Koeki Claessens
is participant at
Where is Art Contemporary? The Global Challenge of Art Museums II
Abstract
The Royal Museum for Central Africa: from colonial museum to international reference institute for Central Africa
The Royal Museum for Central Africa (RMCA) is located in Tervuren, Belgium and is a federal scientific institute that was founded in 1898 at the initiative of King Leopold II as the “Musée du Congo”. The museum was set up as a window and promotional instrument for the Belgian colonial enterprise, to sensitize the Belgian public for central Africa and to promote commercial and scientific interests in the region. As the permanent exhibition of the museum has remained largely unchanged since the early 1960’s, it is still very much associated with the colonial past en with the Belgian views on Africa of before the decolonisation. The RMCA is currently undergoing a major transformation and renovation process with the aim of becoming a modern and dynamic international reference institute and museum on Africa and Central Africa in particular. This has involved a major shift in vision and a move towards dialogue and transparency of the institute, which is at the same time a museum, a research institute and a centre for information dissemination and for raising public awareness on Africa. In this process, close collaboration with the African diaspora and well-focused sensitisation activities play a major role.
This paper will provide an overview of the process that was followed in the transformation, of the results achieved so far and of the remaining challenges for the future.
