After years of construction, budget debates and waiting, the date is finally approaching. On Saturday 28 November, Kanal-Centre Pompidou will open to the public in the former Citroën garage on Square Sainctelette, along the canal. And for its first weekend, the museum is going big: admission will be completely free.
36 hours non-stop
Visitors can come in from 10 a.m. on Saturday 28 November until 10 p.m. on Sunday 29 November, without a break. The ten opening exhibitions will require booking, but the rest of the building will be freely accessible, with a continuous programme of concerts, performances, screenings, installations and family activities. In the afternoon, the museum will also welcome local residents and many neighbourhood associations. A friendly tip: book your time slots early, as interest promises to be huge.
“A Truly Immense Journey”
The flagship exhibition, entitled A Truly Immense Journey, will bring together more than 350 works, most of them from the collections of the Centre Pompidou and Kanal. It will remain on view until 10 January 2028. The partnership signed in 2017 between the Centre Pompidou, the Brussels-Capital Region and the Kanal Foundation provides for works from Paris to be shown regularly in Brussels until 2031.
After Málaga in 2015, Shanghai in 2019 and Seoul last May, Brussels thus becomes a new international address for the Centre Pompidou. Artistic direction is by Kasia Redzisz, and the project is led by director Yves Goldstein.
An XXL project
The final bill for the project is estimated at around €230 million, and the site covers some 40,000 m². Not every part will be ready on 28 November, however: according to The Brussels Times, the architecture centre and the collections space have been delayed following a fire in July.
Practical information
Kanal-Centre Pompidou, Square Sainctelette 21, 1000 Brussels. Open Wednesday to Sunday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., late opening on Fridays until 10 p.m. Bookings on the official website kanal.brussels.
Sources : BX1, Centre Pompidou, Centre Pompidou press release, The Brussels Times, DH
Photo: Marc-AntoineV / CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
