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At its inauguration on April 24, 1934, the Citroën garage in Brussels - “The largest garage in Europe” - was no ordinary garage. Occupying a central location, along a canal that bisects the city and a major road, it was a veritable complex dedicated to the automobile, the brainchild of André Citroën, the greatest automotive entrepreneur of the interwar period.
When the Brussels Region acquired the Citroën garage some 70 years later, with the aim of transforming it into a museum of modern and contemporary art, it immediately recognized the building's potential. By then, it had become an icon of modernist architecture in Belgium: 40,000 m² of available space, a monumental showroom, and a location now close to the tourist center.
This book recounts a dual adventure: that of the Citroën garage on the one hand, and that of its transformation into a 21st-century museum on the other. Furthermore, given Belgium's involvement in Citroën's African colonial ventures, it critically examines the links between automobiles, modernity, and colonialism, and explores how to revisit this legacy within the framework of a new kind of museum located in the heart of Europe.
With contributions by Jean-Marc Basyn, Claire Billen, Olivier Cinqualbre, Sandrine Colard, Lisa De Visscher, Nouredine ElFakkak, Yves Goldstein (in conversation with Chantal Pattyn), Nikolaus Hirsch (in conversation with Kasia Redzisz), Alison Joan Murray Levine, Joke Nijs, Yaron Pesztat, Paul Smith, and Thomas Stroobants.
KANAL, Brussels, November 26, 2026

Beschrijving

At its inauguration on April 24, 1934, the Citroën garage in Brussels - “The largest garage in Europe” - was no ordinary garage. Occupying a central location, along a canal that bisects the city and a major road, it was a veritable complex dedicated to the automobile, the brainchild of André Citroën, the greatest automotive entrepreneur of the interwar period.
When the Brussels Region acquired the Citroën garage some 70 years later, with the aim of transforming it into a museum of modern and contemporary art, it immediately recognized the building's potential. By then, it had become an icon of modernist architecture in Belgium: 40,000 m² of available space, a monumental showroom, and a location now close to the tourist center.
This book recounts a dual adventure: that of the Citroën garage on the one hand, and that of its transformation into a 21st-century museum on the other. Furthermore, given Belgium's involvement in Citroën's African colonial ventures, it critically examines the links between automobiles, modernity, and colonialism, and explores how to revisit this legacy within the framework of a new kind of museum located in the heart of Europe.
With contributions by Jean-Marc Basyn, Claire Billen, Olivier Cinqualbre, Sandrine Colard, Lisa De Visscher, Nouredine ElFakkak, Yves Goldstein (in conversation with Chantal Pattyn), Nikolaus Hirsch (in conversation with Kasia Redzisz), Alison Joan Murray Levine, Joke Nijs, Yaron Pesztat, Paul Smith, and Thomas Stroobants.
KANAL, Brussels, November 26, 2026

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