2025 outlook - culture in Antwerp and more
Newsletter January 2025
Best wishes for the New Year!
The City of Antwerp press team wishes you all the best for 2025. In 2024, we made it onto many international lists as a must-see destination. Although most of the attention was for the Ensor Year, our other assets also garnered considerable acclaim in international media. In 2025, art, culture, and fashion & shopping will continue to be the main focus - The New York Times is already convinced... More on that in this newsletter, but first a look back!
Exhibitions in 2025
Antwerp’s museums have plenty in store for the coming year. A selection to get you started can be found below. More information about these, as well as an overview of all other exhibitions and their duration, is available in our press kit 'Antwerp museums in 2025'.
- Middelheim Museum celebrates its 75th anniversary this year. As well as celebrating with a ‘bal populaire’ in May, the iconic art park is using this occasion to highlight their recently updated collection presentation.
- With the Compassion exhibition, MAS invites its visitors to reflect on man's need to help others. The expo includes paintings by Breughel and Géricault, alongside contemporary work by Ai Weiwei, Berlinde De Bruyckere and Stephan Vanfleteren and others that add a layer of critical interpretation.
- Fotomuseum FOMU presents Lee Miller in Print, her first solo exhibition in Belgium. Model, war correspondent, photographer and surrealist: she was all of these. As one of the rare well known female photographers of the first half of the 20th century, she made an important contribution to photography.
- In Fashion and Interiors. A Gendered affair at the MoMu explores the relationship between fashion and interiors from a gender perspective. Contemporary creations by Maison Margiela, Ann Demeulemeester, Raf Simons and Hussein Chalayan, among others, offer a reflection on the historical relationship between interiors and fashion.
- With Impressive Women (working title), Museum Plantin-Moretus shows how Christopher Plantijn did not raise his daughters for a life in the shadows. He involved them in the family’s trading activities. Among the highlights is the story of Marina Plantijn who, aged just 17, ran the international lace business, and how other female descendants proved to be determined business leaders.
- Enjoy Enchanting tulip splendour in April in the garden of the Rubens House. In the early 17th century, everyone wanted them: tulips in the garden. Flowers were then a true symbol of luxury and wealth. Rubens also loved them. This spring, step into his masterpiece as 1,000 historic tulips in the Rubens House’s renovated garden bloom for the first time.
- KMSKA presents its programme for 2025 under the heading Varied, surprising and probing, with exhibitions centred around Hans Op de Beeck, Marthe Donas, René Magritte, Rubens, Panamarenko and De Stijl, among others.
- With The Situation is Fluid, M HKA delivers a renewed, condensed collection presentation that showcases Flemish artists via some 30 top works. These are artists who live and work here (past or present) - including Marcel Broodthaers, Panamarenko and Luc Tuymans, among others - as well as artists who have a connection with Flanders. They are placed in dialogue with international artists from the Flemish Community’s collection.
- With Wanderlust: Ancient Landscapes in a New Perspective, Snijders&Rockox House presents an exhibition for which an extraordinary collection of landscapes and cityscapes, featuring masterpieces from the 16th and 17th centuries by Patinir and Brueghel the Elder and others, have been brought out from the depot.
- On 2 August 1520, Albrecht Dürer, the most prominent printmaker of his time, set foot in Antwerp. With Dürer in Antwerp, Museum De Reede presents a number of masterpieces from the archives of the Royal Library of Belgium.
The New York Times discovers Antwerp (again)
The prestigious American newspaper The New York Times has once again turned the spotlight on Antwerp. The newspaper describes the city as “one of the continent’s boldest fashion and design centres” and calls it the ideal place for a weekend getaway.
Of course, we are not going to contradict them...
Culinary news
- On 19/12, food market WOLF opened its doors in the iconic Felix warehouse on the Eilandje. No fewer than 10 restaurants of repute and 3 bars serve you the best street food in Antwerp and the vicinity.
- As already announced, just like last year, Antwerp will host the Michelin star awards for Belgium and Luxembourg. The ceremony takes place on 28 April, 2025. If you are interested in discovering Antwerp’s culinary gems or attending the ceremony, please let us know.
- Since late last year, star chef Roger van Damme (Het Gebaar *) has been serving high tea in the historic monastery kitchens of 5-star hotel Botanic Sanctuary.
Art work by Martin Margiela in Schuttershofstraat
The city of Antwerp is proud to present Blinds, the first artwork for a public space by artist and former fashion designer Martin Margiela, who headed the pioneering fashion house Maison Martin Margiela from 1988 until 2008.
Margiela was invited to create an artwork for the revamped Schuttershofstraat, a major shopping street in the centre of Antwerp. The many shop windows, the strolling, the glamour and the temptation, as well as metropolitan dynamism - raw and unpredictable - these are all elements that serve as the inspiration for Blinds, Margiela’s first monumental outdoor sculpture.
The artwork was commissioned by the City of Antwerp and realised under the guidance of Art in the City, Middelheim Museum. Blinds becomes part of the Art in the City collection, Antwerp’s urban collection of artworks in public spaces.
And furthermore...
- Besides The New York Times, leading travel medium Lonely Planet also (re)discovered Antwerp, with two delightful articles, including an ultimate-weekend suggestion.
- Since the end of last year, our city has added three new hotels. A&O Hostels, the world’s largest hostel chain, opened a branch at Antwerp Central Station. With Van Der Valk Park Lane****, Antwerp gains a new luxury hotel, while Motel One Antwerp*** has a great deal to offer for design lovers.