The years go by, but they are not the same at Mudam. Its director, , and her team have presented the contemporary art museum's programme for 2025. "After putting the museum at the heart of the issue in 2024, 2025 will be an opportunity to look at the production of art itself, by putting practices at the centre of attention,” Steinbrügge stated.
The director has also chosen to show more modern art alongside contemporary art, "to better understand how we got here today", she said. Art history also has a special place in the forthcoming programme, both in the exhibitions and in the educational activities with the Mudam Akademie, for example (which will be run for the coming season by Stéphane Ghislain Roussel).
Singapore, Steichen's flowers and personal stories
The year will begin with the first solo exhibition in Europe of Singaporean artist Ho Tzu Nyen (February-August 2025). His video installations probe the history, realities and fictions rooted in the cultural plurality of the countries of Southeast Asia, while also questioning European painting in the Renaissance. "This artist uses film almost like a sculpture, which he models according to his whims, in proposals that become immersive and theatrical," explained Florence Ostende, head of the artistic programming department.
“T for Time: Timepieces” (2023-in progress) by Ho Tzu Nyen. Photo: Mudam Luxembourg
At the same time, the pavilion will be devoted to an exhibition of works specially designed for the site by Lisa Oppenheim. The photographer has appropriated some of Edward Steichen's work to create a dialogue with her own creations. She was particularly interested in photographs of flowers and his interest in textile creations, which represent a part of the Luxembourg-born photographer's work that is perhaps less well known to the general public.
"Mons. Steichen" (2024) by Lisa Oppenheim. Photo: Mudam Luxembourg
From March onwards, it will be the artists Lubaina Himid and Magda Stawarska who will be in the spotlight, with the exhibition "Nets for Night and Day". "These two women have known each other for many years and will be presenting an exhibition that combines painting, poetry, language and sound," said Ostende. Taking their personal histories and the question of memory as their starting point, they are initiating a dialogue between their practices, navigating between the painting of Lubaina Himid, a major figure in the British Black Arts Movement in the 1980s and winner of the prestigious Turner Prize in 2017, and the sound creations of Poland's Magda Stawarska.
A major retrospective and new discoveries
The second part of the year will open with an exhibition of works from the collection (April 2025-January 2026), focusing mainly on those from the Schürmann couple's donation. These are pioneering works by artists produced between the 1990s and 2000s.
The main foyer will be occupied by a work by Fiona Banner aka The Vanity Press. This artist appropriates the wings of military aircraft and polishes them until the surface is as shiny as a mirror, thereby giving them a different status while questioning their origin and symbolic significance.
In collaboration with the Luxembourg Urban Garden (Luga) open-air exhibition, it will present 'The Living Pyramid' by Agnes Denes, one of the pioneers of 'sustainable art'. This living sculpture, made up of hundreds of plants, will be the occasion for partnerships with schools and the Natur Museum. Another collaboration is planned in the Aqua Tunnel, which will host a sound composition by the artist Susan Philipsz.
The highlight of the new season will be the retrospective devoted to Eleanor Antin (September 2025-February 2026), a major American feminist artist known for her conceptual approach, whose exhibition will highlight her relationship with intimacy and the ageing body, as well as theatricality and performance.
There will also be a return presentation by Andrea Mancini and Every Island for the Luxembourg pavilion at the Venice Biennale, with Luxembourg artists and musicians invited to enliven this platform, as well as a presentation of the work of Tiffany Sia, winner of the Baloise Art Prize 2024. 2025 will also see the start of a collaboration with the Danish collective Superflex, who will be initiating a series of workshops with the aim of designing a new urban space where generations can meet in the Mudam park.
Read the original French-language version of this report