Animism is a long-term exhibition and publication project first presented between 22 January and 2 May 2010 in Antwerp in a collaboration of Extra City Kunsthal Antwerpen and the Museum of Contemporary Art (M HKA). A second version of the exhibition will be shown at Kunsthalle Bern from May till July 2010. Subsequent versions will be developed at the Generali Foundation in Vienna and the House of World Cultures in Berlin in 2011 and 2012, respectively.

In the context of europalia.china, M HKA will be presenting a key exhibition in the development of contemporary Chinese art, which it has acquired in its totality for its collection. The Useful Life exhibition comprises important
work by three leading Chinese artists and was created in the ShanghART Gallery at the Shanghai Biennale in 2000. It was during this Biennale that for the first time artists were given hope of more openness from the government and also the first time that foreign artists were allowed to participate. The
M HKA’s intention in acquiring and showing this exhibition is to spotlight this crucial moment.

In recent years the M HKA has been working hard on the cohesion of its collection. The museum now makes intensive use of the collection, sending its works out to cultural centres and libraries all over Flanders this summer, as well as major displays of works from the collection in Charleroi, Havana and
Singapore this autumn.

On Thursdays the museum is open until nine in the evening. Activities will be regularly organised for these evenings. We shall be presenting a varied programme of talks, performances, conversations with artists, book presentations, etc.

Cinema Zuid M HKA's new film program, is on view in the theatres located at Lakenstraat 14.
The program can be viewed online or consulted in Cinema Zuid's bimonthly brochure.

With the collapse of the USSR, the European horizon in that direction has been limited to Russia. However, we are quite unfamiliar with what is going on in the dynamic Central Asian states and in the old cultural countries in the Caucasus.