Take Your Time

Time is of the essence

Time sometimes seems to stand still at a museum, but nothing could be further from the truth. Time is an essential element of every artwork. Some works tell a story. Others refer to the passing of time. They might take you back in time or they might change if you take the time to look at them from a different angle.

What are the ways in which artists represent time? Do you see the whole story in different scenes? Or does one fleeting, momentary snapshot suggest the rest of the story? And what do the works say about how the artists themselves perceive time?

And it is not only a question of what the artist does. After all, you decide how much time you take to look at an artwork. Why do you spend longer looking at one work then ask another?

Dialogue between old and new

Both old and contemporary works from the M collection challenge you to reflect on these questions. For example, a medieval calendar dial is displayed beside an abstract work by Ann Veronica Janssens. Despite the five centuries between these two pieces, they dialogue with one another in this presentation.