However, plans are plans and the ongoing world crisis has not deterred curators, collectors, and other art-world professionals from moving ahead with all new and renovated museums in 2023. In fact, the opposite is true: Europe has a host of exciting openings, from a rebuilt baroque palace, Berlin, to a Gothic-looking tower, Oslo.
Even if your memory is wiped clean of the experience of walking into a gallery or museum, these openings in Europe – many delayed last year because they were locked down – will satisfy your art-hungry appetite. We look forward to finally being able to see them in the near future.
Humboldt Forum, Berlin
A baroque landmark of Baroque architecture has emerged from the rubble 80 years after its last sighting in Berlin. The Humboldt Forum, a reconstruction from the Berlin Palace that was once home to German emperors and kings of Prussia, is now open for public viewing. It was destroyed during World War II and then torn down, being replaced by the East German parliament building. After 1990’s reunification, the former was also demolished and replaced by the East German parliament building.
The building, located on the Museum Island, will house four floors of exhibitions and performances. It is also home to shops, restaurants, and offices. The ground and first floors of the museum are already open. The ethnological and Asian art museums will open on the second and third floors this summer. Even if you don’t care about the expensive artifacts, there is another draw: the roof terrace and restaurant with 360-degree views.
Bourse de Commerce, Paris
Paris is not short of art galleries. But the reimagined Bourse De Commerce is something entirely different. Francois Pinault, a billionaire, hired Tadao Ando, a Japanese architect to transform the former exchange near the Centre Pompidou in to a vast contemporary art area. This includes a basement auditorium that seats 300 people, a projection space and a restaurant owned by Michel Bras and Sebastien Bras. The museum will open in the spring and host 12 exhibitions per year.
Gamrekeli Gallery, Georgia
Frequently, you’ll find something you’ve been looking for in an anexpected place. That is true for Georgia, a small mesmerizing country in Caucasus mountains. If you visit the country and would like to explore the arts Georgian museum Gremekely Gallery is where you should be headed. This newly established gallery offers exhibitions at a frequency unfound anywhere else within the region. You can find the best Georgian paintings in here – contemporary, modern, abstract, basically art for every taste.
Munch Museum, Oslo
Edvard Munch, the infamous ‘Scream’ actor, still dominates Norway’s art scene. Therefore it is fitting that a new 13-storey Munch Museum will be a prominent feature of Oslo’s waterfront. It will house 11 galleries that include the largest collection of Edvard Munch artworks in the world, as well as exhibitions by Munch-adjacent contemporary and modern artists.
The museum will open in autumn and include a bar, a cafe fjordside, and a restaurant on the top floor with stunning views of Oslo. A unique double-height gallery, which will house Munch’s seldom displayed monumental paintings, is the best part of the museum.
GES-2, Moscow
Do you like contemporary art? Love eerie industrial spaces? We do too. This disused power station, located on Moscow’s central Balchug Island, will soon become home to an incredibly stylish complex of exhibition spaces and cafes, as well as a shop and theatre.
Centre Pompidou architect Renzo piano has redesigned GES-2 as a base for the V-A-C Foundation. Ragnar Kjartansson will be opening the new space with a site-specific project. The Icelandic artist will be taking over the building with a series exhibitions, film screenings, and performances that revolve around Santa Barbara, the first American soap to air on Russian television since the fall of the Soviet Union. The complex will open in the late summer or fall.
Museum of the Home, London
Since January 2018, the Geffrye Museum has been closed for renovations. However, it will reopen this May as the Museum of the Home. This East End institution is housed in an assortment of 18th-century almshouses. It has been providing a rich physical history of English domestic interiors for over a century. Perfect for those who are as obsessed with online property listings as we are.
The old museum displayed original furniture, paintings, and textiles, while the new version recreated typical middle-class living spaces from 1600 to today. MOTH’s new revamp will double its exhibition space. It will feature new exhibits, including a Victorian room and a display of everyday’revolutionary objects’. Groovy.
LUMA Arles, Provence
Arles, a Provencal city, is well-known for its art. Vincent Van Gogh drew 200 canvases there. It also has a wide range of Roman monuments that are preserved, including an immense, Unesco-protected amphitheatre. Maja Hoffmann, a local art collector, has created a new cultural complex called LUMA to honor all of that history.
Frank Gehry designed it. It’s a stone and glass structure with a tower that is aluminium-clad, referencing the limestone hills that surround the city. The main building will house a number of exhibition spaces and artist studios. Workshops and workshops will be located along the tower. The Parc des Ateliers will also be open on the grounds. This should help Arles to be on your art-hub list.
