Did you stare enough at your screen? Lean back, close your eyes and listen to artwork from the M collection.

Henry the Courageous, the Founder of Cities. The nicknames of Henry I of Brabant are very telling: the duke’s life was not dissimilar to a season of Game of Thrones. During the dismantling and restoration of his tomb in Leuven’s Saint Peter’s Church, researchers discovered a mysterious little chest. This discovery instigated a search for the remains of the first duke of Brabant. And was the inspiration for M’s first podcast. 

Earlier this year, we created a new magazine, and we will be publishing two issues per year. It is full of stories about our exhibitions, lectures, the museum collection and our operations behind the scenes. We not only give artists and curators the floor, but also offer a forum to staff members and friends of the museum. So if you want to get to know M better, our first issue is ready to be discovered.

The sculptors Auguste Rodin, Constantin Meunier and George Minne were the pioneers of a genuine sculptural revolution that was to lay the foundations of modern sculpture. Paradoxically enough, this revolution was inspired by the past, and specifically the Middle Ages.

Nel Aerts’ practice combines painting, sculpture, drawing, collages, performance and film. Her explicitly figurative work is populated by often tragi-comic figures that she renders in simple lines and large blocks of colour. These characters, which recur in the most diverse media, function like masks that the artist uses intentionally to reveal or to conceal her own person.

The performances, sculptures, drawings and installations by French artist Béatrice Balcou offer innovative sensory and emotional exhibition rituals that demand thoughtful attention for art.

The best woodcarver in Brabant: that’s how Jan II Borman was known in the early 16th century. Last autumn, M presented Borman and Sons, the first ever retrospective exhibition about this master woodcarver and his family. Of the more than 280 known works by the Bormans, over 120 came to M, in addition to work by their contemporaries.

Starting in May 2019, a new collection presentation at M will focus on the theme of body language. In four rooms, we will present both old and contemporary artworks related to the human body. Specifically for this presentation, a number of these works are being restored with support from Delen Private Bank.

Ten students from Leuven took a close look at the M collection over the course of the year. And what they found there was madness. They are presenting both historical and contemporary works of art on this theme from the M collection in a distinctive scenography. They look for the sense in madness as well as the madness in every one of us.

Reality and fiction are never far apart in the technically brilliant and highly detailed pencil drawings of Aleksandra Chaushova (1985, Bulgaria). She sets out in her work to uncover the mechanisms we use to give shape to our own history. How do memories arise? How do they relate to collective memories, which are actually a combination of many individual, subjective stories? 

For the fifth time, OPEN M gave visual artists from Flemish Brabant the opportunity to show their work at M. The panel of jurors, Imke Courtois, Phara de Aguirre, Milow, Arnout Hauben and Els Dottermans, reviewed the entries, based on their own background and interest in visual art. This resulted in a diverse selection, which was on show at M during the exhibition.

Pieter Vermeersch (°1973) is a painter, but his artistic practice takes him beyond the traditional boundaries of canvas. He questions and explores the parameters of painting and works on a variety of surfaces, such as canvas, marble, photographs, and existing architecture. Time, space and colour are the three building blocks of Vermeersch’s oeuvre. These concepts lie at the foundation of his gradual murals and architectural interventions.

The Arenbergs were members of the highest nobility. For more than five centuries they played an important role on the political, military, economic and cultural stage in the Leuven region, in Belgium and in Europe. The exhibition at M tells the story of the Arenbergs, and of their art collection in particular, by means of artworks and objects from home and abroad. Many have never been shown before.

Edgard Tytgat (°1879, Brussels) pulled out all the visual stops to retell myths, legends and fairy tales in his paintings and prints. Like the filmmakers of his time, he depicted a world full of imagination, absurdity and humour. M brings Tytgat’s ‘fairy tales’ back to life and shows a wide range of works from museum and private collections.