kanal-centre pompidou complex in brussels to reopen in 2026

Kanal-Centre Pompidou compleX to relaunch in brussels

Brussels is set to open a new chapter in its cultural history with the relaunch of Kanal-Centre Pompidou, a museum and cultural complex inside a former Citroën factory. To open again on November 28th, 2026, the project is being described as Europe’s largest new museum development and marks the city’s first institution that’s fully dedicated to modern and contemporary art and architecture. The opening exhibitions are co-created with Paris’ Centre Pompidou, bringing together more than 350 artworks drawn mainly from the Pompidou’s collection, alongside works from Kanal and other Belgian and international collections.

The transformed industrial building is located along the Brussels canal, spanning 40,000 square meters. Under one expansive roof, the museum and public cultural space is expected to house five floors of exhibition galleries, performance and film spaces, workshops, community areas, cafes, shops, and a rooftop restaurant and bar overlooking the city. The plans also include an in-house bakery and large circulation areas open to visitors even without a museum ticket. The redesign of the former factory is being led by Atelier Kanal, a team formed by Swiss architects EM2N, Brussels-based noAarchitecten, and London’s Sergison Bates architects.

all images courtesy of Atelier Kanal © Secchi Smith, unless stated otherwise

long-term collaboration between two institutions

The exhibition at the reopening of the Kanal-Centre Pompidou complex in Brussels will include works by major 20th-century artists such as Henri Matisse, Sonia Delaunay, Alberto Giacometti, and Wifredo Lam, as well as contemporary artists connected to Brussels and the international art scene. Aside from the re-opening, the relaunch doubles as a long-term collaboration between the two institutions, as they aim to often bring international art to Brussels. The Kanal-Centre Pompidou complex in Brussels is also set to be the new home for the CIVA collection, Brussels’ archive of architecture, landscape design, and urban planning.

Several exhibitions are set to open at once during the re-opening on November 28th, 2026. The highlights include An infinite woman, examining colonial imagery and its reclamation, alongside solo and commissioned works by Joëlle Tuerlinckx, Manon de Boer (with Latifa Laâbissi and Laszlo Umbreit), Joshua Serafin, Banu Cennetoğlu, and Otobong Nkanga. Group projects involve Département des Pièges curated by Clémentine Deliss, NO SHOW by Deborah Bowmann and Maoupa Mazzocchè, and contributions from Guillaume Bijl, Kasper Bosmans, Laurent Dupont, Aline Bouvy, Pélagie Gbaguidi, Valérie Mannaerts, Miao Miao, and others.

rendering of the interior street in Kanal

indoor playground created by British collective Assemble

The program also features ‘A truly immense journey’ with artists including Lygia Clark, Sonia Delaunay, Natalia Goncharova, Henri Matisse, Wifredo Lam, Katarzyna Kobro, Pablo Picasso, Alberto Giacometti, Sammy Baloji, Edith Dekyndt, Aglaia Konrad, and Hana Miletić, and a community print room by WERKER Collective. Inside the renovated architecture lies an indoor playground created by British collective Assemble, winners of the Turner Prize. Covering 700 square meters is an installation filled with hills, volcanoes, and distant planets. So far, the official date for the reopening of the Kanal-Centre Pompidou complex in Brussels is in November 2026.

view of the Reading Room inside the complex