Salon de la Muse is a collective artwork in the form of a growing collection of muses, created within the Antwerp artist-run space AAIMACHINE (Johanna Trudzinski, Lieven Segers and Frank Olbrechts). Since 2026, the work has been part of the City of Antwerp Collection and is managed by M HKA.

The project originated from a question posed by an eight-year-old child to artist Lieven Segers during a lecture at Klavertjevier Primary School (now Monto) in Berchem:

“Lieven, where does your art come from?” His answer was: “From the muses, but I don’t know what they look like.” 

This sparked a participatory inquiry into the many possible appearances of the muse.

In 2024, this resulted in a first presentation at AAIMACHINE. Professional artists, art students and primary school pupils created more than 200 visualisations of muses together. The contributions were digitised, framed with a mat based on AAIMACHINE’s floor pattern, and brought together in a compelling installation: Salon de la Muse, a wooden chamber whose interior walls are entirely covered with the contributions.

Since entering the City Collection, Salon de la Muse has continued to develop as an ongoing and expanding project. For this new presentation at M HKA, artists connected to AAIMACHINE as well as to the M HKA collection and programme are invited to add their own muse to the collection. More than 250 contributions have now been included, allowing the work to continue growing as a collective and polyphonic representation of artistic inspiration.

Salon de la Muse brings together an ever-growing network of voices and forms a collective portrait of artistic imagination within and around M HKA and the Antwerp artistic community.