KMSKA Open Again

The KMSKA has recently reopened after having been closed for almost 10 years. The opening was soon followed by a lot of fuss in the press about the white floor, which is immediately full of black stripes from the shoes of visitors. Compared to the past, the museum now actually consists of 2 buildings in 1. Via the old entrance you can still go via the central corridor to the first floor and view the old rooms with the monumental paintings by the old masters such as Rubens. This part of the museum has not really changed and still has wooden parquet floors as always. However, a new part has been ‘hung’ in the building with a completely new look through the use of new materials. There are a lot of white and shiny walls and floors. There is a video on the site of the museum that will make it clear. And although the old part still has the same look as before, it has also been modernized here with interactive displays, for example. We had bought our tickets in advance and had to start our visit at a certain hour with a maximum margin of half an hour. We entered through a side entrance on the ground floor where we hung up our coats in the cloakroom and took an iPhone based audio guide with us. It was nice to be able to visit the museum and enjoy all the works of art. We started our visit with a tour of the new area around James Ensor. The audio guide was not really set up very intuitively and I would actually recommend everyone to download the app and bring their own wireless earphones instead of going to get the audio guide. You get the same content but with less hassle. In the new part you more or less automatically follow a route from room to room until you return to the starting point. I was not bothered by disturbing black stripes on the floor, the newspaper pages had to be filled with something apparently. The shiny floors, which were sometimes dark in some parts, made it strange to walk on now and then because you couldn’t see the floor properly. What was most disturbing, but which often occurs at large and popular exhibitions, is the amount of visitors. You do have a fixed start time, but no end time and in some rooms you had to queue for certain paintings. This is not ideal, especially with children. After exploring the new part, we did another tour of the old masters. The collection is so diverse that it has a little bit of everything. If I still lived in Antwerp, I would occasionally walk in to pick out a few works of art. A museumpas is recommended, because at 20 euros for a normal ticket it will otherwise be an expensive affair. After the museum visit we crossed the square in front of the museum for a drink at Le Pain Quotidien. The weather was still beautiful so we could just sit outside on the terrace. (translated by Google translate)