Let’s Play Museum

+++ This exhibition ran from 10 June to 17 September 2023. +++

Let’s Play Museum was a unique museum experience for and by children, organised by arts house De Studio in the Muhka. Together with a class of 9-year-olds, De Studio’s curator Marc Verstappen delved into the collection of the Muhka. Jointly, they questioned the laws of the museum and our relationship to art. The children chose works of art that triggered their imagination or stimulated their senses. The result was an interactive and playful art experience for everyone who felt young.

And there was more… For Let’s Play Museum, Daems van Remoortere created Sundance, a fountain that moves in the direction of the sun. Man and animal face each other in Herwig Ilegems’s video work Head to Head. Benjamin Verdonck presented two large collections of objects he found in everyday life, and Randall Casaer invited visitors to look, contemplate and feel – starting from instructions. In the centre of the room was a mini exhibition of No Limits! Art Castle. The project brought together work by artists from the regular art circuit and artists that work outside of it. On the roof terrace, visitors coudld enjoy Gijs Coenen’s sculptures, or Lisa Matthys’ art installation Het museum van de onschuld [The Museum of Innocence], a construction site where children were the boss. And visitors could settle down with a book(let) in the seats in the exhibition space.

Toddlers and pre-schoolers could head to a room that Theater De Spiegel had specially set up for them, with a children’s cinema and a 3D sound system. In addition, De Spiegel presented two theatre performances in the middle of the Muhka space. Allemaal beestjes was a performance in a small cinema. Aorta was created especially for this project.

In short, the summer of 2023 the entire museum was transformed into a playful hangout for families.

The collaboration between the Muhka and De Studio is part of the development of a new museum, with a future new building for the Muhka. The new museum offers a place for meeting and mutual exchange. Let’s Play Museum is an experiment in integrating new perspectives in that space.

With work by Nel Aerts, Hicham Benohoud, Christian Boltanski, Sergey Bratkov, Randall Casaer, Gijs Coenen, Vaast Colson, Daems van Remoortere, Luc Deleu, Fabrice Gygi, Kati Heck, René Heyvaert, Herwig Ilegems, Dialogist-Kantor, Anish Kapoor, Job Koelewijn, Tom Liekens, No Limits! Art Castle, Imge Özbilge, Panamarenko, Ben Sledsens, Roman Signer, Walter Swennen, Christophe Terlinden, Dennis Tyfus, Benny Van den Meulengracht-Vrancx, Michael Van den Abeele and Benjamin Verdonck. In collaboration with NO LIMITS! ART CASTLE (NL) work will shown by Saaber Bachir & Kenza Taleb, Aàdesokan & Yasmine van Haesebroucke, Saman Khoshgbari and Ayse Somuncu & Bas Kosters.

No Limits! Art Castle is a project by Jan Hoek that sets up collaborations between artists from the regular art circuit and outside of it. In the Muhka, No Limits! Art Castle shows work by Jan Hoek, Bruin Jackson, Aàdesokan, Yasmine van Haesebroucke, Saman Khoshgbari, Joey Bocciardo, Fenna Miedema, Nancy Keizer, Jessica van Halteren, Georgy Dendoe, Tirino Yspol, Bas Kosters, Ayse Somuncu, Kasbah Kosmic, Bonne Suits, Sijtse Keur, Norbert de Jong, Alexxx, Hans Klastat, Minke de Fonkert, Antoine Monod de Froideville and Brenda van Vliet.

Also in collaboration with class 4C of Sint-Lievenscollege Antwerp.

Take a virtual tour through this exhibition >