Ensemble

In 2005 the collection of the Stichting voor Beeldende Kunst (SBKM-De Vleeshal) in Middelburg – a smaller institution with a previous history related to the Internationaal Cultureel Centrum – was given to the M HKA on long-term loan.

On the initiative of Lex ter Braak, in the 1990s the SBKM built up an ambitious collection of contemporary art comprising about 200 works by 70 different artists and arranged along a number of thematic lines: development-oriented, extremely international, and with a preference for ensembles that present a complex image of the artist. This collection was destined for a new museum, which was given the working title of Museum IX/13. The collection is in two blocks, the first being of national and local art produced under the Dutch BKR scheme, and secondly the start of a thoroughly international collection of contemporary art, with several major ensembles by a limited number of artists (including Jimmie Durham, Nedko Solakov, Suchan Kinoshita, Cameron Jamie, Pippilotti Rist and Job Koelewijn), but too few to set up a local operation without an intensive further expansion of the collection. Middelburg town council decided not to establish the museum or to continue the collection. As a result, the start of the formation of the collection lost its potential context and visibility and encumbered the work of the SBKM, for which the collection was a financial burden because of its storage and also the issue of its management. Considering the close historical ties between Middelburg and Antwerp, the profile of the M HKA collection and the fact that the M HKA’s director Bart De Baere was a member of the advisory committee for the composition of the collection, it was given to the M HKA on long-term loan. The M HKA restored public visibility to the collection by giving new relevance to the artworks in its collection exhibition policy.