 schools in Brussels neighbourhoods that have worked with Kanal over several years will be among the first visitors to the new museum.
Later that day, Kanal’s neighbours and dozens of local organisations and collectives will be invited to discover the building and exhibitions.