MAS©Sarah Blee

The MAS - The Museum aan de Stroom - is the youngest and also the largest museum in Antwerp, it opened its doors last May 17. It recounts powerful stories about Antwerp in the world and the world in Antwerp. Stories of the past, the present and the future.
The MAS is the new home for collections from a number of former Antwerp museums: the Ethnographic Museum, the National Shipping Museum and the Folklore Museum. Partial collections from the Vleeshuis Museum were also transferred here. Together, this amounts to more than 470,000 objects. Furthermore, the city of Antwerp has acquired the Paul and Dora Janssen-Arts collection on loan from the Flemish Government.
The MAS unites these different collections to tell a new story. About the city, the river and the port. About the world in all its diversity. About Antwerp’s connection with the world. The MAS provides the visitor with the opportunity to get to know Antwerp in the world and the world in Antwerp. This combination is what makes the MAS unique: it is about Antwerp and about the world.
The MAS recounts its stories through four themes which all revolve around people, so that they appeal to everyone: DISPLAY OF POWER, METROPOLIS, WORLD PORT and LIFE AND DEATH. The collections are not displayed side by side. The pieces are connected through a dynamic scenography on the different floors. They don’t just impart information. They tell stories, they endure, they are actors in an ever-changing play.

MAS©Filip Dujardin

The Building
The Neutelings Riedijk Architects’ concept ties in perfectly with the historical function and the location’s atmosphere. The MAS is located on the site of the former Hanzehuis (Hanseatic House), which was a storage depot in the 16th century. There were, and actually still are, dozens of similar buildings in the area.
The 60-metre high tower is constructed from 10 giant containers made from natural stone, which haven’t simply been stacked on top of each other. Every box is rotated 90° compared to the previous one. This creates a gigantic winding staircase.
The MAS Boulevard is a public galleria; the escalators, which ferry you upwards to the ninth floor, offer a different view of Antwerp at every turn. It is protected with a giant curtain of undulating glass from Italy. The glass not only provides the visitor with a view from the museum in all four directions, it also affords the ‘outsider’ a view of what’s going on inside the museum. To break up the monumental dimensions of the tower, a pattern of metal decorations have been added to the façade like a ‘veil’. They are shaped like hands, the symbol of Antwerp.
MAS | Museum aan de Stroom
Hanzestedenplaats 1
2000 Antwerp
www.mas.be

Published 09.06.2011