Brussels to work with Pompidou Centre for new Modern Art Museum

The Brussels-Capital region has signed an agreement with Paris's Pompidou Centre to create a major new cultural hub in the former Citroën garage at Yser.

Included will be a Museum for Modern and Contemporary Art, with works on loan from the 100,000-strong collection of the Pompidou Centre, the largest collection of 20th and 21st century art in Europe covering disciplines including plastic arts, drawing, photography, new media, experimental film, architecture, design and industrial prospects.

Brussels minister-president Rudi Vervoort and Pompidou Centre chairman Serge Lasvignes announced the agreement on Thursday on transforming the former Citroën garage into "a cultural hub with a global dimension".

"This project provides a leverage to revitalise the whole area, by reconnecting both sides of the canal, but it is also destined to become the cultural flagship of the Brussels Region", Vervoort said.

In the last quarter of this year, the region will launch an architectural competition for the development of the site. The museum is scheduled to open its doors to the public in 2020 at the latest, but aims to host its first exhibition in 2018.