This Spring at M HKA

Ten years after his death, M HKA pays tribute to Hugo Roelandt with a first museum retrospective of this versatile artist, performer, installation artist and photographer. We also celebrate visionary artist and engineer of dreams Panamarenko, who brought art and science together in unprecedented ways.  The intimate presentation Journey to the Stars zooms in on Panamarenko’s fascination with the cosmos and search for ways to navigate the universe. The Antwerp scene is further explored with an archive presentation around Today’s Place, a multidisciplinary and radical experimental space in Antwerp in the late 1970s. There is more experimentation in Bruno Zhu‘s IN SITU exhibition, a seemingly simple installation that invites exchange and transformation. Finally, the M HKA brings a renewed, balled-up collection presentation showing some 30 top works by Flemish artists, both artists who live and work here (past or present), and artists who have a relationship with Flanders. They are placed in dialogue with international artists from the Flemish Community’s collection.

Expo
HUGO ROELANDT
The End is a New Beginning
14.02–25.05.2025

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.

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.

IN SITU
BRUNO ZHU
Out
25.01–11.05.2025

Bruno Zhu’s IN SITU commission materializes an imposing set of revolving walls hung on the two central pillars in the exhibition space. Out’s explicit confrontational quality is deceiving in its stubborn simplicity. Rather than upholding a binary worldview, it is an invitation to push through its walls to seek potential states of emergence. Movement invites negotiation, which in turn encourages exchange and transformation.

With the support of the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Belgium and the Mondriaan Fonds.

Permanent collection presentation
The Situation is Fluid
25.01.2025–03.01.2027

The M HKA collection is ever-evolving, reflecting the dynamic times we live in. In 2025, M HKA will present a renewed, focused collection showcasing around thirty key works by Flemish artists, including those who have lived and worked here, past or present. Among them are Marcel Broodthaers, Panamarenko, Luc Tuymans, Anne-Mie Van Kerckhoven, Otobong Nkanga and Laure Provost —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 en Shilpa Gupta. 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 perspectives of the collection: image, action, and society.

The freely accessible permanent collection presentation showcases works by Marina Abramović, Chantal Akerman, Hüseyin Bahri Alptekin, Evgeny Antufiev, Marcel Broodthaers, Lili Dujourie, Marlene Dumas, Jimmie Durham, Andrea Fraser, Shilpa Gupta, Craigie Horsfield, Ilya & Emilia Kabakov, Nikita Kadan, Barbara Kruger, Nicola L., Léa Lublin, Taus Makhacheva, Gordon Matta-Clark, Otobong Nkanga, Cady Noland, Panamarenko, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Laure Prouvost, Ayman Ramadan, Chris Reinecke, Oksana Shachko, Walter Swennen, Luc Tuymans and Anne-Mie Van Kerckhoven.

Collection presentation
PANAMARENKO
Journey to the Stars
25.01–07.09.2025

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, major works such as Bing of the Ferro Lusto, Flying Cigar Called Flying Tiger, and De Grote Plumbiet are shown together, accompanied by prototypes, drawings, calculations, sketches, sources of inspiration, and photographs from the archive as well as his former home and studio on Biekorfstraat, revealing 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.

Archive presentation
Today’s Place
25.01–11.05.2025

In 1977, young artists Jan Janssen, Ronald Stoops, Narcisse Tordoir, and Rudolf Verbesselt squat an empty building on Antwerp’s Coppenolstraat, transforming it into a studio and living space. The premises soon become an experimental space for exhibitions, performances, film screenings, happenings, and actions both in Antwerp and beyond. 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. 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, complemented by printed matter, magazines, and posters.