The Absent Museum

The Absent Museum
A Blueprint for a Museum of Contemporary Art for the Capital of Europe

To mark its 10th anniversary, WIELS proposes The Absent Museum, conceived as a ‘blueprint for a museum of contemporary art for the capital of Europe’. This speculative exhibition and its accompanying publication address the challenges that both museums and artists face today. The participating artists all come from the wider region, from Amsterdam to Paris, from Cologne and Düsseldorf to London, with Brussels at the crossroads. In Brussels, as in many metropolitan areas, discussions around the creation of a new museum focus on a building or a collection, but avoid a fundamental question: How can they represent the current tensions between neoliberalism and globalisation, and their effects on individual voices and communities alike?

Included in the publication are original contributions by 47 contemporary and historical artists, translating their works to the book’s pages and setting forth certain directions for the future.

Essays by: Manuel Borja-Villel, Charles Esche, Dirk Snauwaert.