Exhibition: Ports en vues

Description

For several years now, the MuMa’s winter exhibitions have invited visitors to rediscover the museum’s collections by exploring a central theme and creating unexpected encounters between artists from different periods and backgrounds. “Ports en vues” – litterally “Ports In Sight” – is conceived as a journey through the port landscape, from Raoul Dufy to Pierre et Gilles.

Around 120 works make up the exhibition, spanning a century of art history.

A port, often associated with the promise of travel, is first and foremost a place of work, defined by its distinctive features: breakwaters, cranes, containers, slipways, and locks. By nature ever-changing, port landscapes constantly evolve to meet the demands of maritime transport. They also lie at the boundary of the industrial landscape—so much so that the term “industrial-port zone” is commonly used—where human figures are rare, sometimes dwarfed by an environment that can feel both unreal and out of scale.

Far from the picturesque landscape and raising questions about the very notion of beauty, the port landscape has long been a powerful source of inspiration for artists.

The exhibition brings together works by around thirty artists, from the early 20th century to the present day, including Raoul Dufy, Émile Othon Friesz, Albert Marquet and Roger Guerrant, as well as Pierre et Gilles and JR, alongside artists such as Noémi Pujol, Sylvestre Meinzer, Jürg Kreienbühl and Alain Ceccaroli.

The exhibition celebrates the artists—photographers, printmakers and painters—who explore and reinterpret the structural elements of the port landscape. It also pays tribute to the artists who donated works, to their families, and to the galleries and private collectors whose generosity has enriched the museum’s collections with new acquisitions.

Exhibition on view from November 8, 2025 to April 5, 2026, during the museum’s opening hours.