Invisible collections, Royal Museum of Mariemont (Belgium)

Thursay, January 25th: 11:15 a.m.-12:00 p.m., Arcole room

Invisible collections, Royal Museum of Mariemont (Belgium)

On the occasion of the centenary of the Royal Museum of Mariemont, the institution has opted to offer its visitors an exhibition that questions the very act of visiting. As well as the choice of objects that have been brought out of storage just for the occasion of the centenary, and which have given rise to debates and questions about the role and the future of the museum, the exhibition, entitled “Collections invisibles” (Invisible Collections) takes place in the permanent exhibition galleries inside a set design device that is by no means typical of the venue.

In its choice of objects to display, in its set design, but also in terms of the public reaction and the museum’s response to that reaction, the exhibition amounts to a research subject in its own right. It is a work that is rich and complex and far from being completed once the show has begun… What it has to offer is striking, and the reactions that it provokes no less so. The public questions and challenges, whilst the museum positions and repositions itself as a place for debate, a research laboratory, a place of innovation, especially in terms of how it receives its publics, a place of communication and mediation.