BRUSSELS.- For its 12th exhibition, the MIMA is revisiting its past and anticipating its future through the Reload exhibition, which unveils the permanent collection it has built up since 2015. This new opus adopts an original take on creation at the beginning of the millennium, dominated by the Internet revolution and the emergence of the social networks. It paints a portrait of an atypical institution and asks questions about its future. The MIMA opened its doors one month after the Brussels attacks, in a dramatic context, and had to adapt very quickly. The question it is asking itself is whether the underlying idea behind the museum will still be relevant after ten years of activity? To answer this question, the MIMA has announced that it will take stock at the end of 2026! If it fails to reinvent itself by that date, the museum will close its doors. If it succeeds, the adventure continues.

The layout

Each of the works presented is a gateway to the world of an artist or to the memory of an exhibition. Carefully selected by the MIMA, they project an image of contemporary creation, of the creative spirit of the time, of a "Zeitgeist" of the Millennium.

The MIMA is presenting a total of 120 works by 61 artists from all over the world.

The exhibition’s layout is divided into three parts, spread over three floors:

• The cave, dedicated to artists who have not exhibited at the MIMA

• The playground, which presents works by artists who have exhibited at the MIMA

• The Champs Elysées on the 3rd floor imagines the legacy left by the MIMA if it closes its doors in 2027

The cave




The works on the first floor were produced by artists who have not been exhibited in the museum.

Symbolically, this area is called the "cave" in a nod to the Platonic allegory that criticises our skewed knowledge of reality. In the myth, men at the bottom of a cave take the shadows of the outside world projected on the walls for reality.

For the MIMA, these illusions of reality are comparable to the paintings on the first level that extol a culture told through screens and books rather than experienced in the here and now.

The playground

The works presented on the second floor are those of the artists who have been exhibited at the MIMA.

From 2016 onwards, the collection gradually becomes an imperfect mirror of its past, from which certain artists and exhibitions are absent.

Here, the works recall the experience lived within our walls.

The Champs Élysées

On the third floor, an installation imagines the MIMA's posthumous legacy, should it close its doors in 2027. The MIMA does not hesitate to question the relevance of the underlying idea behind the museum after ten years of activity. To answer this question, the museum has announced its definitive closure for 2027! This gives the institution a fixed deadline by which to take a good hard look at itself.

The collection

From 2015 onwards, a collection of works was gradually built up with the aim of highlighting the artistic scenes that would feature on the programme of the future museum. The collection is divided into two groups. The first brings together the pieces purchased mainly before the opening of the establishment and which enabled it to set the scene for its ambitions. The second group includes those acquired after the opening, which are evidence of the exhibitions. Separately, each work refers to its own history and together they reveal a fragment of the MIMA's genetic code. The collection proves the diversity of genres of a culture defined by the museum and an aesthetic coherence inherent to its time.

The book: Hell Hole Hope, the birth of a museum.

To mark the Reload exhibition, Mima is publishing a book: Hell Hole Hope, the birth of a museum.

The book looks back at the history of the MIMA from its birth to the present day. It is a snapshot of contemporary creation at the Millennium Iconoclast Museum Of Art. Its opening against the backdrop of the Brussels attacks, the pandemic and the ecological and social crises provide a fertile ground for creation. Throughout the pages, the exhibitions and works from the museum's collection illustrate the Zeitgeist, the creative spirit of the times.