M HKA HISTORY

Gordon Matta-Clark (1943–1978) described his activities as 'anarchitecture' – a synthesis of the concepts of anarchy and architecture. Anarchitecture fuses a critique of the institutionalisation of culture, a direct engagement with one’s environment, and a preference for physical action. His rather irreverent site-specific interventions combined the formal language of minimalism with the large scale of land art.  By making incisions into buildings, the interior and structure of a building were exposed, becoming readable in a new way. His art broke with traditional spatial perspective – there no longer being a centre, no top and bottom, and no inside and outside. The radicality of Matta-Clark’s interventions can be seen as a comment not only on architecture, but also on property speculation, exclusivity, and the commercialisation of the art world. A conceptual idealist, he was at the same time concerned with conviviality, creating working and meeting spaces in the urban environment.

The history of M HKA begins with the ICC, the International Cultural Centre in Antwerp. In 1977, Matta-Clark was invited by the ICC to realise the the magisterial project Office Baroque at the site of a former office block on Ernest Van Dijckkaai. After Matta-Clarke’s death the following year, and the establishment of the Gordon Matta-Clark Foundation, a major new museum project was developed around Office Baroque that, although failed, the fallout nevertheless laid the foundation for the M HKA collection.