The new KANAL center is settling into the spaces of the former Citroën garage and workshop. The staff of the Kanal Foundation will be about 110 people. The dimensions are also impressive: 12,500 square meters have been designed for the galleries out of a total of 40,000. On the occasion of Art Brussels, we were able to visit the construction site and engage with the management.
The costs of KANAL and the annual operating budget
The industrial site was purchased in 2015 for 25 million euros. It is owned by the Société d’Aménagement Urbain (SAU) on behalf of the Brussels-Capital Region.
The investment behind it is significant: approximately 230 million euros — exclusively funded by the Brussels-Capital Region —. The opening date of November 28, 2026 is approaching, despite the delays first due to COVID, then to the government crisis — since the elections of June 2024, the Brussels region has been without a fully operational government. “We are only two years behind schedule”, says the artistic director Kasia Redzisz, almost breathing a sigh of relief. The General Director of the Kanal, on the other hand, is Yves Goldstein.
Even the annual operating budget of 35 million euros, which had been planned, has been revised. In the Regional Policy Statement, an incorrect amount of 10 million euros is mentioned. “30 million euros per year is definitely too much for a museum”, stated Benjamin Dalle, leader of the CD&V in Brussels, adding: “we believe that the contract with the Centre Pompidou is not a good idea. The issue will need to be evaluated”.
The words of the KANAL team
David Salomonowicz, head of communication, clarifies the situation: “in the government agreement, finally reached after over 600 days of suspended government, it was decided to allocate an annual budget in gradual decrease until the expiration of the four-year programmatic contract (2024–2028). 2026: 28 million; 2027: 24 million; 2028: 22 million. The figure of 10 million is not official at all, as the new program 2029–2033 will still be subject to discussion between the parties at the end of 2028. Which, politically speaking, is very far in time.
We remind that, according to the terms of the program contract, Kanal should have received 35 million per year over the four-year period, but last year it agreed to reduce this amount from 35 to 29 million to help the Government achieve savings”.
KANAL, the tender won jointly by three firms
The architecture competition was won by three firms that submitted their application jointly. They are Sergison Bates from London, EM2N from Zurich, and noAarchitecten from Brussels. They worked together to preserve as much as possible the original structure from the 1930s and inserted three cubic spaces in the factory.
The building will host an auditorium (400 seats), libraries, reading rooms, pedagogical workshops, restaurants, bars but above all the galleries. Additionally, a large space will be occupied by the new architecture archiving center.
Kasia Redzisz states: “The biggest challenge for this institution is the public space: 20,000 square meters accessible for free. How to prevent them from remaining empty? It will be necessary to take into account the nature of the neighborhood, complex, dense, and very varied in terms of people and structures.”
What will the exhibition spaces of KANAL be like?
A sort of deflector will ensure a controlled temperature inside the museum halls. The temperature will never drop below 15 degrees Celsius and will never exceed 28. All public spaces are neither heated nor air-conditioned.
In the entrance hall there will be a ticket check, a small library, mediation and accessibility tools, an information point.
Ten exhibitions will mark the inauguration of the venue. The exhibitions are spread over five levels of galleries. They are all quite similar, but will differ in flooring: concrete, wood, and asphalt. The first gallery, about 300 square meters, is dedicated to emerging artists. Among these 5 levels, the underground floor, dedicated to special projects, will be activated by an immersive sound work by Joëlle Tuerlinckx. The industrial nature of the space is a tribute to the industrial revolution that characterized the canal, a commercial route that connected the port of Antwerp with the south of the country and with France.
The largest exhibition space, of 1,500 square meters, is located on the ground floor: it is dedicated to collective and research exhibitions, Kanal is indeed the first museum of modern and contemporary art in Brussels that embraces an academic mission.
The agreement with the Centre Pompidou, between controversy and advantages
On three levels, the collections will be displayed: that of the Centre-Pompidou and that of the Kanal. The latter includes only 100 works and focuses on a selection of artists who live and work in Brussels and Belgium, it is a geographically very localized collection but also diversified thanks to the lively international scene.
The agreement with the Centre Pompidou, signed in 2017, was initially planned for a duration of 10 years, divided into two distinct periods. Five years of support during the development phase of Kanal, followed by five years of management starting from the inauguration of Kanal on November 28, 2026. The first period was extended due to delays in the project. The second will therefore end in 2031. Any renewal of the agreement will need to be the subject of a specific agreement (no tacit extension beyond the deadline) and a renegotiation.
For the opening, the Centre Pompidou will provide the core — works selected from its collections (from Mondrian to Picasso, from Sonia Delaunay to Giacometti) — for a thematic exhibition that will encompass the entire XX century.
From the former Citroën showroom to the space for art and the community
The perhaps most impressive environment is encountered at the ex show-room. Originally designed to display cars, it has a ceiling 28 meters high. For Brussels, it was truly an architectural icon.
For an urban planning change, Citroën had to divide the space into 4 floors. The cars were thus visible from the street. The added levels have been removed so that the space appears airy with its very high walls and glass windows. But the trace of those levels remains, corresponding to the ramps that led to each floor. This residual space will have various functions — gourmet restaurant with panoramic terrace, relaxation room with tables, etc.
“For the inauguration, we will completely fill the space with the installation by Banu Cennetoğlu (Ankara, 1970), a Turkish conceptual artist who has created a work on human rights, famous for her minimalist gestures. There will be tons of golden balloons”.
In another area of the enormous cultural center, where the old car wash was, an acoustic tent is planned to isolate the space for concerts. Otherwise, there is the possibility that it will be left for community use (basketball games, book fairs, stands).
Always on the same raised floor for the inauguration, a work by Otobong Nkanga (1974) is planned. A visual and performance artist of Nigerian origin, she has lived in Antwerp for about 30 years. At the end, educational classrooms and a playground for children.
We are almost at the finish line even though the museum is still a construction site and needs to be completely furnished. “In 2017 the government initially set a budget of 150 million euros for the construction, excluding VAT. With VAT, adjustments for inflation, and a budget for the setup (furniture, fixtures, and equipment), the total amounts to 230 million euros, of which over 40 million are due exclusively to the inflation recorded since the start of the works”, David Salomonowicz explains to us.
She has collaborated for many years with art magazines such as Artribune, XIBT Contemporary, ArtApp, Insideart and Espoarte, preferring contemporary art in its many facets and media drifts.
