The director general of the long-awaited Kanal (formerly Kanal-Centre Pompidou), Yves Goldstein, will stand down when the new modern and contemporary art museum opens in late November in the Belgian capital.
In early May, Goldstein announced his decision to depart following the end of his second five-year term, saying he would remain in post until a replacement is found in early 2027. But according to an agreement with the Brussels minister-president Boris Dilliès, he will depart on 30 November, immediately following the opening weekend. The Art Newspaper understands that earlier this month Dilliès attempted to dismiss Goldstein.
“The parties acknowledge a difference of opinion regarding the future of Kanal,” says a statement from the Brussels-Capital Region, the executive body overseeing 19 municipalities including the capital.
The museum, a vast new art hub set to rival other major European art centres such as Tate Modern, will launch with ten shows including a 350-work exhibition drawn from the Centre Pompidou in Paris. The new culture hub is housed in a former Citroën garage, an architectural landmark in the city built in the mid 1930s, and includes five floors of gallery spaces.
The Brussels-Capital Region adds that “preparations for the museum’s inauguration, scheduled for 28 November are fully secured for the intervening period; Yves Goldstein will continue to fully exercise his duties as director general—a role he has held for nearly ten years—until the agreed-upon date. Goldstein will not participate in the selection process for his successor at the helm of the institution.”
”Yves Goldstein has carried this project with conviction for several years,“ says Dilliès in the statement. “This agreement allows Kanal to turn the page in a calm atmosphere, while giving Kanal the means to serenely approach its inauguration and future, taking into account the budgetary imperatives known to all.”
Dilliès was appointed and sworn in as the minister-president of the Brussels-Capital Region in February. He belongs to the Reformist Movement (Mouvement Réformateur), a French-speaking liberal party. The formation of his government brought an end to a 613-day deadlock (the Brussels-Capital Region had been in political paralysis since elections in June 2024 when it failed to form a new government).
The Brussels-Capital Region acquired the 40,000 sq. m Art Deco-style Citroën building in October 2015. The former garage has since been transformed by a team comprising noAarchitecten (Brussels), EM2N (Zurich) and Sergison Bates architects (London) working under the umbrella organisation Atelier Kanal.
According to ArtNews, Kanal was initially promised an annual budget of €35m from the Brussels-Capital Region government but that the figure has since dropped to €28m this year, and is expected to drop to €10m annually by 2029 as part of broader austerity measures.
A Kanal spokesperson confirmed that the figures are correct, although the €10m figure will not in effect until “discussed by the government”. Under the deal struck with the Centre Pompidou, Kanal pays the French institution €2m annually until 2031. Goldstein previously told The Art Newspaper: “The idea [behind the partnership] is that it would never be forever structurally.”